4 ms·

AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

524 points by loughnane 2y ago

vehemenz 2y ago
I hope I'm not too late to this thread, but I have a couple comments and a question. The experience is better than Amethyst or Yabai, but there is a learning curve. I think it would help if the documentation was one single searchable page, instead of several subpages. The default keybindings interfere with macOS's special characters, so I would recommend changing the modifier keys away from option+ and option+shift+. One thing I couldn't figure out. My setup is as follows: h_tiles └── v_accordion ├── window1 └── window2 └── v_accordion ├── window1 └── window2 I would like to limit the total number of horizontal tiles--more than two is too many--but I can't figure out how to make new windows automatically go into either accordion stack instead of a new horizontal tile. Is there a way to set mins and maxes per tree level? This is one of those features that Amethyst has that seems like a no-brainer.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
andrewla 2y ago
I'm reluctant to try this -- my experience with other attempts to try out tiling window managers on MacOS is that the just don't play nice. Windows get repositioned by normal interactions and the window manager is not able to wrangle them, and connecting external monitors is a disaster, and you end up with a situation where windows are overlapping in odd ways but you can't move them out of the way because the window manager is trying to manage them. Does anyone have experience with this particular one and does it resolve these sorts of issues?
- torstenvl 2y ago
  I've never ever had that happen with Rectangle or Magnet.
- nbobko 2y ago
  Hi, AeroSpace author speaking :) > Windows get repositioned by normal interactions and the window manager is not able to wrangle them I'm certainly biased, but no, I don't face issues like that > and connecting external monitors is a disaster Connecting and disconnecting external monitors is an important use case for me as well. I dedicated my time to support specifically this case, so hopefully it works correctly for other users as well
  - mrgaro 2y ago
    I'm a long time Amethyst user, but going to try AeroSpace out! Based on the documentation the toml syntax is stretched quite a bit to implement some logic and callbacks. Have you considered some scripting language to make it easier to do, or is the need for this kind of advanced use so little that it's not really a problem?
    - nbobko 2y ago
      When I started the project, I kept it simple, so I started with the static config The complexity of the config has grown since then, with the bigest (and, actually, the only) problem being on-window-detected callback as you mentioned. I've been thinking about using a scripting language like Lua, but I haven't made my mind yet whether it's worth it
iyn 2y ago
> Doesn't require disabling SIP That's very interesting! I've been hesitant to use similar WMs as basically all required disabling SIP. Anyone knows what AeroSpace is doing differently that it can work alongside SIP? Edit: found this in the README: > AeroSpace will never require you to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). For example, yabai requires you to disable SIP to use some of its features. AeroSpace will either find another way (such as emulation of workspaces) or will not implement this feature at all (window transparency and window shadowing are not practical features)
- TachyonicBytes 2y ago
  I wonder if following the mouse for focus would be doable without disabling SIP. It's one of the features I didn't even see in other macOS WM.
  - feep 2y ago
    It is, Yabai can do it. I am currently using autoraise. Both work great, barring UI weirdness of macOS. Example. Mousing over another window on the way to the menubar. https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise
  - bashinator 2y ago
    I've been searching for a sloppy-mouse-focus implementation for OSX for _years_. Pretty sure there's something fundamentally incompatible in how app windows are managed.
    - lelandfe 2y ago
      It's also a bummer because Terminal.app has the functionality out of the box: https://macos-defaults.com/mouse/focusfollowsmouse.html https://macos-defaults.com/mouse/focusfollowsmouse.html
      - bashinator 2y ago
        It can be implemented within apps, but not across apps afaict.
nocsi 2y ago
I’ve just started using [1Piece](https://app1piece.com/ https://app1piece.com/). Before this, I had BetterTouchTools just to mimick the window snapping. And years prior to that, I’d run a full dwm setup on Linux. The thing to understand however… is that these sort of things are a losing battle on macOS. Stuff like yabai/skhd break in between OS updates. Window management and apple is a battle you can always expect to lsoe
gray_-_wolf 2y ago
I will be getting my first mac soon (I am still sad about it), which means I will need to figure out the WM. Currently I am considering yabai and amethyst. I guess now I should add AeroSpace to the list. If you are actually using tiling WM on mac, could you share which one and why?
- bee_rider 2y ago
  I wonder… this isn’t what you want, but maybe just tmux in a full screen, or half-screen terminal (if you need a web browser) would suffice? Plus their built in “spaces” (workspaces) feature.
- andrewla 2y ago
  For what it's worth, I don't think there's a lot of value in these. I hate the MacOS environment as much as anyone, but all the attempts to create tiling managers have resulted in strange unusable quirky behavior. You're better off just sucking it up and using the native UI until you get sufficiently familiar with it that it rarely gets in your way too much. Meanwhile keep lobbying your employer (assuming that you are being forced into this by your job) to support Linux for development workstations.
  - happymellon 2y ago
    Completely agree with this take. No matter how sophisticated these Mac Window Managers get, MacOS will always mess with the windows because it knows better than you. That's why people buy Macs, and it's not going to change. If you don't like this, then you actually don't like Macs. It's opinionated, and it's opinions do not match yours. I would have liked window snapping, but instead we have 1/2 baked split screen virtual desktops. I simply don't understand why people use them for development environments, the "Unix underneath" doesn't help enough in enough scenarios when it's hostile in so many others.
    - jwells89 2y ago
      > I would have liked window snapping, but instead we have 1/2 baked split screen virtual desktops. There’s at least non-fullscreen tiling available now if you hold down Option/Alt when hovering over the green traffic light (which also changes the corresponding Window menu items to “Move Window to (Left|Right) Side of Screen). There should probably be a toggle somewhere that makes this the default. > I simply don't understand why people use them for development environments, the "Unix underneath" doesn't help enough in enough scenarios when it's hostile in so many others. A lot of it is that the hardware is well-rounded and not as riddled with gambles/compromises as most other laptops are. Usually non-Apple laptops have at least one or two things that suck about them, with the most frequent being battery life, fan noise, and poor thermal design but include mediocre screen, bad keyboard, bad trackpad, bad power management, bad unplugged performance, bad port placement, and chintzy build among other things. Some percentage of users also just like macOS as it is, though.
feep 2y ago
Oh, I like the fake Spaces approach. I have considered trying that by minimizing windows, but would never get around to it. Tiling is doomed to sadness on macOS, because of lack of APIs. But this is probably the most performant approach. Have used yabai, but only for moving windows and focus-follows-mouse. Not for tiling. Because flaky (not yabai’s fault). Thanks nikitabobko. Looking forward to trying it as soon as I figure out how to mod alt-tab to ignore all the windows (from every fake workspace) in the corner. Also, linked in the docs, JankyBorders. Nice. https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/FelixKratz/JankyBorders https://github.com/FelixKratz/JankyBorders
- freeqaz 2y ago
  I get around that by using the Stack and I flip between windows with alt+h/alt+j Command+Tab is global window switch. The ones above are for "local" switching in the context of the workspace.
  - feep 2y ago
    Oh, I know. I use sway — and greatly miss alt-tab (windows-style alt-tab), when I do. Not linux-primary right now. I can remember my linux-style stacking commands in order to try it. But I would want to fix my alt-tab at some point. Note: my sway (or mac) usage is basically two vertical windows or stacks of panes on a laptop screen. So a pretty simple setup.
    - irth 2y ago
      you can get windows-style alt-tab with https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
      - feep 2y ago
        Right. Got it, love it. But it won’t work with AeroSpace. I mean, it will work, but it won’t work with all windows from _visible spaces_. Because ever window from _every space_ will be in the current space (tucked in the lower right corner).
avidphantasm 2y ago
Can we stop pissing and moaning about notarization? macOS isn’t Linux and this isn’t 1994. Given the cybersecurity threats of the world today, signing by a central authority makes some amount of sense for apps on consumer OSes.
- felixgallo 2y ago
  What do you think signing does to prevent against 'the cybersecurity threats of the world today'?
- lxgr 2y ago
  As long as Apple's glorious code signing scheme can still easily tricked by a single xattr call [1], I'm fine with it. I've just got a feeling that that won't be forever. [1] https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/aerospace.rb#L16 https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/...
- nbobko 2y ago
  I agree that signing by a central authority makes sense. As the readme mentions, I don't have anything against notarization as a concept. I specifically don't like how painfull Apple does it. (Google for "notarization hell macos") This is my pet project that I do for fun and for free. Bowing my head to Apple every time I want to release a new version is not fun. Waking up in the middle of the night, because Apple revoked the app (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/167 https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/167) is not fun. AeroSpace is a tool for developers by developers. Developers can audit the code and install the app from sources
- Hamuko 2y ago
