5 ms·

I've been using i3 for a few months and can never see myself going back to working without it now. I must say that I think it makes most sense when you have mul

I've been using i3 for a few months and can never see myself going back to working without it now. I must say that I think it makes most sense when you have multiple monitors though.

mbreedlove 7y ago
I used i3 for a while and really enjoyed it. Though, I eventually switched back to KDE. I didn't like having to fiddle with power management and configuring screen locking. I was noticing that I was only using 1-2 tiles at a time and I could easily emulate that by just side-by-siding windows in KDE. I think if I ever have the chance to use a Linux machine professionally, especially with multiple monitors, I'll definitely reach for i3 again.
- city41 7y ago
  i3 couples with desktop environments rather nicely. I've used it with KDE and MATE, and others have used it successfully with XFCE. My success with it with KDE was a little mixed, but I also didn't make any effort to resolve the little issues. With MATE though, it works flawlessly with no downsides or really any config needed. It's fantastic. Here is how I set it up with MATE: https://www.mattgreer.org/articles/mate-and-i3/ https://www.mattgreer.org/articles/mate-and-i3/
  - blaser-waffle 7y ago
    Cheers for the MATE panel applet you put together (that's in the blog post): https://github.com/city41/mate-i3-applet https://github.com/city41/mate-i3-applet Also, got any pictures of the desktop?
  - ppseafield 7y ago
    I also run i3 and MATE. It's a great combo: powerful tiling window manager plus a DE that handles all the settings / control panel well (without me having to do much configuration myself!).
  - mbreedlove 7y ago
    This looks really cool, thanks for sharing!
- zwayhowder 7y ago
  I found i3 the most useful at two extremes, my 12.5" (1080p) Thinkpad screen and my 43" 4K screen. Both benefit immensely from the tiling and virtual desktop arrangement and especially on the smaller screen the scratchpad. Yes setup is fiddly at first but on my daily driver I haven't touched the config file in months.
- majewsky 7y ago
  > I could easily emulate that by just side-by-siding windows in KDE. I'm now on i3 (actually Sway), but when I was still using KDE Plasma, I extensively used the "quick tile" global shortcuts for KWin. They're not all bound by default, but you can set them up in System Settings (Global Shortcuts > KWin). I had it set up so that Win+S maximizes the current window (which by itself is quirky), and then every key around S is for a quick tile. For example, Win+Q moves the current window to the upper left quadrant. Win+D has the window occupy the right half of the screen, and so forth. The only thing that I do miss from KDE times is the full KDE Connect integration. I have kdeconnectd running through some clever trickery, and the sshfs and MPRIS integrations work fine, but e.g. clipboard sharing doesn't work with Sway yet.
happimess 7y ago
I think that i3wm is amazing for single-monitor development; it lets me switch workspaces as quickly as flicking my eyes over to another monitor.
- blux 7y ago
  Agree, I do not understand the need for more than one monitor as your eyes can only focus on one monitor at the same time anyway. It looks cool to have a bunch of monitors in front of you and of course eyes notice stuff going on in your peripheral vision as well but for that one could use some notifier daemon to get the same effect.
  - SomeGuy789 7y ago
    At least one use case is typing something in one workspace while looking at another. Incredibly useful when you need to edit config files or edit specific portions of text. Since you only need the parts of where you're "copying" from typing it out is usually much faster.
    - blux 7y ago
      Sounds like a sub-optimal workflow tbh. Why not copy/paste in the first place and then edit?
  - mroche 7y ago
    Like anything else, it depends on your workflow and preferences. For those of us in Animation/VFX, it really helps having multiple monitors as we have a decent amount of windows to manage interactive graphs, timelines, viewports, outliners, render views at full resolution, reference, etc. Pixel real estate comes at a premium here, and flipping back and forth between workspaces is not efficient in this context. For some in this area a single 4K may suffice, but dual monitors of anything is usually better (for editorial and grading it's essentially a requirement as a dedicated reference monitor, with other departments like comp able to use as well).
    - 7y ago
flyingcircus3 7y ago
Is there a way to force certain workspaces to always be on certain monitors?
- Naac 7y ago
  If you switch workspaces on monitor A, whatever workspace you have on monitor B will not move. So what you want is already supported. Just don't switch over to monitor B and switch it to a different workspace.
- tyrust 7y ago
  Yes https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#workspace_screen https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#workspace_screen
- racingmars 7y ago
  Yes. On my system, for example, I like to pin odd-numbered workspaces to my left screen and even-numbered workspaces to my right screen: workspace $ws1 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws2 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws3 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws4 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws5 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws6 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws7 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws8 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws9 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws10 output DisplayPort-1
  - kylek 7y ago
    You can have your cake and eat it to- set $monL DP-1.3 set $monR DP-2 set $ws1L "1L" set $ws2L "2L" ... set $ws1R "1R" set $ws2R "2R" ... workspace $ws1L output $monL workspace $ws1R output $monR workspace $ws2L output $monL workspace $ws2R output $monR ... and upidate bindsyms (maybe add a modifier to switch right workspaces..?) bindsym $mod+1 workspace $ws1L bindsym $mod+2 workspace $ws2L ...
huijzer 7y ago
For me it makes sense on my single monitor as well. Couldn’t go back indeed. I still wonder why Windows is called Windows, but actually very bad at handling windows if you compare it to i3.
bisby 7y ago
I have a desktop with 3x monitors, and a laptop. And I find it's different but equally useful in both scenarios. My desktop, i only use 1 workspace per monitor. and i3wm is there just for tiling across large monitors. My laptop, I only have 1 monitor so I basically mimic a multi monitor setup with workspaces, but tile less since the screen is smaller.

