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i3 is my #1 reason for wanting to switch from MacOS to Linux. I love a good tiling window manager, and the workarounds to emulate a tiling WM in MacOS just aren

i3 is my #1 reason for wanting to switch from MacOS to Linux. I love a good tiling window manager, and the workarounds to emulate a tiling WM in MacOS just aren’t close enough to the real thing.

bathtub 9y ago
I did this recently for the same reason. Do not wait and get a Linux system with i3 tomorrow. You will be so much faster and more structured in your daily workflow than with Alt-Tab. A nice side effect: Apps feel much faster than on OSX. I don't know why but everything is snappier and just more resonsive despite a much weaker CPU and same hires screen on the Linux system. Especially the terminal rendering and application switching which is instant.
- Null-Set 9y ago
  It might have to do with the transition animations in OSX. I found a long time ago that turning off the animations in Windows makes a system feel a while lot more responsive.
itomato 9y ago
You can run another window manager (i3) under Xquartz. http://fanf.livejournal.com/142372.html http://fanf.livejournal.com/142372.html
- city41 9y ago
  This isn't really helpful because the vast majority of OSX apps do not use X11.
  - itomato 9y ago
    Maybe Amethyst is your jam: https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/
city41 9y ago
I switched from OSX to Linux specifically for i3. Linux is still a pretty annoying OS with lots of little to even big problems like NetworkManager flaking out, suspend/resume being flaky, trackpad annoyances, etc. But despite all of that, I still use Linux because i3 is that damn good. i3 has fundamentally made computing more enjoyable, and enables me to stay "in the flow" much more.
- dijit 9y ago
  Have you tried out openbsd? Not trying to start a flame war but once I managed to install it how I liked the entire system felt so cohesive and well designed. (Ifconfig handling wpa for instance) and it turned out to be so much lighter that my laptops battery life went up 20%. It was an older thinkpad though. So I guess YMMV.
  - city41 9y ago
    I like the BSDs in general and have used them in the past. But for my work I can only use OSX or Linux, as some of the stuff I need is only supported on those OSes. I could probably make a BSD work if I really wanted to, but it's easier to just go with the flow on some things.
darkr 9y ago
by workarounds did you mean amethyst? As a long time awesomeWM (and other tiling WM) user, I've found it to be more than acceptable.
tom4000 9y ago
Did you try [chunkwm](https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm) yet? It's the successor of kwm which I have tried on macOS. Mainly I use i3 at Linux but for some work I have to use macOS as well. The only native apps which feel Linux like are iTerm and Emacs (the mac port) because it's possible to suppress the window decorations. Every other native app takes for a real tiling wm too much space with its Titel bar and other frames.

i3 is my #1 reason for wanting to switch from MacOS to Linux. I love a good tiling window manager, and the workarounds to emulate a tiling WM in MacOS just aren’t close enough to the real thing.

bathtub 9y ago

I did this recently for the same reason. Do not wait and get a Linux system with i3 tomorrow. You will be so much faster and more structured in your daily workflow than with Alt-Tab. A nice side effect: Apps feel much faster than on OSX. I don't know why but everything is snappier and just more resonsive despite a much weaker CPU and same hires screen on the Linux system. Especially the terminal rendering and application switching which is instant.

Null-Set 9y ago
It might have to do with the transition animations in OSX. I found a long time ago that turning off the animations in Windows makes a system feel a while lot more responsive.

itomato 9y ago

You can run another window manager (i3) under Xquartz. http://fanf.livejournal.com/142372.html http://fanf.livejournal.com/142372.html

city41 9y ago
This isn't really helpful because the vast majority of OSX apps do not use X11.
- itomato 9y ago
  Maybe Amethyst is your jam: https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/

city41 9y ago

I switched from OSX to Linux specifically for i3. Linux is still a pretty annoying OS with lots of little to even big problems like NetworkManager flaking out, suspend/resume being flaky, trackpad annoyances, etc. But despite all of that, I still use Linux because i3 is that damn good. i3 has fundamentally made computing more enjoyable, and enables me to stay "in the flow" much more.

dijit 9y ago
Have you tried out openbsd? Not trying to start a flame war but once I managed to install it how I liked the entire system felt so cohesive and well designed. (Ifconfig handling wpa for instance) and it turned out to be so much lighter that my laptops battery life went up 20%. It was an older thinkpad though. So I guess YMMV.
- city41 9y ago
  I like the BSDs in general and have used them in the past. But for my work I can only use OSX or Linux, as some of the stuff I need is only supported on those OSes. I could probably make a BSD work if I really wanted to, but it's easier to just go with the flow on some things.

darkr 9y ago

by workarounds did you mean amethyst? As a long time awesomeWM (and other tiling WM) user, I've found it to be more than acceptable.

tom4000 9y ago

Did you try [chunkwm](https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm) yet? It's the successor of kwm which I have tried on macOS. Mainly I use i3 at Linux but for some work I have to use macOS as well. The only native apps which feel Linux like are iTerm and Emacs (the mac port) because it's possible to suppress the window decorations. Every other native app takes for a real tiling wm too much space with its Titel bar and other frames.