  I'm not going to notarise anything as long as it costs $100 per year.
- cybrox 2y ago
  Signing by a central authority makes a lot of sense... if only that authority would sign off on the software being secure instead of the software fitting their current mood and business strategy.
anonzzzies 2y ago
I have been trying this for a few months now. I3 is quite perfect and Aerospace is a nice try, but it’s very far from i3; it’s quite flaky. I guess this is because Mac OS X doesn’t actually allow full control like Unix WMs do? I have not found anything better though, but I will install Linux when it’s working well on Apple Silicon. Only i3 is at least for me enough reason to use Linux as Mac OS X, again imho, is terrible window manager wise.
- jwells89 2y ago
  Having dabbled in some of this for a hobby project (not a window manager, but adjacent), it’s because the official APIs to do these things with are limited. You end up relying a lot on undocumented private APIs and hacks, which are flaky both due to their undocumented internal-use nature and because the OS isn’t designed to play nice with significant meddling with window/process management, which results in the OS and third party app frequently stepping on each others’ toes.
  - behnamoh 2y ago
    Apple being Apple... gosh they just know how to build hardware but for software they just flop.
    - jwells89 2y ago
      In fairness, I’ve encountered similar flakiness when using third party window/desktop manager utilities on Windows. Commercial OSes in general just aren’t designed with that kind of flexibility in mind.
- xiwenc 2y ago
  Got the same issue. I am still to find a WM that can deal with native OSX fullscreen mode. Aerospace goes bongers when i have native full screen. It will get confused on what to focus. My case: Workspace 1: terminal Workspace 2: slack app Open chrome in native full screen Now try to switch to workspace 1. Will give it more time without native fullscreen apps for a while. Hopefully it works better.
JZL003 2y ago
I use yabai pretty heavily, for the past 5 macos versions without disabling SIP on a work computer. I really like it, the tiling is flaky only maybe once every few days (I am doing yabai commands probably once a minute at least) so I bound a keystroke to `yabai --restart-service` and it always comes back immediately So I find it really pretty reliable and pretty great. Multimonitor is hard and I don't use it much, but having stacks and fast 'full-screen' to minimize is so great On some version upgrades, work antivirus thinks it's a virus so disables it for 24 hours, and I hate using my computer those days, it feels so clunky and sad
jitl 2y ago
What is the difference in user experience between this and Yabai? I don’t think the SIP issues for Yabai is a big one, no one I know who uses Yabai disables SIP, and they seem to enjoy it. Is the i3 stuff the difference? Personally I use a utility that allows resizing and moving windows with the mouse from anywhere on the window when holding a modifier combination, like Fluxbox. Not as automatic, but also never flaky - more like making floating much easier with less mouse movement than moving to a totally managed style.
- freeqaz 2y ago
  I have used both extensively and I prefer AeroSpace. Multi monitor support is the killer for me, but there are other small wins. When you move a workspace in Yabai to a new monitor, it changes it's ID so you can't keep using keyboard shortcuts to access it (alt+2 breaks because it is no longer workspace 2, it becomes 11 or another number). I can move workspaces between monitors easily with alt+m and alt+shift+m. The other feature is that windows snap instantly without any Mission Control animations. That is a big one that really irks me. Those are the two features that I need most days and I find Yabai completely unusable because of the lack of workspace support
- Etheryte 2y ago
  With Yabai you need to disable SIP if you want to interact with spaces in any way, change the stacking order of windows, and many other things [0]. If you don't use those features, you do you, but for many users those are core features. [0] https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/wiki/Disabling-System-Integrity-Protection https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/wiki/Disabling-System-I...
meter 2y ago
I’ve been using this for the past few months, and for the most part, I like it. I appreciate that it’s all configured with a single file (no GUI). One issue: If an app uses native Mac tabs, Aerospace treats each tab as a window, which completely breaks the full screen functionality. Alacritty is one example. It’s really odd. Edit: there’s an open issue for this: https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/68 https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/68
- i-am-a-fnord 2y ago
  Yabai suffers from the same problem, so far the creator hasn't been able to fix it.
bsnnkv 2y ago
Nice to see another twm on macOS. Somehow over the past few years Windows became the more vibrant platform for twms (vs macOS) with developers (including myself) trying to push the envelope and introduce many quality of life features you still won't find even in Linux twms today. https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm https://github.com/dalyIsaac/Whim https://github.com/dalyIsaac/Whim Hopefully this new entrant will drive even more innovation in this space on macOS.
- bbor 2y ago
  Not to drop this kind hacker’s competitor, but I’ve been a happy user of https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/. Will definitely be checking this out instead tho, even though I’ve paid for rectangle — any demo that has SublimeText windows in it is a demo I trust!
- ashenke 2y ago
  I'm curious, what kind of features that are not found on Linux ?
  - Carrok 2y ago
    For one, tools like Shortcat aren’t really possible on Linux afaict, since it relies on MacOS’s fantastic accessibility API. https://shortcat.app/ https://shortcat.app/
    - ssivark 2y ago
      Hmm -- interesting/fantastic tool. Feels something like avy in Emacs, but for everything on screen. I think this should be possible in linux with a bit of work (erm, famous last words?) especially because the whole desktop environment is fundamentally open and you don't need to depend on this providing an API. But I think an even better approach is to have build this functionality using screen parsers backed by recent AI advances. That way, you decouple the source / rendering of content from the sink / consumption of content, and can have more flexible behavior on behalf of the end user. I anticipate (hope) such tools to pop up over the next few years.
malkosta 2y ago
Finally…the day has come…this look awesome!!! Loved the values.
better_sh 2y ago
This is great! I find the one thing I miss the most from i3 that none of the macOS tiling managers seem to have is i3bar, or a minimal bar that displays what space I'm on, how many spaces I have, cpu/ram usage, etc. I've tried to find configs that emulate this with Spacebar [0], but haven't been able to find anything [0] https://github.com/cmacrae/spacebar https://github.com/cmacrae/spacebar
- tra3 2y ago
  Sketchybar has this.
- dorian-graph 2y ago
  Have you tried https://github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar https://github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar?
  - better_sh 2y ago
    Yeah I've seen SketchyBar, what I'm more interested in is the look of base i3
- cweagans 2y ago
  You can likely do this with Hammerspoon. It should be pretty straightforward as long as you have somewhere you can get the name/id of the space that you're on.
- lisnake 2y ago
  Aerospace shows which space you on in menu bar
laweijfmvo 2y ago
> Homebrew installation script is configured to automatically delete com.apple.quarantine attribute, that's why the app should work out of the box, without any warnings that "Apple cannot check AeroSpace for malicious software" Can someone ELI5 what this does? Does it impact AeroSpace only, or something globally on my Mac? Thanks!
- nbobko 2y ago
  It impacts only AeroSpace
- Vegenoid 2y ago
  Without looking into the installation script to verify, based on that description, it is only deleting an 'extended attribute' of the AeroSpace app. MacOS adds this attribute automatically to programs downloaded from the web, and prevents a user from running the program while it has the attribute. I frequently need to run a command like the following before running a downloaded program, which I'm guessing is exactly what the install script does: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine some-program.app
- baliex 2y ago
  It only affects AeroSpace. The README links to the Homebrew install script, relevant lines highlighted here: https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/aerospace.rb#L15-L18 https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/...
maherbeg 2y ago
I'd be curious to know how it is different than Amethyst. Amethyst has gotten much more stable recently and I really enjoy using it. The text based config seems pretty nice at a first glance, but I'm not sure if it's worth switching.
- Avi-D-coder 2y ago
  in my experience aerospace is way better in most ways. there are a few oddities, and I need to file a couple of bug reports, but it has made macos so much more tolerable than amethyst.
  - thisrod 2y ago
    > in my experience aerospace is way better in most ways. As an Amethyst user, I'm approaching this comparison from the other direction: is there one compelling reason to switch? The improvement I'd most like to see in Amethyst is more stable window placement when I remove a monitor then add it again (I do that a lot with my laptop). It would be fantastic to have integration between Amethyst-managed spaces, Firefox windows, and Proton Pass vaults. As in Space 1 knows that new windows should use the Google account in my Work vault, and Space 2 knows that new windows should log out from Google because there is no Google account in my Personal vault. I doubt that's an imminent prospect, though. In general, I prefer the Amethyst approach of extending the builtin OSX window management to the Aerospace approach of replacing it. Clearly the Amethyst developers weren't convinced that it's impossible to move windows between spaces with hotkeys, because they went ahead and implemented that. Overall, I'm really happy that these window managers are being written. I use a 42 inch monitor, which would be awkward without them.
- matricaria 2y ago
  You can do text based configuration in Amethyst too. https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/blob/development/docs/configuration-files.md https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/blob/development/docs/conf...
