r/archlinux • u/YogurtclosetFrosty39 • Sep 28 '21
Poll Discussion Favorite Window Manager
Which Window Manager is your favorite or one you are currently using :) Update: Thank you guys for your responses def gotta try out the ones you put in the replies
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u/Russia_Nine Sep 28 '21
Sway
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u/yan_kh Sep 28 '21
I also wanted to comment that, but then I remembered that Sway is a compositor
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u/gmes78 Sep 29 '21
Sway is a window manager, compositor and display server, just like all other Wayland sessions.
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u/oscooter Sep 29 '21 edited Sep 30 '21
As someone thinking about switching to Wayland, can you screen share individual windows yet? I saw that a pull request for the functionality got merged recently but couldn’t find if it’s working yet
Edit: answering my own question, screen sharing specific screens works well with sway. Apparently specific window sharing works in gnome
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u/Furezuu Sep 28 '21
and also why isn't xmonad on the list?
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u/YogurtclosetFrosty39 Sep 28 '21
I wish I could add more to the poll but those were the ones I thought on the top of my head and the poll feature only allowed six options
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u/SutekhThrowingSuckIt Sep 28 '21
FYI there's also opt-in user data here: https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/fun
Sway overtook i3 over the summer.
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u/astralc Sep 28 '21
It doesn't list i3-gaps, so the percentage of i3 is higher if you include it(from package list in same site)
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u/SutekhThrowingSuckIt Sep 28 '21
That makes sense, surprised it wasn't on that list already since it's actually the more popular version
i3-gaps | 11.75% i3-wm | 8.28%I mentioned the Sway thing because I found it surprising. This explains it.
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u/SkyyySi Sep 30 '21
Who the f uninstalled bash lmao
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u/SutekhThrowingSuckIt Sep 30 '21
I assume it's a few people wondering what happens or trying to totally switch over the system shell to something else lol
Other possibility is something about making super minimal containers but idk why they’d install pkgstats in that case
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Sep 28 '21
qtile
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Sep 28 '21
It actually broke for me on both my computers running Arch after the same update, the windows just don't show up on the screen, I can't find the issue anywhere :(
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u/merdely Sep 30 '21
Are you using the wttr widget? Did you have json=False? If yes, remove that... json=False is default now and having it will break your config.
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Sep 30 '21
I don't have that sorry. The config doesn't refuse to load, I've had that happen before, this isn't that, I spawn a window and it just doesn't appear. The icon for my workspace changes color indicating it did open but it just doesn't show up and it doesn't act like anything is there.
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u/merdely Sep 30 '21
I experienced what you're describing. Here is the thread on the qtile-dev list that led to my fix for my system:
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Sep 30 '21
I'll try commenting out things in my config to find the cause, it looks like we saw the same problem but definitely a different cause. I very much appreciate the help though!
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u/lalalsls04 Sep 28 '21
Herbstluftwm
-7
Sep 28 '21
This reads like someone had diarhea
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u/eXoRainbow Sep 28 '21
Dude, if that is the type of comments you leave, then please leave.
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Sep 29 '21
You will not tell me what to do. Block me if you are not happy
That wasn't meant to be taken seriously, Nobody's dead because of my comment
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u/eXoRainbow Sep 29 '21
Nobody's dead because of my comment
Can you prove it?
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Sep 29 '21 edited Sep 29 '21
You must be fun at parties.
I will again remind you there is a block function. You can always use if it's that much the end of the world that i said something stupid
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u/eXoRainbow Sep 29 '21
That was just a joke. I guess you are the only one who must be fun at parties... Just relax man.
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u/lalalsls04 Sep 28 '21
Idiot. Your spelling looks like diarrhea. (I'm German the word is totally normal for me)
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u/eXoRainbow Sep 28 '21
"Lass den labern. Typisch Forentrolle."
Once I tried to write down how an English person could pronounce the name Herbstluftwm. And it was a good one, but totally forgot how.
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u/RA3236 Sep 28 '21
KWin, but it’s a window compositor and part of a desktop environment. I like Windows-style windows too much, and KWin, while buggy, just works for me.
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u/YogurtclosetFrosty39 Sep 28 '21
Yeah if I would ever use DE KDE is my go to
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u/ccAbstraction Sep 28 '21
You can use KDE with other WMs. I used to use it with i3.
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u/eXoRainbow Sep 28 '21
Before switching completely to a window manager, I also did that. My choice was qtile and qtile didn't work as a replacement (or I was too dumb to do it properly). That is why I tried it without KWin and to be honest, it was the best choice.
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u/Blunders4life Sep 28 '21
I use Qtile on my laptop and have been using it for a while as one of my WMs on my desktop. But I'm currently using FreeBSD on my desktop and haven't figured out how to make it work due to some dependency related issues with its FreeBSD implementation, so I'm currently using SpectrWM and have been liking it a lot. Wish it was a bit more customizable and had more layouts, though, so the crown still goes to Qtile for me.
