6 ms·

Why should you (upgrade from i3/X)? What's the benefit?

ilovecaching 8y ago
Because you can support Wayland and make Sway better. X11 is a super crusty, hacky mess that is being phased out. Sway also incorporates some nice features (gaps) that were previously not in the base version.
- rudilee 8y ago
  I really don't get it why people like gaps so much, yes it's look pretty, but in my opinion it is as much waste of space as window drop shadow. I would like to have as much screen real estate as possible to be used to show information, that's the whole point to use tiling wm in the first place for me.
  - chmln 8y ago
    A 5px gap between windows is a drop in the bucket, but adds a lot in terms of aesthetics.
mises 8y ago
Based on Wayland, meaning it's more modern. Here's what I've heard for benefits: * Better multi-window and gesture support * Gaps built in (currently, i3 is separate from i3-gaps, which is what most actually use). No separate forks to deal with, meaning easier maintenance. * Wallpaper * Faster However, there are some big downsides. Wayland is still pretty beta, and not everything works well with it. This is not the fault of Wayland/sway per se, more the fact that everything is based around X11. Biggest thing for me is no copy/paste. Hidpi scaling is supposed to be a nightmare. Also, sway doesn't support Nvidia, and the author has publicly stated he refuses to support any Nvidia drivers (or at least until they're open-source).
- pzone 8y ago
  I think you have it backwards with regard to HiDPI. DPI scaling in X is a nightmare. Sway claims to have the best HiDPI support of any desktop environment due to modern Wayland support. Getting X applications to scale with Wayland HiDPI will require workarounds because of the lack of DPI support in X.
  - ubercow13 8y ago
    In what sense does Wayland have better hidpi support than X?
    - aeroevan 8y ago
      Mixed DPI works for one. I'm using GNOME on wayland currently but that's really the only thing I've noticed that's better than X.
  - badsectoracula 8y ago
    > lack of DPI support in X Even back in 2002 RandR supported obtaining screen size information in pixels and millimeters which can be used to calculate DPI... or actually, what people really want when mentioning "DPI support", an automatic way to scale the windows. How the window scales is up to the toolkit to implement and is independent of window system and really, even independent of screen size/DPI since some users (e.g. due to sight problems) may want their windows to be scaled even on "low DPI" monitors (the whole DPI thing is just a default setting). The main problem i see with X here isn't some technical inability, but a way for window managers to notify other clients that they should change their scaling (since the window manager is in a better position to know what scaling each window should use - especially when you want different scaling per monitor, which again can be independent of DPI since you may want a large scale for a wall mounted TV even if the DPI would be very low) - essentially something like a new _NET_WM_SCALE window property for EWMH clients and window managers.
- ubercow13 8y ago
  What does better gesture support mean in this case? libinput works with X too and it can be used to enable some kinds of touchpad gestures there

Because you can support Wayland and make Sway better. X11 is a super crusty, hacky mess that is being phased out. Sway also incorporates some nice features (gaps) that were previously not in the base version.

rudilee 8y ago
I really don't get it why people like gaps so much, yes it's look pretty, but in my opinion it is as much waste of space as window drop shadow. I would like to have as much screen real estate as possible to be used to show information, that's the whole point to use tiling wm in the first place for me.
- chmln 8y ago
  A 5px gap between windows is a drop in the bucket, but adds a lot in terms of aesthetics.

mises 8y ago

Based on Wayland, meaning it's more modern. Here's what I've heard for benefits: * Better multi-window and gesture support * Gaps built in (currently, i3 is separate from i3-gaps, which is what most actually use). No separate forks to deal with, meaning easier maintenance. * Wallpaper * Faster However, there are some big downsides. Wayland is still pretty beta, and not everything works well with it. This is not the fault of Wayland/sway per se, more the fact that everything is based around X11. Biggest thing for me is no copy/paste. Hidpi scaling is supposed to be a nightmare. Also, sway doesn't support Nvidia, and the author has publicly stated he refuses to support any Nvidia drivers (or at least until they're open-source).

pzone 8y ago
I think you have it backwards with regard to HiDPI. DPI scaling in X is a nightmare. Sway claims to have the best HiDPI support of any desktop environment due to modern Wayland support. Getting X applications to scale with Wayland HiDPI will require workarounds because of the lack of DPI support in X.
- ubercow13 8y ago
  In what sense does Wayland have better hidpi support than X?
  - aeroevan 8y ago
    Mixed DPI works for one. I'm using GNOME on wayland currently but that's really the only thing I've noticed that's better than X.
- badsectoracula 8y ago
  > lack of DPI support in X Even back in 2002 RandR supported obtaining screen size information in pixels and millimeters which can be used to calculate DPI... or actually, what people really want when mentioning "DPI support", an automatic way to scale the windows. How the window scales is up to the toolkit to implement and is independent of window system and really, even independent of screen size/DPI since some users (e.g. due to sight problems) may want their windows to be scaled even on "low DPI" monitors (the whole DPI thing is just a default setting). The main problem i see with X here isn't some technical inability, but a way for window managers to notify other clients that they should change their scaling (since the window manager is in a better position to know what scaling each window should use - especially when you want different scaling per monitor, which again can be independent of DPI since you may want a large scale for a wall mounted TV even if the DPI would be very low) - essentially something like a new _NET_WM_SCALE window property for EWMH clients and window managers.
ubercow13 8y ago
What does better gesture support mean in this case? libinput works with X too and it can be used to enable some kinds of touchpad gestures there