- SZJX 2y ago
  I've been using Amethyst so far, but I immediately liked Aerospace more. The main gripe I have with Amethyst is that it throws windows in a very sluggish and unreliable fashion. With Aerospace, windows get moved to different workspaces/monitors in a flash and the move never fails. I also like how it completely ditches MacOS built-in workspaces, which, as the author argued, is rather unsatisfactory, in favor of its own virtual workspace solution, which finally makes handling a multi-monitor setup a bearable and even somewhat enjoyable experience. Actually, in my Linux days I moved from i3 (which Aerospace is based on) to xmonad (which Amethyst is based on), but on MacOS Aerospace just feels quite better. None of the 3 WMs on MacOS comes close to what a true WM on Linux can offer, but I guess Aerospace is as good as it can get.
whartung 2y ago
For folks that use the tiling window managers, what applications are you running? And what does a typical desktop look like? In terms of desktop layout, mind I don't use one, the Oberon vision comes to mind. A single, large pane, with all(?) of the others stacked to one side. My friend didn't use a tiling window manager, but had this desktop laid out as such, but all of those windows were terminal windows that he kept an eye on (he was our ops guy). But are folks using these layouts with their web browsers, word processors, IDEs, etc.?
- FranOntanaya 2y ago
  I use an ultra wide screen and do both coding and video operations so I'm always having side by side layouts mixed in with tabbed windows. One typical case is navigating a file manager to grab files that I need to drag and drop on a web UI, or folder/URI slug names I need to keep copying back and forth to use on a workflow. Another is watching stdout/stderr of a running script and a log tail at the same time. Sometimes I have tabs of web, file manager and some other app on one side and a terminal on the other as terminal commands are the glue of a workflow. Or I'll be screening a video on the left and doing edits on the right. Or keeping notes open on the side during a conference call. Sometimes I'll only have one window in a virtual desktop and ultrawide is too much, so I just have an idle terminal window as padding. Not having to hunt around for windows then hunting for their edges helps when I'm constantly opening, closing and sizing terminals, file managers and so on and so forth. It simply is faster with tiles.
  - whartung 2y ago
    This will sound silly, but doesn't that hurt your neck? You mention you use a ultra wide screen. I have one of the "drive in theater" iMacs, and I prefer the windows in the center. It's big enough that if things were on either side, I'd have to crane my neck to focus on either side. I'd hate to have to do that all the time. I guess if I were to do anything "tile" wize it would be two smaller columns, one on the left, and one on the right, and then the big center as the main focus.
- gpxyz 2y ago
  I don’t work in programming, but in arts and academia. I usually have 1 “main” window in working in and at least 1-2 more I am continually referring to, so I like to be able to quickly switch between a single fullscreen window and a 2 column view. Typical workspaces for me are Zotero + Firefox + Word (for writing and research) and Photoshop/InDesign + Finder + Firefox (for design). When I do code, I like being able to have at least 1 terminal window side-by-side with a coding LLM. I usually also have a workspace with Spotify + MacPass + Telegram open that I refer to as needed.
carabiner 2y ago
Man I hate the name. Has nothing to do with aerospace, but it does seem like a fad in software to take on some stolen valor from a far more interesting field.
- nbobko 2y ago
  1. The "AeroSpace" name means a space for your windows without friction 2. I myself consider the virtual emulation of workspaces to be the strongest feature of the AeroSpace. If I could disable the workspace switching animation in yabai or Amethyst (with SIP enabled, of course), I'd probably not bother myself creating AeroSpace. That's what the "space" part in the app name means. It resembles the strongest feature of AeroSpace - workspaces
  - irth 2y ago
    re 2: an added benefit of not using actual macOS spaces is that it seems (at least from my limited usage) to be much more reliable than yabai (not blaming yabai here, of course). I also tried implementing an i3 like workspace numbering/creating on top of yabai - it was an uphill battle due to how limited native macOS space management is and I never finished, so thank you for creating AeroSpace :) I actually use it in tandem with yabai now - I added an "exec-on-window-hide"[0] option similar to "exec-on-workspace-change", and use it to make the hidden windows transparent (and to make them visible again)[1]. I wonder if hooks like that would be a good way to have a nice middle-ground to let people who don't care as much about SIP to extend upon AeroSpace's model? I'll probably send over a pull request for your consideration soon. [0] https://github.com/irth/AeroSpace/commit/54b48aa0edf9817031c9ecd94232e085ba65eefd https://github.com/irth/AeroSpace/commit/54b48aa0edf9817031c... [1] https://gist.github.com/irth/0bc96778c6073c756d3bb657f1bfe8b9 https://gist.github.com/irth/0bc96778c6073c756d3bb657f1bfe8b...
- herewulf 2y ago
  You know what really ruffles my feathers? When aerospace constantly steals names from the far more interesting field of ornithology.
randomblast 2y ago
I used i3 for a few years when my main dev machine was Linux. I too am frustrated by the macOS builtin WM's shortcomings. Initial feedback on AeroSpace though: it's utter shite. I started it when I already had my usual number (many) of windows open across my usual number of spaces (lots) on my usual number of displays (3). First it spent 30 seconds trying to give me a seizure, and when it had finished I'm left with a total mess of a layout. Some windows 30px wide. Some windows not-quite-fullscreen. Some windows just randomly floating without any kind of recognisable pattern. Now I can't navigate around because dragging a window sends it flying off to the corner of a different display. None of the default keybindings seem to do what they say they should. The focussed window disappeared entirely when I tried resize mode, and I can't find the way out of it because that was the window with the instructions. I think I'll try something else.
- vehemenz 2y ago
  Don't give up. I had the exact same issue when AeroSpace when I first used it, but I gave it another chance because of my constant frustrations with Amethyst. The commands do what they're supposed to, but unless you read the documentation carefully, your expectations will be different.
darksaints 2y ago
Somewhat on subject: does anybody feel like the macos-style application menu that is disconnected from the application window has outlived its welcome? I feel like apple gets so much right from a UX perspective, but in a world of multi-monitor setups and common cross application workflows, I find it absolutely bizarre that I might have to scroll across 2+ monitors to get to a dropdown menu for an application that I'm using, and sometimes still get to a dropdown menu for the wrong application.
- throwaway38375 2y ago
  Yes! Windows got it right IMO.
- mbreese 2y ago
  I like the detached menu, but mainly because it makes the application window smaller with less overall decoration. With multiple applications open, each window having menu bar decorations seems cluttered to me. I like the minimalist and consistent nature of it all. However, it does get more complicated with multiple monitors and I don’t know of the solution here. You’re right that the UX falls when you’re trying to work with menus across multiple monitors. Perhaps the right mix is doing something like the Chrome extras menu or if you’ve used VS Code on the web, where you have a small hamburger or (…) button that opens a context menu. Then you still have a menu for the application, but it’s hidden until you need it.
  - eviks 2y ago
    On Windows it's more minimalist - menu is hidden right until you need it instead of always taking precious space
- lloeki 2y ago
  > in a world of multi-monitor setups and common cross application workflows, I find it absolutely bizarre that I might have to scroll across 2+ monitors to get to a dropdown menu for an application that I'm using These days the menubar is always on all displays, not just the main one? (unless maybe you have "Displays use separate Spaces" unchecked?)
idle_zealot 2y ago
I daily drive this and my verdict is: it's the best way to manage windows on a Mac, but falls short of i3/sway. In particular, support for re-arranging windows by dragging them to positions relative to one another is extremely limited in that it's not able to create new vertical or horizontal splits the way you can in sway, which forces me to take awkward detours with keyboard commands to get to the window layout I want most of the time. Like, say I have two windows side-by-side, and I want to split one of them vertically. In sway I'd pop open the new window, then drag it to the top or bottom half of the window I want it to share horizontal space with, and bam, all done. With aerospace the best way I've found to do this is to open the new window, then switch all three windows into a vertical stack, then focus the window that was originally on the left and invoke the 'move left' command on it.
- nbobko 2y ago
  If you have normalizations enabled, you don't need to "switch into a vertical stack" Given this layout: h_tiles ├── window1 (focused) ├── window2 └── window3 `move left` will produce this layout: h_tiles ├── window1 (focused) └── v_tiles ├── window2 └── window3
  - idle_zealot 2y ago
    Ah, so it does. I suppose this is an instance of my mental model not having adjusted.
    - squigz 2y ago
      For what it's worth, this video from i3 really helped me visualize how i3 and related WMs deal with windows - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWA8Pl57UBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWA8Pl57UBY
- j45 2y ago
  Thanks, I will try it out to see if it can first solve my main problem - I'm looking for a way on Mac for it to reasonably remember the screen layouts. Every time it wakes from boots, the desktop has complete amnesia with 3 screens. Ideally I'd be able to drive my own workspaces, and it can use the laptop screen only, or 2 or 3 external monitors at different desks (work and home).
gbhdrew 2y ago
Just want to say a huge thanks to the dev(s) here, you've basically solved my major pain points with macOS window management (especially around apple's infuriatingly broken implementation of virtual desktops). This stuff has been gnawing away at my sanity for years