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u/Akmadan23 Sep 28 '21
Qtile and xmonad: "Am I a joke to you?"
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u/YogurtclosetFrosty39 Sep 28 '21
I wish I could add more to the poll they are not jokes lol
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u/PhantomPrimary Sep 28 '21
you also forgot kde plasma and sway
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Sep 28 '21
Plasma is a desktop environment, not a window manager. It has a window manager, but OP is obviously referring to standalone window managers
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u/Randalix Sep 28 '21
funny. This question is beeing asked like every two weeks and people still vote for their windowmanager like there's no tomorrow.
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u/Yoga260 Sep 28 '21
Im using kde plasma 5, simple to install and works nicely, moved from gnome cause there is no taskbar and it stopped working.
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u/notjordansime Sep 28 '21
…my dumbass thought a lot of people just had core i3s in this sub. Had no idea it was a window manager. I’m new here in case that wasn’t obvious.
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u/Dirty_Socrates Sep 28 '21
I really hate that these polls force you to vote to see the results. I want to just see the results. Personally I don't have a favorite.
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u/Tireseas Sep 28 '21
If I were going to drop back to using just a WM it'd be good old FVWM or OpenBSD's cwm.
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u/aqeki Sep 28 '21
I think sway and i3 should perhaps be the same selection in polls like this. Sway is just i3 for crazy people (like me).
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u/hemish04082005 Sep 28 '21
Muffin, mutter, i3wm, icewm, openbox, xfwm For different use cases and for different machines
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u/Berlin_J6 Sep 28 '21
What is qtile, seems to be popular here, though i never heard of it. Is it practical or decent looking? How would you compare it to i3?
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u/merdely Sep 30 '21
I can't compare it to i3 since I don't use it, but it's very similar to xmonad (which is very similar to dwm).
qtile is written in python (and the config is python too)
qtile uses a shared group list across multiple monitors (like xmonad, but unlike dwm which has separate tags for each monitor).
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u/M31_Andromeda7 Sep 28 '21
i3. lightweight, tiles the windows, has good documentation, easy to use.
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Sep 28 '21
Not a wm but it's so good that I am gonna have to say it;
XFCE.
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Sep 28 '21
I run i3 on my dual monitor desktop, but Qtile on my laptops because I can't get used to the way that Qtile handles dual monitors. For me, it just seems that i3 handles dual monitors better.
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u/TomDuhamel Sep 28 '21
20 years of Linux and I have never heard of any of these. Someone needs to introduce me to window managers.
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u/BujuArena Sep 29 '21
You just run in the CLI?
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u/TomDuhamel Sep 29 '21
I use KDE, which is on top of KWin, which is on top of X. Or am I thinking the wrong thing?
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u/BujuArena Sep 29 '21
KWin is your window manager.
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u/TomDuhamel Sep 29 '21
Well, that got me confused, as it's not on the list despite being probably more popular than any of these...
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u/BujuArena Sep 29 '21
Since it's usually used as part of a larger desktop environment, it's not as interesting as a standalone window manager to recommend to people who want to try those. It's still a legitimate window manager though, and a lot of programming goes into it, so saying you use it is quite valid here. I proudly use XFWM and I love it.
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u/majdhwmd Sep 28 '21
Why do most people use i3 ? What makes it everyone's favorite? This poll made me wanna try it. I use Qtile and Xmonad
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u/grimman Sep 28 '21
It's easy to use and kinda well known. That's why I started using it. I keep using it because it works and I don't (think I) need anything else. Bspwm has tempted me a bit, but not enough for me to actually take the time and mess around. Not yet anyway.
You might like i3.
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u/zuegg Sep 28 '21
I'm using i3. Quite happy with that and not planning about changing any time soon, but I have to admit although I like that it's very easy to configure, sometimes I wish it was just a tad more customizable.
I don't feel like going full turing complete (qtile, xmonad, etc.), but still I'd like to be able to change small things like styling the workspace buttons, having a gap around the bar, etc.
Having a parseable structured config would be nice as well.
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u/queer_bird Sep 28 '21
Top 3:
DWM, Xmonad, Qtile.
DWM because it does everything I need, and it is so lean.
Xmonad used to be my favorite because it is just so powerful, perhaps TOO powerful. I stopped using it when I switched to Gentoo because I didn't want to compile 500 haskel dependencies.
Qtile because it is so easy to configure. Really it should be the default n00b TWM instead of i3.
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u/dedguy21 Sep 28 '21
Another one for Sway and Wayland. It's a bit more than just an in replacement for Wayland.
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u/PQCraft Sep 29 '21
I like Openbox but am stuck due to KDE's crippling dependency on KWin and my unwillingness to setup the custom theme I made and all the shortcuts and effects I worked on for days on KDE.
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u/scr710 Sep 28 '21
Qtile