I use both OS X and ion3 (depending on whether I'm using a Mac or a Linux box). Ion3 is a tiling WM and about as far removed from the OS X GUI as you can imagin

I use both OS X and ion3 (depending on whether I'm using a Mac or a Linux box). Ion3 is a tiling WM and about as far removed from the OS X GUI as you can imagine. Nonetheless, my workflow in both is exactly the same: one large Vim window, one large terminal window. I never move the windows around once they're open, and I can switch between them using the keyboard. Once you've got an editor you're comfortable with, there doesn't seem to be much advantage to using a tiling window manager in terms of productivity. Things like browsers are a separate issue, but if I'm switching to a browser I'm already distracted. :)