jackhalford 2y ago
I’m currently in using sway on fedora, I’m considering moving to macOS because of tighter integration of icloud (everything is on my iphone) and generally better polish of the OS. This is another reason to switch
ftio 2y ago
Cool YouTube video, but: my kingdom for a screenshot! Product looks amazing. I use Divvy but will definitely try out AeroSpace. Great name too.
jaimehrubiks 2y ago
Is there any documentation for very beginners on how a regular workflow would be? Like, if I have 7 windows opened, how do I start organizing them with just shortkeys? I've found option+/ to put all of them horizontally or vertically (alternating when pressing twice), but not sure how to quickly make 1 of them bigger or select just 2.
igorguerrero 2y ago
This looks so awesome I gonna dust off my mac mini. As a tiling wm user (Hyprland now) I always wonder how OSX users claim they're that productive with all those alt+tabbin' I meant cmd+tabbin'. Welcome to the 2010s guys!
- vmladenov 2y ago
  Can you share any resources on learning to be productive with tiling WMs? I have tried a few times and always bounce off of them. I also find window overlapping to often be more intuitive than forcing them to squeeze into a tile. I internalized the swipe gestures (3 fingers left/right) early on with OS X 10.6 snow leopard and then with the Mission Control update (3 fingers up) I am basically always faster with a trackpad than any keyboard “workspace” navigation.
  - __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
    For tiling WM's I think it's rather critical that the hotkey for "move window left" resemble the hotkey for "move focus left". I haven't tried AeroSpace yet, but so far I haven't been able to pull this off with any of the tiling apps on MacOS (if I've overlooked one please let me know). So my tip for being productive in a tiling window manager is to get a linux machine and use sway.
gigatexal 2y ago
It's like someone was thinking of me! I've been missing such things on Mac. Toying with Yabai and others. Love seeing work in this space.
peauc 2y ago
Yabai was not working for me, Aerospace worked out of the box. Great tool
AceJohnny2 2y ago
This looks very interesting. However, how do I create a new container, to put a subset of windows in? It's not clear to me from the example configs, either default or i3-inspired. I've never used i3, though I did use AwesomeWM extensively about a decade ago. Edit: ah, the `join-with` command which is a superset of the `split` command. In the default config, alt-shift-semicolon to enter Service mode, then alt-shift-h/j/k/l for neighbor selection.
danielfrg 2y ago
I have been using Yabai for almost 1 year now. I had learned to live with the transition between workspaces because I cant disable SIP. I just tried this. I love it. No SPI and no transitions, just fast switching of apps. I will probably switch to this. Thank you for your work!!
AceJohnny2 2y ago
Is it possible to display the current layout tree (of the current workspace)? As I'm learning to use this, I'm having trouble conceptualizing how my windows are organized in the tree, and how I'm affecting it.
filereaper 2y ago
I use AutoFocus which gives focus-follows-mouse with AeroSpace and its a good enough replacement for i3wm. Extremely thankful for both projects. https://github.com/synappser/AutoFocus https://github.com/synappser/AutoFocus
- i-am-a-fnord 2y ago
  There's also https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise which is open source. AutoFocus seems like a proprietary clone in beta that will eventually become paid.
  - filereaper 2y ago
    Oh awesome, thank you for suggesting this. Will swap out AutoFocus for AutoRaise.
sleight42 2y ago
Apple needs to aquihire you immediately.
wmstack 2y ago
I have gotten somewhat used to Raycast's window management tools, and it is not really possible to use them with AeroSpace. For example, with Raycast I can resize and float a window using "reasonable size" option, which also puts it in the middle. I can use left half and right half to create a split, or I can maximise a window or even use quarters or thirds. With AeroSpace, trrying to move the windows in the tiles using left half, right half, or left two thirds or using reasonable size to float the windows, it doesn't work. Also, there are bugs associated with moving apps to "next desktop" and "previous desktop". AeroSpace seems to have its own implementation of Mac's multiple desktops called workspaces, so the video guide actually doesn't show transitioning between different desktops, but different workspaces. As a result, using "next desktop" and "previous desktop" completely breaks the tiling. I would've liked Workspaces to just be associated directly with the different Mac desktops so that the movement between workspaces just moves to the different desktops so there is some compatibility with Raycast and native MacOS.
- dmix 2y ago
  Raycast is so good I think it’s going to become a standard app on Macs for powerusers in the future I really need to deepdive into it because it does so much useful stuff. I use the Linear.app integration the most.
333c 2y ago
I started using this at work about a week ago. Still getting used to it, but it feels nice for managing multiple displays. Sometimes it feels limiting, but I think I'm just getting used to it.
primaprashant 2y ago
I use yabai and my favorite feature is being able to switch between mostly recently used spaces with a shortcut. It allows me to quickly alter between editor and terminal spaces, or editor and browser, or two browser windows. This feature alone boosts my productivity so much and makes it fun to use my machine. But it required disabling SIP which I can't do on my work machine. Does anybody know if AeroSpace can do this?
- primaprashant 2y ago
  Looks like it can using the `workspace-back-and-forth`[1] command. I'm gonna try it. [1]: https://nikitabobko.github.io/AeroSpace/commands#workspace-back-and-forth https://nikitabobko.github.io/AeroSpace/commands#workspace-b...
SubiculumCode 2y ago
I have yet to try a tiling windows manager...but Im this close. I can't stand always trying to find the effing window under a pile of shit.
tomphoolery 2y ago
How does this compare to tools like Yabai? I'm pretty happy with Yabai and SketchyBar, is this any easier to use?
Jaywalker9988 2y ago
Nice!! I'm going to have to play with this. Now what I really want to see, and I'm surprised doesn't exist, is an addon for or replacement to Spotlight that works like dmenu in that I can write scripts which use it for input like: printf 'one\ntwo\nthree' | dmenu -l 3 -p "Which one? " I use that in so many scripts on my main machines and would love to share them with macOS folks. I'm really surprised its not in something like Alfred. Maybe it exits and I don't know about it?? If not, maybe someone will add it to this open source Spotlight replacement I found: https://github.com/techrisdev/Snap https://github.com/techrisdev/Snap
- irth 2y ago
  There's a clone of dmenu - https://github.com/oNaiPs/dmenu-mac https://github.com/oNaiPs/dmenu-mac, but it doesn't integrate with Spotlight or similar.
  - Jaywalker9988 2y ago
    Yeah, Ive seen that, but it would be a hard sell getting macOS guys to run that and replace the spotlight keybind with that entirely. I tend to agree with them too.. I just would like to see Spotlight have the ability to do dmenu scripting stuff. There's no reason it couldn't except lack of vision. I honestly think Apple would be half keen to do it themselves, they just probably haven't seen the idea to steal it yet
    - irth 2y ago
      I implemented something like this as a Raycast extension[0]. Demo attached[1]. [0] https://github.com/irth/dmenu_raycast https://github.com/irth/dmenu_raycast [1] https://akko-cdn.hackrc.dev/media/e34cdc7683fece5260124ef47cb0ad427a118428771ce0ec2f1d870f86670a4a.mp4 https://akko-cdn.hackrc.dev/media/e34cdc7683fece5260124ef47c...
      - Jaywalker9988 2y ago
        Amazing!! I had never heard of Raycast! I'll be checking this out first thing in the morning! Thank you!
SZJX 2y ago
This is great! I've been using Amethyst so far, but I immediately liked Aerospace more. The main gripe I have with Amethyst is that it throws windows in a very sluggish and unreliable fashion. With Aerospace, windows get moved to different workspaces/monitors in a flash and the move never fails. I also like how it completely ditches MacOS built-in workspaces, which, as the author argued, is rather unsatisfactory, in favor of its own virtual workspace solution, which finally makes handling a multi-monitor setup a bearable and even somewhat enjoyable experience. (I couldn't use yabai on my work computer as it requires disabling SIP, which the author of Aerospace explicitly argues against, which I find reasonable.) Actually, in my Linux days I moved from i3 (which Aerospace is based on) to xmonad (which Amethyst is based on), but on MacOS Aerospace just feels quite better. None of the 3 WMs on MacOS comes close to what a true WM on Linux can offer, but I guess Aerospace is as good as it can get.
- l2dy 2y ago
  yabai works fine without disabling SIP. I haven't tried Aerospace yet, so can't offer a feature comparison though.
helpfulContrib 2y ago
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lonesword 2y ago
I have used both aerospace and yabai, and aerospace was far more simpler to configure. I really like it. Thank you for the great work! I had to unfortunately stop using aerospace due to some bugs. If I switch from workspace a to workspace b, sometimes aerospace keeps switching back to workspace a. It is annoying when you are trying to press the unmute button in the middle of a call but aerospace keeps taking you away from that workspace. The root cause could be that the apps that I use (internal tools) are misbehaving. I'll file a bug report if I can reproduce it on my personal mac.
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sgt 2y ago
Cool, but I'd first have to be sold on tiling managers being a good idea in the first place. I like to imagine my desktop as well.. my physical desktop. It's got papers on it, books, it's all overlapping and I usually put the stuff I am working on in the center. That's the issue with tiling managers for me - it introduces a structure where you probably don't need it.
viranchee 2y ago
How does RCMD + Rectangle Pro compare to AeroSpace?
viranchee 2y ago
Is there a way to limit using the Right side Option key and spare the Left Option Key for the OS? The good thing about RCMD is I can specify which specific key, consuming only 1 OPT or CMD key while saving the other key for the OS shortcuts