I've been using i3 for a few months and can never see myself going back to working without it now. I must say that I think it makes most sense when you have multiple monitors though.

mbreedlove 7y ago

I used i3 for a while and really enjoyed it. Though, I eventually switched back to KDE. I didn't like having to fiddle with power management and configuring screen locking. I was noticing that I was only using 1-2 tiles at a time and I could easily emulate that by just side-by-siding windows in KDE. I think if I ever have the chance to use a Linux machine professionally, especially with multiple monitors, I'll definitely reach for i3 again.

city41 7y ago
i3 couples with desktop environments rather nicely. I've used it with KDE and MATE, and others have used it successfully with XFCE. My success with it with KDE was a little mixed, but I also didn't make any effort to resolve the little issues. With MATE though, it works flawlessly with no downsides or really any config needed. It's fantastic. Here is how I set it up with MATE: https://www.mattgreer.org/articles/mate-and-i3/ https://www.mattgreer.org/articles/mate-and-i3/
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  Cheers for the MATE panel applet you put together (that's in the blog post): https://github.com/city41/mate-i3-applet https://github.com/city41/mate-i3-applet Also, got any pictures of the desktop?
- ppseafield 7y ago
  I also run i3 and MATE. It's a great combo: powerful tiling window manager plus a DE that handles all the settings / control panel well (without me having to do much configuration myself!).
- mbreedlove 7y ago
  This looks really cool, thanks for sharing!
zwayhowder 7y ago
I found i3 the most useful at two extremes, my 12.5" (1080p) Thinkpad screen and my 43" 4K screen. Both benefit immensely from the tiling and virtual desktop arrangement and especially on the smaller screen the scratchpad. Yes setup is fiddly at first but on my daily driver I haven't touched the config file in months.
majewsky 7y ago
> I could easily emulate that by just side-by-siding windows in KDE. I'm now on i3 (actually Sway), but when I was still using KDE Plasma, I extensively used the "quick tile" global shortcuts for KWin. They're not all bound by default, but you can set them up in System Settings (Global Shortcuts > KWin). I had it set up so that Win+S maximizes the current window (which by itself is quirky), and then every key around S is for a quick tile. For example, Win+Q moves the current window to the upper left quadrant. Win+D has the window occupy the right half of the screen, and so forth. The only thing that I do miss from KDE times is the full KDE Connect integration. I have kdeconnectd running through some clever trickery, and the sshfs and MPRIS integrations work fine, but e.g. clipboard sharing doesn't work with Sway yet.

happimess 7y ago

I think that i3wm is amazing for single-monitor development; it lets me switch workspaces as quickly as flicking my eyes over to another monitor.

blux 7y ago
Agree, I do not understand the need for more than one monitor as your eyes can only focus on one monitor at the same time anyway. It looks cool to have a bunch of monitors in front of you and of course eyes notice stuff going on in your peripheral vision as well but for that one could use some notifier daemon to get the same effect.
- SomeGuy789 7y ago
  At least one use case is typing something in one workspace while looking at another. Incredibly useful when you need to edit config files or edit specific portions of text. Since you only need the parts of where you're "copying" from typing it out is usually much faster.
  - blux 7y ago
    Sounds like a sub-optimal workflow tbh. Why not copy/paste in the first place and then edit?
- mroche 7y ago
  Like anything else, it depends on your workflow and preferences. For those of us in Animation/VFX, it really helps having multiple monitors as we have a decent amount of windows to manage interactive graphs, timelines, viewports, outliners, render views at full resolution, reference, etc. Pixel real estate comes at a premium here, and flipping back and forth between workspaces is not efficient in this context. For some in this area a single 4K may suffice, but dual monitors of anything is usually better (for editorial and grading it's essentially a requirement as a dedicated reference monitor, with other departments like comp able to use as well).
  - 7y ago

flyingcircus3 7y ago

Is there a way to force certain workspaces to always be on certain monitors?

Naac 7y ago
If you switch workspaces on monitor A, whatever workspace you have on monitor B will not move. So what you want is already supported. Just don't switch over to monitor B and switch it to a different workspace.
tyrust 7y ago
Yes https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#workspace_screen https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#workspace_screen
racingmars 7y ago
Yes. On my system, for example, I like to pin odd-numbered workspaces to my left screen and even-numbered workspaces to my right screen: workspace $ws1 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws2 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws3 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws4 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws5 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws6 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws7 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws8 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws9 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws10 output DisplayPort-1
- kylek 7y ago
  You can have your cake and eat it to- set $monL DP-1.3 set $monR DP-2 set $ws1L "1L" set $ws2L "2L" ... set $ws1R "1R" set $ws2R "2R" ... workspace $ws1L output $monL workspace $ws1R output $monR workspace $ws2L output $monL workspace $ws2R output $monR ... and upidate bindsyms (maybe add a modifier to switch right workspaces..?) bindsym $mod+1 workspace $ws1L bindsym $mod+2 workspace $ws2L ...

huijzer 7y ago

For me it makes sense on my single monitor as well. Couldn’t go back indeed. I still wonder why Windows is called Windows, but actually very bad at handling windows if you compare it to i3.

bisby 7y ago

I have a desktop with 3x monitors, and a laptop. And I find it's different but equally useful in both scenarios. My desktop, i only use 1 workspace per monitor. and i3wm is there just for tiling across large monitors. My laptop, I only have 1 monitor so I basically mimic a multi monitor setup with workspaces, but tile less since the screen is smaller.