From a63cf049c4f2978475e727ee18f122ca538c7c3f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olof-Joachim Frahm Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:40:08 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Add post for tiling window managers, multiplexing. --- tiling-wm.post | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 54 insertions(+) create mode 100644 tiling-wm.post diff --git a/tiling-wm.post b/tiling-wm.post new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1529561 --- /dev/null +++ b/tiling-wm.post @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +;;;;; +title: Tiling WMs and multiplexing +tags: +date: 2014-12-18 15:04:53 +format: md +;;;;; + +Since it came up on [Hacker News][hn] I thought I can write a little bit about +that topic as well. + +I started to look for alternatives to the distribution default desktop +environment relatively soon after arriving on Linux (Fedora if I remember +correctly). At that point the options included Fluxbox and a couple of smaller +ones like I3 and wmii. I also tried twm, but honestly, without any effort +spend in themeing that was basically not really viable. + +So after Fluxbox, which was great, but still leaves you with too much to do +with your mouse, my conclusion was that I basically don't need a regular +desktop. Having all those messy icons, menus, widgets lying around the screen +is just way too distracting for me. + +If you then remove all that decoration, you are left with a very bare bones +look. Still, after starting to get the hang of Vim (with which I started) and +later Emacs, the disadvantage of constantly having to deal with window +positions became apparent. + +I think the next step was to use wmii or one variant of that. Tiling leaves +your mouse free to interact with the main point, your running program. No more +juggling windows, aligning borders and so on. For me this isn't about a pretty +and flashy screen, it's about the most comfortable environment to work in. + +To the present day: I'm no converted to [dwm][] from the awesome people of +[suckless.org][]. It's basically a single C file, you +configure it with a header and additionally with a custom patch set and that's +it. You'd be hard pressed to find a smaller, less resource intensive window +manager. And on the flip side it has many amazing features which just work +really well together. + +Combined with tmux for terminal multiplexing, Emacs buffers for editing +multiplexing and dwm for desktop and screen multiplexing this is just the right +amount of flexibility to arrange and move around a lot of context. + +Obviously this depends on each person, but since you can (and frankly, should) +configure every aspect of this, with just a few keypresses you can switch to +every part of your running programs and back, be it in the terminal, on a +remote system, or graphical. + +To be honest, until there is a better alternative to keyboards, I think I'll +keep using this approach, maybe adding more scripting capabilities in the same +line as in previous blog posts. + +[hn]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8762705 +[dwm]: http://dwm.suckless.org/ +[suckless.org]: http://suckless.org/ -- 1.7.10.4