524 points by loughnane 2y ago

I hope I'm not too late to this thread, but I have a couple comments and a question. The experience is better than Amethyst or Yabai, but there is a learning curve. I think it would help if the documentation was one single searchable page, instead of several subpages. The default keybindings interfere with macOS's special characters, so I would recommend changing the modifier keys away from option+ and option+shift+. One thing I couldn't figure out. My setup is as follows: h_tiles └── v_accordion ├── window1 └── window2 └── v_accordion ├── window1 └── window2 I would like to limit the total number of horizontal tiles--more than two is too many--but I can't figure out how to make new windows automatically go into either accordion stack instead of a new horizontal tile. Is there a way to set mins and maxes per tree level? This is one of those features that Amethyst has that seems like a no-brainer.

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andrewla 2y ago

I'm reluctant to try this -- my experience with other attempts to try out tiling window managers on MacOS is that the just don't play nice. Windows get repositioned by normal interactions and the window manager is not able to wrangle them, and connecting external monitors is a disaster, and you end up with a situation where windows are overlapping in odd ways but you can't move them out of the way because the window manager is trying to manage them. Does anyone have experience with this particular one and does it resolve these sorts of issues?

torstenvl 2y ago
I've never ever had that happen with Rectangle or Magnet.
nbobko 2y ago
Hi, AeroSpace author speaking :) > Windows get repositioned by normal interactions and the window manager is not able to wrangle them I'm certainly biased, but no, I don't face issues like that > and connecting external monitors is a disaster Connecting and disconnecting external monitors is an important use case for me as well. I dedicated my time to support specifically this case, so hopefully it works correctly for other users as well
- mrgaro 2y ago
  I'm a long time Amethyst user, but going to try AeroSpace out! Based on the documentation the toml syntax is stretched quite a bit to implement some logic and callbacks. Have you considered some scripting language to make it easier to do, or is the need for this kind of advanced use so little that it's not really a problem?
  - nbobko 2y ago
    When I started the project, I kept it simple, so I started with the static config The complexity of the config has grown since then, with the bigest (and, actually, the only) problem being on-window-detected callback as you mentioned. I've been thinking about using a scripting language like Lua, but I haven't made my mind yet whether it's worth it

iyn 2y ago

> Doesn't require disabling SIP That's very interesting! I've been hesitant to use similar WMs as basically all required disabling SIP. Anyone knows what AeroSpace is doing differently that it can work alongside SIP? Edit: found this in the README: > AeroSpace will never require you to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). For example, yabai requires you to disable SIP to use some of its features. AeroSpace will either find another way (such as emulation of workspaces) or will not implement this feature at all (window transparency and window shadowing are not practical features)

TachyonicBytes 2y ago
I wonder if following the mouse for focus would be doable without disabling SIP. It's one of the features I didn't even see in other macOS WM.
- feep 2y ago
  It is, Yabai can do it. I am currently using autoraise. Both work great, barring UI weirdness of macOS. Example. Mousing over another window on the way to the menubar. https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise
- bashinator 2y ago
  I've been searching for a sloppy-mouse-focus implementation for OSX for _years_. Pretty sure there's something fundamentally incompatible in how app windows are managed.
  - lelandfe 2y ago
    It's also a bummer because Terminal.app has the functionality out of the box: https://macos-defaults.com/mouse/focusfollowsmouse.html https://macos-defaults.com/mouse/focusfollowsmouse.html
    - bashinator 2y ago
      It can be implemented within apps, but not across apps afaict.

nocsi 2y ago

I’ve just started using [1Piece](https://app1piece.com/ https://app1piece.com/). Before this, I had BetterTouchTools just to mimick the window snapping. And years prior to that, I’d run a full dwm setup on Linux. The thing to understand however… is that these sort of things are a losing battle on macOS. Stuff like yabai/skhd break in between OS updates. Window management and apple is a battle you can always expect to lsoe

gray_-_wolf 2y ago

I will be getting my first mac soon (I am still sad about it), which means I will need to figure out the WM. Currently I am considering yabai and amethyst. I guess now I should add AeroSpace to the list. If you are actually using tiling WM on mac, could you share which one and why?

bee_rider 2y ago
I wonder… this isn’t what you want, but maybe just tmux in a full screen, or half-screen terminal (if you need a web browser) would suffice? Plus their built in “spaces” (workspaces) feature.
andrewla 2y ago
For what it's worth, I don't think there's a lot of value in these. I hate the MacOS environment as much as anyone, but all the attempts to create tiling managers have resulted in strange unusable quirky behavior. You're better off just sucking it up and using the native UI until you get sufficiently familiar with it that it rarely gets in your way too much. Meanwhile keep lobbying your employer (assuming that you are being forced into this by your job) to support Linux for development workstations.
- happymellon 2y ago
  Completely agree with this take. No matter how sophisticated these Mac Window Managers get, MacOS will always mess with the windows because it knows better than you. That's why people buy Macs, and it's not going to change. If you don't like this, then you actually don't like Macs. It's opinionated, and it's opinions do not match yours. I would have liked window snapping, but instead we have 1/2 baked split screen virtual desktops. I simply don't understand why people use them for development environments, the "Unix underneath" doesn't help enough in enough scenarios when it's hostile in so many others.
  - jwells89 2y ago
    > I would have liked window snapping, but instead we have 1/2 baked split screen virtual desktops. There’s at least non-fullscreen tiling available now if you hold down Option/Alt when hovering over the green traffic light (which also changes the corresponding Window menu items to “Move Window to (Left|Right) Side of Screen). There should probably be a toggle somewhere that makes this the default. > I simply don't understand why people use them for development environments, the "Unix underneath" doesn't help enough in enough scenarios when it's hostile in so many others. A lot of it is that the hardware is well-rounded and not as riddled with gambles/compromises as most other laptops are. Usually non-Apple laptops have at least one or two things that suck about them, with the most frequent being battery life, fan noise, and poor thermal design but include mediocre screen, bad keyboard, bad trackpad, bad power management, bad unplugged performance, bad port placement, and chintzy build among other things. Some percentage of users also just like macOS as it is, though.

feep 2y ago

Oh, I like the fake Spaces approach. I have considered trying that by minimizing windows, but would never get around to it. Tiling is doomed to sadness on macOS, because of lack of APIs. But this is probably the most performant approach. Have used yabai, but only for moving windows and focus-follows-mouse. Not for tiling. Because flaky (not yabai’s fault). Thanks nikitabobko. Looking forward to trying it as soon as I figure out how to mod alt-tab to ignore all the windows (from every fake workspace) in the corner. Also, linked in the docs, JankyBorders. Nice. https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/FelixKratz/JankyBorders https://github.com/FelixKratz/JankyBorders

freeqaz 2y ago
I get around that by using the Stack and I flip between windows with alt+h/alt+j Command+Tab is global window switch. The ones above are for "local" switching in the context of the workspace.
- feep 2y ago
  Oh, I know. I use sway — and greatly miss alt-tab (windows-style alt-tab), when I do. Not linux-primary right now. I can remember my linux-style stacking commands in order to try it. But I would want to fix my alt-tab at some point. Note: my sway (or mac) usage is basically two vertical windows or stacks of panes on a laptop screen. So a pretty simple setup.
  - irth 2y ago
    you can get windows-style alt-tab with https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
    - feep 2y ago
      Right. Got it, love it. But it won’t work with AeroSpace. I mean, it will work, but it won’t work with all windows from _visible spaces_. Because ever window from _every space_ will be in the current space (tucked in the lower right corner).

avidphantasm 2y ago

Can we stop pissing and moaning about notarization? macOS isn’t Linux and this isn’t 1994. Given the cybersecurity threats of the world today, signing by a central authority makes some amount of sense for apps on consumer OSes.

felixgallo 2y ago
What do you think signing does to prevent against 'the cybersecurity threats of the world today'?
lxgr 2y ago
As long as Apple's glorious code signing scheme can still easily tricked by a single xattr call [1], I'm fine with it. I've just got a feeling that that won't be forever. [1] https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/aerospace.rb#L16 https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/...
nbobko 2y ago
I agree that signing by a central authority makes sense. As the readme mentions, I don't have anything against notarization as a concept. I specifically don't like how painfull Apple does it. (Google for "notarization hell macos") This is my pet project that I do for fun and for free. Bowing my head to Apple every time I want to release a new version is not fun. Waking up in the middle of the night, because Apple revoked the app (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/167 https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/167) is not fun. AeroSpace is a tool for developers by developers. Developers can audit the code and install the app from sources
Hamuko 2y ago
I'm not going to notarise anything as long as it costs $100 per year.
cybrox 2y ago
Signing by a central authority makes a lot of sense... if only that authority would sign off on the software being secure instead of the software fitting their current mood and business strategy.

