I have a laptop with an 11 inch screen and 768p display. Naturally, my usage breakdown is:

  • 80% one window in fullscreen
  • 15% two windows side by side
  • 5% other

I’ve considered tiling window managers. I used i3wm on this in the past. It was a little complicated and I customized the bottom bar to show commands for dummies.

alt-Enter: term | alt-D: launch | alt-F: fullsc | alt-1: new workspace | alt-shift-1: move to workspace

That plus some battery, wifi, time info. I never got ‘good’ with i3 and would consult the cheat sheet regularly.

Is there a paradigm (tiling or otherwise) that would let me quickly and simply launch programs with the keyboard (like most distros these days) and switch between fullscreen windows? and set them side by side as needed?

My usage is keyboard-first but mouse-available. i3 didn’t seem tailored to mouse usage the way some other tiling wms are. and sometimes you’d launch a program like the wifi settings window and it wasn’t built to be resized for a twm, so it looked weird. (no floating window support.)

  • stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    32 minutes ago

    I used to use a small laptop like yours. Now the smallest one is a spacious 13” so it doesn’t feel quite so constrained.

    I ended up on lxqt with the bar on the left hand side and a bunch of virtual desktops. It can do everything you’re asking for and my use is keyboard first. Give it a shot, it’s good.

  • Drito@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    5 hours ago

    The easier setup I found is Xfce with WM swapped for BSPWM. You can do every window manipulation with mouse (while Super key pressed).

  • octobob@lemmy.ml
    1·
    7 hours ago

    I wasn’t crazy about i3. I really like hyprland though. Been using it for about a year now.

  • Chaser@lemmy.zip
    1·
    8 hours ago

    I don’t know if i3 can do this too, but in sway you can also move windows using the mouse. Just hit mod+the left mouse button and drag it around. However I usually just go with the Keyboard. Mod+shift+arrow is just faster.

  • Ŝan@piefed.zipEnglish
    22·
    9 hours ago

    You’ve gotten suggestions for KDE; IME KDE is memory intensive, and while you don’t mention memory, laptops often have less memory than desktops. Your intuition about a proper tiling WM is a good choice.

    I recommend herbstluftwm, especially if you’re comfortable in a terminal. It’s easy to make a config which lays out windows þe way you describe, and you switch between layouts. Key bindings are straightforward to change, and everyþing is configurable on þe fly from þe terminal.

    For a status bar, I revommend polybar. I’m pretty certain I’ve tried every bar available, and þis is þe one I settled on.

    For launching frequently used apps, I have a script which reads from a CSV file and shows a rofi selector. It would be easy to make one which shows all .desktop applications on your computer, like a start menu.

    hlwm has no GUI configuration tool, so “for dummies” is not going to apply.

    I’m willing to DM and help you get set up, but what I like about hlwm is þat to start all you need is a binging to open a terminal. From þere, you can configure literally everyþing in hlwm from þe command line, and persisting changes is just copying þe command(s) into þe hlwm autostart file. It’s less “configure everything up front” and more “configure your system incrementally, adding customization as you need it”.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
    10·
    23 hours ago

    I use KDE with Krohnkite.

    E.g. I have my cake and eat it, as windows can get dragged around if I want. Anything weird is just windowed like normal KDE.

    Works with mice, and works good OOTB!

    • dave@hal9000@lemmy.world
      1·
      17 hours ago

      Yeah, shout out to Krohnkite - really solid stuff. The shortcuts for all it’s actions have become second nature now, amazing how I use the mouse so much less to get windows where and how I want them in a second

    • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      23 hours ago

      Yeah, I also recommend this. Particularly with laptops, it’s good to have a full-fledged desktop environment, since you’re more likely to need WiFi, power management, easy display configuration etc…

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
        3·
        23 hours ago

        And KDE’s RAM usage is very reasonable these days, especially if you opt out of some of the bells and whistles.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    11·
    1 day ago

    With your constraints, it’s probably going to be Sway. Bit more simplified than i3, same level of customization, and works with Wayland.

  • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
    1·
    15 hours ago

    GNOME with paperwm extension might be nice for you. Controllable by keyboard and mouse, normal configuration and things like control panel for audio / bluetooth / network , good use of screen estate.

    Myself I use stumpwm on a 40 inch 4K screen but that’s because I am very used to the command line and also had vision problems for some time. Most tiling WMs give very little visual feedback and require sigbificant memorization. Which, like using vim, makes predominantly sense for continuous and heavy use.

  • Beardedleftist@lemmy.ml
    8·
    1 day ago

    This is actually a great post. I’ve struggled with this and it feels like all those tiling window managers are for power users. They’re a pain to customize and 0 intuitive (at lest for me). I share your question!

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
      11·
      9 hours ago

      It is like vim or Emacs that one forgets or tends to forget key bindings and features that one does not use quite frequently. This has nothing to do with intelligence. It is just that the brain forgets stuff it doesn’t see as relevant (and different brains work differently, here).

  • www-gem@lemmy.ml
    1·
    16 hours ago

    I’ve carefully reviewed your post, and I may have overlooked the reasons why some believe you’re using Wayland, especially since you’re currently using i3. Anyway, I’ll talk about X11 ans Wayland options.

    i3 is indeed capable of launching programs via keybindings and supports full mouse functionality. However, it does require significant configuration. To be frank, all tiling WMs necessitate customization. Additionally, many tiling WMs benefit from the installation of a separate tool to serve as a panel bar. Tiling WMs share the concept of shipping with a functional minimal configuration, allowing users to tailor their setup precisely to their preferences.

    Here are - to my humble personal opinion - the “easiest” tiling WMs for X11:

    • i3: you know it
    • awesomewm: comes with a panel, menu, and widgets out of the box.
    • bspwm: very lightweight and minimalist. Unlike others, it will require the use of sxhkd to define keybindings. The config is shell-script based, which may feel easier to some compared to lua. This was my preferred option before moving to Wayland and having tried awesomewm, i3, and dwm for years.

    And for Wayland:

    • sway: drop-in replacement for i3. It uses the same keybindings/config style as i3.
    • niri: this one technically uses a “scrollable tiling” model (windows arranged in columns on an infinite strip) rather than the traditional tiling resizing. Due to this model approach, it could be intimated to you but it can achieve great things and may be just what you need for a 11" screen because you can have an infinite number of full/half screen windows that you can scroll horizontally or vertically (thanks to stackable windows and infinite workspaces number).

    Talking only about tiling WMs I’ve used, but there may be great/better options out there. You can quickly check the list of features on their respective github page and watch videos to see what each of them can offer. Detailing all their features here would not be digestible.

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
      1·
      15 hours ago

      I’ve carefully reviewed your post, and I may have overlooked the reasons why some believe you’re using Wayland, especially since you’re currently using i3.

      Yeah, i3 has no wayland support - that’s why sway exists. It is probably almost on par but worse documented.

      Apart from that, there is a reason that mayority of tiling WMs still run on X11: Wayland requires the WM to implement much more functionality by itself. That can be done by libraries but these are not yet as complete and mature as the X11 solutions.

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
      1·
      15 hours ago

      I am using i3 as a backup interface at work when I can’t use stumpwm, and it is quite good to use with its default Debian / OpenSuSE config. Especially since it has very nice web docs.

      Also, i3 and sway have probably best Integration of all the little stuff that one gets normally from the desktop environment: Audio control, mounting of flash drives, session management, lock screen…

      What I don’t like so much about i3 is its complex nesting of windows that comes along with auto-placement. Stumpwm is much more logical to me. Also has better configurability and superb documentation.

  • IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org
    4·
    22 hours ago

    Honestly? I have more or less the same use case, and I use Gnome or KDE and just use super+left/right to do the half-screen windows, and super+page up/page dn to switch between workspaces for fullscreen windows.

    Is is the most optimal TWM experience? No. But is is fast to set up, easily usable, and requires no keyboard shortcut configuration? Yes.