Window Managers - post-Cream takeaway

[bones]

My recent Creamfest exposed me to many WMs that I was either unfamiliar with, or knew about, but never really used much (or was flat-out intimidated by, when I tried them as a noob). The result of this experience is that I'm currently using spectrwm (after understanding the differences between it and xmonad and dwm), whereas I was previously using cwm, primarily.

Here's the ones I really like, and would use as well (pending spending more time with them):

Stackers/floaters:

evilwm
cwm
mcwm
sithwm
smallwm
tfwm
tinywm
weewm

^ These are all very similar (mostly based on evilwm), and I like them all!

evilpoison
goomwwm

Tilers/dynamic:

dragonfly
hcwm
alopex
larswm
musca
snapwm
spectrwm
sscrotwm

[GekkoP]

Are we talking about our favorite wms here or our configurations about our current wm? Sorry, maybe I didn't get the topic right. :)

[bones]

Just favorites. Yeah, I kinda struggled with whether to post this here, or /dev/null. I can move it wherever it's most appropriate.

[machinebacon]

Very happy to see hcwm and spectrwm in the list, of course also smallwm and tinywm.

SpectrWM and hcwm are on all of my machines, though I usually run a single big tmux with everything inside on WS1, some browser on WS2, if I am in X.

Sure there are more WMs that I like and respect (dragonfly, bspwm, i3, xmonad, cwm, xoat), and these I even like vanilla.

So, if I would have to make a Top 3, it would be:

- spectrwm
- hcwm
- xmonad (sans the haskell bloat)

Not a fan of pure stackers, I find myself arranging windows (using the mouse) most of the time then.

BTW, I would put hcwm to the tilers group :)

[bones]

^ Oh yes, of course, hcwm moved to tilers.

The great thing about spectrwm (I know others do this, too) is that it's dynamic; I can switch to stacking if I want. But yeah, kinda tired of moving windows around, I'm finding. My usage is usually browser and email full screen, everything else in smaller windows. So it works out well for me, and the default keybindings are sane and easily remembered.

EDIT: dragonflywm moved to tilers, too.

[ivanovnegro]

Stackers:

- evilwm - I just love its simplicity and pure minimalism, nothing to do here, just change the color and one key
- cwm - basically the same but I prefer work spaces in evil even though there is no indicator, besides I am confused about the grouping

Tilers:

- spectrwm - again I love the simplicity and sane defaults, simple text config
- dwm - the same as above but with better floating abilities, one weakness though is the recompile

[GekkoP]

Stackers:
- cwm: just love it. And that's enough;
- tfwm: if it wasn't for Pidsley I'd have never found out about this one. A precious one, at least to me. I know it isn't THAT different from cwm, but I don't care, it's small, light, simple and it works.

Tilers:
- ratpoison: I found it more reliable than spectrwm when it comes to using Emacs in GTK2 mode, and a when it comes to work I don't need floating or anything else in particular. Again, Pidsley's configs helped me a great deal appreciating this WM;
- dwm: if it is not ratpoison, it is dwm when I need a tiler. Hcwm comes close and I still use it, but I still love dwm because editing the code and recompiling it taught me a lot.

[machinebacon]

True, I had to make this for emacs:

Code: Select all

bbq@grill:~$ cat /usr/share/doc/spectrwm/examples/spectrwm_us.conf 
# Key bindings for United States (us) keyboards
# unbind with: bind[] = <keys>
bind[]			= MOD+x
bind[wind_kill]		= MOD+Shift+x
bind[wind_del]		= MOD+Shift+d

[Alad]

I in no way have the experience of you guys, but might as well add my 2 cents.

Stackers:

Eh..

Tilers:

Only really tried i3. Single-monitor setup, 15" (1024x768).

Advantages:

- Flexible: Tab, tiling, floating mode; scratchpads, marks
- Decent statusbar
- Good documentation; clear syntax
- Many addons

Disadvantages:

- Containers!!!! Steep learning curve and for what?
- Mediocre handling of floating windows
- No automagic switching of workspaces, e.g when clicking links.
- Highly unstable (both master and next branch)

tl;dr does not perfectly suit my needs. Trying out some other options.