anonzzzies 2y ago

I have been trying this for a few months now. I3 is quite perfect and Aerospace is a nice try, but it’s very far from i3; it’s quite flaky. I guess this is because Mac OS X doesn’t actually allow full control like Unix WMs do? I have not found anything better though, but I will install Linux when it’s working well on Apple Silicon. Only i3 is at least for me enough reason to use Linux as Mac OS X, again imho, is terrible window manager wise.

jwells89 2y ago
Having dabbled in some of this for a hobby project (not a window manager, but adjacent), it’s because the official APIs to do these things with are limited. You end up relying a lot on undocumented private APIs and hacks, which are flaky both due to their undocumented internal-use nature and because the OS isn’t designed to play nice with significant meddling with window/process management, which results in the OS and third party app frequently stepping on each others’ toes.
- behnamoh 2y ago
  Apple being Apple... gosh they just know how to build hardware but for software they just flop.
  - jwells89 2y ago
    In fairness, I’ve encountered similar flakiness when using third party window/desktop manager utilities on Windows. Commercial OSes in general just aren’t designed with that kind of flexibility in mind.
xiwenc 2y ago
Got the same issue. I am still to find a WM that can deal with native OSX fullscreen mode. Aerospace goes bongers when i have native full screen. It will get confused on what to focus. My case: Workspace 1: terminal Workspace 2: slack app Open chrome in native full screen Now try to switch to workspace 1. Will give it more time without native fullscreen apps for a while. Hopefully it works better.

JZL003 2y ago

I use yabai pretty heavily, for the past 5 macos versions without disabling SIP on a work computer. I really like it, the tiling is flaky only maybe once every few days (I am doing yabai commands probably once a minute at least) so I bound a keystroke to `yabai --restart-service` and it always comes back immediately So I find it really pretty reliable and pretty great. Multimonitor is hard and I don't use it much, but having stacks and fast 'full-screen' to minimize is so great On some version upgrades, work antivirus thinks it's a virus so disables it for 24 hours, and I hate using my computer those days, it feels so clunky and sad

jitl 2y ago

What is the difference in user experience between this and Yabai? I don’t think the SIP issues for Yabai is a big one, no one I know who uses Yabai disables SIP, and they seem to enjoy it. Is the i3 stuff the difference? Personally I use a utility that allows resizing and moving windows with the mouse from anywhere on the window when holding a modifier combination, like Fluxbox. Not as automatic, but also never flaky - more like making floating much easier with less mouse movement than moving to a totally managed style.

freeqaz 2y ago
I have used both extensively and I prefer AeroSpace. Multi monitor support is the killer for me, but there are other small wins. When you move a workspace in Yabai to a new monitor, it changes it's ID so you can't keep using keyboard shortcuts to access it (alt+2 breaks because it is no longer workspace 2, it becomes 11 or another number). I can move workspaces between monitors easily with alt+m and alt+shift+m. The other feature is that windows snap instantly without any Mission Control animations. That is a big one that really irks me. Those are the two features that I need most days and I find Yabai completely unusable because of the lack of workspace support
Etheryte 2y ago
With Yabai you need to disable SIP if you want to interact with spaces in any way, change the stacking order of windows, and many other things [0]. If you don't use those features, you do you, but for many users those are core features. [0] https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/wiki/Disabling-System-Integrity-Protection https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/wiki/Disabling-System-I...

meter 2y ago

I’ve been using this for the past few months, and for the most part, I like it. I appreciate that it’s all configured with a single file (no GUI). One issue: If an app uses native Mac tabs, Aerospace treats each tab as a window, which completely breaks the full screen functionality. Alacritty is one example. It’s really odd. Edit: there’s an open issue for this: https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/68 https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/68

i-am-a-fnord 2y ago
Yabai suffers from the same problem, so far the creator hasn't been able to fix it.

bsnnkv 2y ago

Nice to see another twm on macOS. Somehow over the past few years Windows became the more vibrant platform for twms (vs macOS) with developers (including myself) trying to push the envelope and introduce many quality of life features you still won't find even in Linux twms today. https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm https://github.com/dalyIsaac/Whim https://github.com/dalyIsaac/Whim Hopefully this new entrant will drive even more innovation in this space on macOS.

bbor 2y ago
Not to drop this kind hacker’s competitor, but I’ve been a happy user of https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/. Will definitely be checking this out instead tho, even though I’ve paid for rectangle — any demo that has SublimeText windows in it is a demo I trust!
ashenke 2y ago
I'm curious, what kind of features that are not found on Linux ?
- Carrok 2y ago
  For one, tools like Shortcat aren’t really possible on Linux afaict, since it relies on MacOS’s fantastic accessibility API. https://shortcat.app/ https://shortcat.app/
  - ssivark 2y ago
    Hmm -- interesting/fantastic tool. Feels something like avy in Emacs, but for everything on screen. I think this should be possible in linux with a bit of work (erm, famous last words?) especially because the whole desktop environment is fundamentally open and you don't need to depend on this providing an API. But I think an even better approach is to have build this functionality using screen parsers backed by recent AI advances. That way, you decouple the source / rendering of content from the sink / consumption of content, and can have more flexible behavior on behalf of the end user. I anticipate (hope) such tools to pop up over the next few years.

malkosta 2y ago

Finally…the day has come…this look awesome!!! Loved the values.

better_sh 2y ago

This is great! I find the one thing I miss the most from i3 that none of the macOS tiling managers seem to have is i3bar, or a minimal bar that displays what space I'm on, how many spaces I have, cpu/ram usage, etc. I've tried to find configs that emulate this with Spacebar [0], but haven't been able to find anything [0] https://github.com/cmacrae/spacebar https://github.com/cmacrae/spacebar

tra3 2y ago
Sketchybar has this.
dorian-graph 2y ago
Have you tried https://github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar https://github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar?
- better_sh 2y ago
  Yeah I've seen SketchyBar, what I'm more interested in is the look of base i3
cweagans 2y ago
You can likely do this with Hammerspoon. It should be pretty straightforward as long as you have somewhere you can get the name/id of the space that you're on.
lisnake 2y ago
Aerospace shows which space you on in menu bar

laweijfmvo 2y ago

> Homebrew installation script is configured to automatically delete com.apple.quarantine attribute, that's why the app should work out of the box, without any warnings that "Apple cannot check AeroSpace for malicious software" Can someone ELI5 what this does? Does it impact AeroSpace only, or something globally on my Mac? Thanks!

nbobko 2y ago
It impacts only AeroSpace
Vegenoid 2y ago
Without looking into the installation script to verify, based on that description, it is only deleting an 'extended attribute' of the AeroSpace app. MacOS adds this attribute automatically to programs downloaded from the web, and prevents a user from running the program while it has the attribute. I frequently need to run a command like the following before running a downloaded program, which I'm guessing is exactly what the install script does: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine some-program.app
baliex 2y ago
It only affects AeroSpace. The README links to the Homebrew install script, relevant lines highlighted here: https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/aerospace.rb#L15-L18 https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/...

maherbeg 2y ago

I'd be curious to know how it is different than Amethyst. Amethyst has gotten much more stable recently and I really enjoy using it. The text based config seems pretty nice at a first glance, but I'm not sure if it's worth switching.

Avi-D-coder 2y ago
in my experience aerospace is way better in most ways. there are a few oddities, and I need to file a couple of bug reports, but it has made macos so much more tolerable than amethyst.
- thisrod 2y ago
  > in my experience aerospace is way better in most ways. As an Amethyst user, I'm approaching this comparison from the other direction: is there one compelling reason to switch? The improvement I'd most like to see in Amethyst is more stable window placement when I remove a monitor then add it again (I do that a lot with my laptop). It would be fantastic to have integration between Amethyst-managed spaces, Firefox windows, and Proton Pass vaults. As in Space 1 knows that new windows should use the Google account in my Work vault, and Space 2 knows that new windows should log out from Google because there is no Google account in my Personal vault. I doubt that's an imminent prospect, though. In general, I prefer the Amethyst approach of extending the builtin OSX window management to the Aerospace approach of replacing it. Clearly the Amethyst developers weren't convinced that it's impossible to move windows between spaces with hotkeys, because they went ahead and implemented that. Overall, I'm really happy that these window managers are being written. I use a 42 inch monitor, which would be awkward without them.
matricaria 2y ago
You can do text based configuration in Amethyst too. https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/blob/development/docs/configuration-files.md https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/blob/development/docs/conf...
SZJX 2y ago
I've been using Amethyst so far, but I immediately liked Aerospace more. The main gripe I have with Amethyst is that it throws windows in a very sluggish and unreliable fashion. With Aerospace, windows get moved to different workspaces/monitors in a flash and the move never fails. I also like how it completely ditches MacOS built-in workspaces, which, as the author argued, is rather unsatisfactory, in favor of its own virtual workspace solution, which finally makes handling a multi-monitor setup a bearable and even somewhat enjoyable experience. Actually, in my Linux days I moved from i3 (which Aerospace is based on) to xmonad (which Amethyst is based on), but on MacOS Aerospace just feels quite better. None of the 3 WMs on MacOS comes close to what a true WM on Linux can offer, but I guess Aerospace is as good as it can get.

whartung 2y ago

For folks that use the tiling window managers, what applications are you running? And what does a typical desktop look like? In terms of desktop layout, mind I don't use one, the Oberon vision comes to mind. A single, large pane, with all(?) of the others stacked to one side. My friend didn't use a tiling window manager, but had this desktop laid out as such, but all of those windows were terminal windows that he kept an eye on (he was our ops guy). But are folks using these layouts with their web browsers, word processors, IDEs, etc.?

FranOntanaya 2y ago
I use an ultra wide screen and do both coding and video operations so I'm always having side by side layouts mixed in with tabbed windows. One typical case is navigating a file manager to grab files that I need to drag and drop on a web UI, or folder/URI slug names I need to keep copying back and forth to use on a workflow. Another is watching stdout/stderr of a running script and a log tail at the same time. Sometimes I have tabs of web, file manager and some other app on one side and a terminal on the other as terminal commands are the glue of a workflow. Or I'll be screening a video on the left and doing edits on the right. Or keeping notes open on the side during a conference call. Sometimes I'll only have one window in a virtual desktop and ultrawide is too much, so I just have an idle terminal window as padding. Not having to hunt around for windows then hunting for their edges helps when I'm constantly opening, closing and sizing terminals, file managers and so on and so forth. It simply is faster with tiles.
- whartung 2y ago
  This will sound silly, but doesn't that hurt your neck? You mention you use a ultra wide screen. I have one of the "drive in theater" iMacs, and I prefer the windows in the center. It's big enough that if things were on either side, I'd have to crane my neck to focus on either side. I'd hate to have to do that all the time. I guess if I were to do anything "tile" wize it would be two smaller columns, one on the left, and one on the right, and then the big center as the main focus.
gpxyz 2y ago
I don’t work in programming, but in arts and academia. I usually have 1 “main” window in working in and at least 1-2 more I am continually referring to, so I like to be able to quickly switch between a single fullscreen window and a 2 column view. Typical workspaces for me are Zotero + Firefox + Word (for writing and research) and Photoshop/InDesign + Finder + Firefox (for design). When I do code, I like being able to have at least 1 terminal window side-by-side with a coding LLM. I usually also have a workspace with Spotify + MacPass + Telegram open that I refer to as needed.

carabiner 2y ago

Man I hate the name. Has nothing to do with aerospace, but it does seem like a fad in software to take on some stolen valor from a far more interesting field.

nbobko 2y ago
1. The "AeroSpace" name means a space for your windows without friction 2. I myself consider the virtual emulation of workspaces to be the strongest feature of the AeroSpace. If I could disable the workspace switching animation in yabai or Amethyst (with SIP enabled, of course), I'd probably not bother myself creating AeroSpace. That's what the "space" part in the app name means. It resembles the strongest feature of AeroSpace - workspaces
- irth 2y ago
  re 2: an added benefit of not using actual macOS spaces is that it seems (at least from my limited usage) to be much more reliable than yabai (not blaming yabai here, of course). I also tried implementing an i3 like workspace numbering/creating on top of yabai - it was an uphill battle due to how limited native macOS space management is and I never finished, so thank you for creating AeroSpace :) I actually use it in tandem with yabai now - I added an "exec-on-window-hide"[0] option similar to "exec-on-workspace-change", and use it to make the hidden windows transparent (and to make them visible again)[1]. I wonder if hooks like that would be a good way to have a nice middle-ground to let people who don't care as much about SIP to extend upon AeroSpace's model? I'll probably send over a pull request for your consideration soon. [0] https://github.com/irth/AeroSpace/commit/54b48aa0edf9817031c9ecd94232e085ba65eefd https://github.com/irth/AeroSpace/commit/54b48aa0edf9817031c... [1] https://gist.github.com/irth/0bc96778c6073c756d3bb657f1bfe8b9 https://gist.github.com/irth/0bc96778c6073c756d3bb657f1bfe8b...
herewulf 2y ago
You know what really ruffles my feathers? When aerospace constantly steals names from the far more interesting field of ornithology.

randomblast 2y ago

I used i3 for a few years when my main dev machine was Linux. I too am frustrated by the macOS builtin WM's shortcomings. Initial feedback on AeroSpace though: it's utter shite. I started it when I already had my usual number (many) of windows open across my usual number of spaces (lots) on my usual number of displays (3). First it spent 30 seconds trying to give me a seizure, and when it had finished I'm left with a total mess of a layout. Some windows 30px wide. Some windows not-quite-fullscreen. Some windows just randomly floating without any kind of recognisable pattern. Now I can't navigate around because dragging a window sends it flying off to the corner of a different display. None of the default keybindings seem to do what they say they should. The focussed window disappeared entirely when I tried resize mode, and I can't find the way out of it because that was the window with the instructions. I think I'll try something else.

vehemenz 2y ago
Don't give up. I had the exact same issue when AeroSpace when I first used it, but I gave it another chance because of my constant frustrations with Amethyst. The commands do what they're supposed to, but unless you read the documentation carefully, your expectations will be different.

darksaints 2y ago

Somewhat on subject: does anybody feel like the macos-style application menu that is disconnected from the application window has outlived its welcome? I feel like apple gets so much right from a UX perspective, but in a world of multi-monitor setups and common cross application workflows, I find it absolutely bizarre that I might have to scroll across 2+ monitors to get to a dropdown menu for an application that I'm using, and sometimes still get to a dropdown menu for the wrong application.

throwaway38375 2y ago
Yes! Windows got it right IMO.
mbreese 2y ago
I like the detached menu, but mainly because it makes the application window smaller with less overall decoration. With multiple applications open, each window having menu bar decorations seems cluttered to me. I like the minimalist and consistent nature of it all. However, it does get more complicated with multiple monitors and I don’t know of the solution here. You’re right that the UX falls when you’re trying to work with menus across multiple monitors. Perhaps the right mix is doing something like the Chrome extras menu or if you’ve used VS Code on the web, where you have a small hamburger or (…) button that opens a context menu. Then you still have a menu for the application, but it’s hidden until you need it.
- eviks 2y ago
  On Windows it's more minimalist - menu is hidden right until you need it instead of always taking precious space
lloeki 2y ago
> in a world of multi-monitor setups and common cross application workflows, I find it absolutely bizarre that I might have to scroll across 2+ monitors to get to a dropdown menu for an application that I'm using These days the menubar is always on all displays, not just the main one? (unless maybe you have "Displays use separate Spaces" unchecked?)

idle_zealot 2y ago

I daily drive this and my verdict is: it's the best way to manage windows on a Mac, but falls short of i3/sway. In particular, support for re-arranging windows by dragging them to positions relative to one another is extremely limited in that it's not able to create new vertical or horizontal splits the way you can in sway, which forces me to take awkward detours with keyboard commands to get to the window layout I want most of the time. Like, say I have two windows side-by-side, and I want to split one of them vertically. In sway I'd pop open the new window, then drag it to the top or bottom half of the window I want it to share horizontal space with, and bam, all done. With aerospace the best way I've found to do this is to open the new window, then switch all three windows into a vertical stack, then focus the window that was originally on the left and invoke the 'move left' command on it.

nbobko 2y ago
If you have normalizations enabled, you don't need to "switch into a vertical stack" Given this layout: h_tiles ├── window1 (focused) ├── window2 └── window3 `move left` will produce this layout: h_tiles ├── window1 (focused) └── v_tiles ├── window2 └── window3
- idle_zealot 2y ago
  Ah, so it does. I suppose this is an instance of my mental model not having adjusted.
  - squigz 2y ago
    For what it's worth, this video from i3 really helped me visualize how i3 and related WMs deal with windows - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWA8Pl57UBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWA8Pl57UBY
j45 2y ago
Thanks, I will try it out to see if it can first solve my main problem - I'm looking for a way on Mac for it to reasonably remember the screen layouts. Every time it wakes from boots, the desktop has complete amnesia with 3 screens. Ideally I'd be able to drive my own workspaces, and it can use the laptop screen only, or 2 or 3 external monitors at different desks (work and home).

gbhdrew 2y ago

Just want to say a huge thanks to the dev(s) here, you've basically solved my major pain points with macOS window management (especially around apple's infuriatingly broken implementation of virtual desktops). This stuff has been gnawing away at my sanity for years

jackhalford 2y ago

I’m currently in using sway on fedora, I’m considering moving to macOS because of tighter integration of icloud (everything is on my iphone) and generally better polish of the OS. This is another reason to switch

ftio 2y ago

Cool YouTube video, but: my kingdom for a screenshot! Product looks amazing. I use Divvy but will definitely try out AeroSpace. Great name too.

jaimehrubiks 2y ago

Is there any documentation for very beginners on how a regular workflow would be? Like, if I have 7 windows opened, how do I start organizing them with just shortkeys? I've found option+/ to put all of them horizontally or vertically (alternating when pressing twice), but not sure how to quickly make 1 of them bigger or select just 2.

igorguerrero 2y ago

This looks so awesome I gonna dust off my mac mini. As a tiling wm user (Hyprland now) I always wonder how OSX users claim they're that productive with all those alt+tabbin' I meant cmd+tabbin'. Welcome to the 2010s guys!

vmladenov 2y ago
Can you share any resources on learning to be productive with tiling WMs? I have tried a few times and always bounce off of them. I also find window overlapping to often be more intuitive than forcing them to squeeze into a tile. I internalized the swipe gestures (3 fingers left/right) early on with OS X 10.6 snow leopard and then with the Mission Control update (3 fingers up) I am basically always faster with a trackpad than any keyboard “workspace” navigation.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
  For tiling WM's I think it's rather critical that the hotkey for "move window left" resemble the hotkey for "move focus left". I haven't tried AeroSpace yet, but so far I haven't been able to pull this off with any of the tiling apps on MacOS (if I've overlooked one please let me know). So my tip for being productive in a tiling window manager is to get a linux machine and use sway.

gigatexal 2y ago

It's like someone was thinking of me! I've been missing such things on Mac. Toying with Yabai and others. Love seeing work in this space.

peauc 2y ago

Yabai was not working for me, Aerospace worked out of the box. Great tool

AceJohnny2 2y ago

This looks very interesting. However, how do I create a new container, to put a subset of windows in? It's not clear to me from the example configs, either default or i3-inspired. I've never used i3, though I did use AwesomeWM extensively about a decade ago. Edit: ah, the `join-with` command which is a superset of the `split` command. In the default config, alt-shift-semicolon to enter Service mode, then alt-shift-h/j/k/l for neighbor selection.

danielfrg 2y ago

I have been using Yabai for almost 1 year now. I had learned to live with the transition between workspaces because I cant disable SIP. I just tried this. I love it. No SPI and no transitions, just fast switching of apps. I will probably switch to this. Thank you for your work!!

AceJohnny2 2y ago

Is it possible to display the current layout tree (of the current workspace)? As I'm learning to use this, I'm having trouble conceptualizing how my windows are organized in the tree, and how I'm affecting it.

filereaper 2y ago

I use AutoFocus which gives focus-follows-mouse with AeroSpace and its a good enough replacement for i3wm. Extremely thankful for both projects. https://github.com/synappser/AutoFocus https://github.com/synappser/AutoFocus

i-am-a-fnord 2y ago
There's also https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise which is open source. AutoFocus seems like a proprietary clone in beta that will eventually become paid.
- filereaper 2y ago
  Oh awesome, thank you for suggesting this. Will swap out AutoFocus for AutoRaise.

sleight42 2y ago

Apple needs to aquihire you immediately.

wmstack 2y ago

I have gotten somewhat used to Raycast's window management tools, and it is not really possible to use them with AeroSpace. For example, with Raycast I can resize and float a window using "reasonable size" option, which also puts it in the middle. I can use left half and right half to create a split, or I can maximise a window or even use quarters or thirds. With AeroSpace, trrying to move the windows in the tiles using left half, right half, or left two thirds or using reasonable size to float the windows, it doesn't work. Also, there are bugs associated with moving apps to "next desktop" and "previous desktop". AeroSpace seems to have its own implementation of Mac's multiple desktops called workspaces, so the video guide actually doesn't show transitioning between different desktops, but different workspaces. As a result, using "next desktop" and "previous desktop" completely breaks the tiling. I would've liked Workspaces to just be associated directly with the different Mac desktops so that the movement between workspaces just moves to the different desktops so there is some compatibility with Raycast and native MacOS.

dmix 2y ago
Raycast is so good I think it’s going to become a standard app on Macs for powerusers in the future I really need to deepdive into it because it does so much useful stuff. I use the Linear.app integration the most.

333c 2y ago

I started using this at work about a week ago. Still getting used to it, but it feels nice for managing multiple displays. Sometimes it feels limiting, but I think I'm just getting used to it.

primaprashant 2y ago

I use yabai and my favorite feature is being able to switch between mostly recently used spaces with a shortcut. It allows me to quickly alter between editor and terminal spaces, or editor and browser, or two browser windows. This feature alone boosts my productivity so much and makes it fun to use my machine. But it required disabling SIP which I can't do on my work machine. Does anybody know if AeroSpace can do this?

primaprashant 2y ago
Looks like it can using the `workspace-back-and-forth`[1] command. I'm gonna try it. [1]: https://nikitabobko.github.io/AeroSpace/commands#workspace-back-and-forth https://nikitabobko.github.io/AeroSpace/commands#workspace-b...

SubiculumCode 2y ago

I have yet to try a tiling windows manager...but Im this close. I can't stand always trying to find the effing window under a pile of shit.

tomphoolery 2y ago

How does this compare to tools like Yabai? I'm pretty happy with Yabai and SketchyBar, is this any easier to use?

Jaywalker9988 2y ago

Nice!! I'm going to have to play with this. Now what I really want to see, and I'm surprised doesn't exist, is an addon for or replacement to Spotlight that works like dmenu in that I can write scripts which use it for input like: printf 'one\ntwo\nthree' | dmenu -l 3 -p "Which one? " I use that in so many scripts on my main machines and would love to share them with macOS folks. I'm really surprised its not in something like Alfred. Maybe it exits and I don't know about it?? If not, maybe someone will add it to this open source Spotlight replacement I found: https://github.com/techrisdev/Snap https://github.com/techrisdev/Snap

irth 2y ago
There's a clone of dmenu - https://github.com/oNaiPs/dmenu-mac https://github.com/oNaiPs/dmenu-mac, but it doesn't integrate with Spotlight or similar.
- Jaywalker9988 2y ago
  Yeah, Ive seen that, but it would be a hard sell getting macOS guys to run that and replace the spotlight keybind with that entirely. I tend to agree with them too.. I just would like to see Spotlight have the ability to do dmenu scripting stuff. There's no reason it couldn't except lack of vision. I honestly think Apple would be half keen to do it themselves, they just probably haven't seen the idea to steal it yet
  - irth 2y ago
    I implemented something like this as a Raycast extension[0]. Demo attached[1]. [0] https://github.com/irth/dmenu_raycast https://github.com/irth/dmenu_raycast [1] https://akko-cdn.hackrc.dev/media/e34cdc7683fece5260124ef47cb0ad427a118428771ce0ec2f1d870f86670a4a.mp4 https://akko-cdn.hackrc.dev/media/e34cdc7683fece5260124ef47c...
    - Jaywalker9988 2y ago
      Amazing!! I had never heard of Raycast! I'll be checking this out first thing in the morning! Thank you!

SZJX 2y ago

This is great! I've been using Amethyst so far, but I immediately liked Aerospace more. The main gripe I have with Amethyst is that it throws windows in a very sluggish and unreliable fashion. With Aerospace, windows get moved to different workspaces/monitors in a flash and the move never fails. I also like how it completely ditches MacOS built-in workspaces, which, as the author argued, is rather unsatisfactory, in favor of its own virtual workspace solution, which finally makes handling a multi-monitor setup a bearable and even somewhat enjoyable experience. (I couldn't use yabai on my work computer as it requires disabling SIP, which the author of Aerospace explicitly argues against, which I find reasonable.) Actually, in my Linux days I moved from i3 (which Aerospace is based on) to xmonad (which Amethyst is based on), but on MacOS Aerospace just feels quite better. None of the 3 WMs on MacOS comes close to what a true WM on Linux can offer, but I guess Aerospace is as good as it can get.

l2dy 2y ago
yabai works fine without disabling SIP. I haven't tried Aerospace yet, so can't offer a feature comparison though.

helpfulContrib 2y ago

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lonesword 2y ago

I have used both aerospace and yabai, and aerospace was far more simpler to configure. I really like it. Thank you for the great work! I had to unfortunately stop using aerospace due to some bugs. If I switch from workspace a to workspace b, sometimes aerospace keeps switching back to workspace a. It is annoying when you are trying to press the unmute button in the middle of a call but aerospace keeps taking you away from that workspace. The root cause could be that the apps that I use (internal tools) are misbehaving. I'll file a bug report if I can reproduce it on my personal mac.

deleted 2y ago

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sgt 2y ago

Cool, but I'd first have to be sold on tiling managers being a good idea in the first place. I like to imagine my desktop as well.. my physical desktop. It's got papers on it, books, it's all overlapping and I usually put the stuff I am working on in the center. That's the issue with tiling managers for me - it introduces a structure where you probably don't need it.

viranchee 2y ago

How does RCMD + Rectangle Pro compare to AeroSpace?

viranchee 2y ago

Is there a way to limit using the Right side Option key and spare the Left Option Key for the OS? The good thing about RCMD is I can specify which specific key, consuming only 1 OPT or CMD key while saving the other key for the OS shortcuts