r/linuxquestions • u/DB0Z_ • Aug 02 '26
Support Why are tiling window managers so praised?
I'm currently using kde and am loving it but online i keep on seeing people say, just get "hyprland or sway". I want to know why they are so praised compared to a normal DE and why people praise the productivity of them.
Yeah they do look clean and minimal. They do level up a system in how you can change the looks and it organizes the system by itself rather than having floating windows, but why are they "essential for every linux user?"
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u/billystein25 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
why are they essential for every linux user?
They're not. Use what you prefer. A tiling window manager tiles your windows automatically which can look more organized. I personally don't like this. I prefer floating windows because I can put it exactly where I want at the size I want without my window manager trying to relocate it to fit with the other windows.
Plus at most I may work with 2 windows open at a time, so I'm never gonna take advantage of a tiling window manager automatically managing 10 windows.
11
u/D0nkeyHS Aug 02 '26
automatically
some tiling window managers are automatic, some aren't
so I'm ever gonna take advantage of a tiling window manager automatically managing 10 windows.
You're imaging that 10 windows on a screen at once is the typical experience?!?
16
u/Miserable-Decision81 Aug 02 '26
I would have 10 on 2 displays for programming and audio production.
For admin work there could be more with 10 terminals alone in more complex scenarios...
1
u/ProfessionalMove3716 Aug 02 '26
You can make tabbed windows in i3. Makes it much easier to leave up multiple windows on a single desktop.
-9
u/D0nkeyHS Aug 02 '26
typical
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u/Miserable-Decision81 Aug 02 '26
Well, yeah. Thats typical for me.
Its productive work, music, software, writing etc
2
u/JackDostoevsky Aug 02 '26
You're imaging that 10 windows on a screen at once is the typical experience?!?
i just counted the windows i have open on my desktop right now and there are 23
2
u/HeavyMetalBluegrass Aug 03 '26
23 applications or 23 browser tabs.?
1
u/JackDostoevsky Aug 03 '26
windows (or 'clients' if you prefer wayland terminology)
18 different applications (multiple browser windows)
30 browser tabs
0
u/D0nkeyHS Aug 02 '26
I don't know what you're imaging I said, but I said the typical experience. That does not imply anything where your anecdote is relevant.
2
14
u/ismavoiwuascht Aug 02 '26
who said they are essential for every linux user? The majority of users stick with a classical DE like KDE or GNOME, window managers are popular among power users seeking configurability and customisation. If you like KDE then use it, doesn’t matter what people on reddit are saying.
1
u/AnymooseProphet Aug 02 '26
Many power users don't want tiled window managers. I like to put windows where I want them and what size I want them and don't give a damn about them overlapping because at the bottom of my screen, I can select which desktop to use and which window on that desktop to use.
When my desktop looks too neat, it's actually hardware for me to work. Be it my computer desktop or my physical desktop that my monitors sit on.
1
u/XLBilly Aug 03 '26
I agree, I like flicking between usefully sized windows stacked on top of eachother not making both a fixed potentially awkward size.
50/50 or 50/25/25 is about the ceiling of my tiling requirement and kde does that natively.
That and most terminal editors let you split within them so the primary use of having multiple terminals open is solved within that all with tabs and splits.
It looks cool if you’re into hentai and Japanese lofi but I don’t find it a productivity accelerator at all.
10
u/Suspicious-Bet1166 Aug 02 '26
no they are not essential, i think most ppl just like that you don't have to fidle with windows you just open it and it is there with enought space and it does not overlap only if you want it to, i use i3 atm and i have made tiny little scripts to make my workflow better even if what i do all day long is just reading comics XD
it's the safe space after all the scarry windows and mac thing it's something new and safe that ppl can tinker with and get more familiar with their system and after some time it just get's nice and confortable i don't think i will go back to any floating window desktop and stuff in the near future, yes they have nice things built in and stuff but i like using bluetooth from the terminal and not opening up the taskbar thing to connect, when i go back to windows it's just annoying that i can not use .... it does not matter
ppl like to tinker with stuff and it is something new they can try out i think thats it
some ppl just use tmux and a tty if they don't need/want a gui
4
u/ProfessionalMove3716 Aug 02 '26
Let's disambiguate to begin with: a DE contains a wider suite of applications, while a WM just manages windows.
I have never used hyprland or sway, but I have used bspwm and i3. I tested out tiling managers after using OpenBox/BlackBox for many years because I wanted a minimal environment, especially on anemic hardware.
I found that the tiling managers (my favorite of which being i3) were much better suited to small laptop screens since I was primarily working on modified Chromebooks. That said, I also tried them on my super-ultrawide and tiling worked spectactularly; my favorite configuration is having the monitor evenly divided between 3 horizontal windows, one of which will be tabbed.
I recently installed CrunchBang++ on a laptop just to set something up quick and it has OpenBox as the default VM, and let me tell you: I am missing the tiling functionality. It really slows down my workflow that I can't easily place more than two windows on a screen and have them organized in a usable way. I have to manually do so in OpenBox. I'm considering installing i3 on this machine just to ameliorate that (or just replace CB++ with Arch like I should have from the beginning).
5
u/Gr1m3yjr Aug 02 '26
They aren’t necessarily better. They have a learning curve which, especially if you’re used to the ideas behind them already, can make keyboard only workflows a lot better. For someone who is, for example, programming all day, it can be nice not having to switch to your mouse and still easily flip between things. But at the end of the day, it’s what you prefer. There’s probably a reason why tiling wms are still niche, even if they are great for some things
3
u/ChickenNuggetSmth Aug 02 '26
It works really well with a keyboard-based workflow. Also for me it's easier to keep windows organized well on virtual desktops: A floating window manager often leads to me opening many windows on the same desktop and then scrolling through them. Tiling means I can immediately see where all windows are, navigate more quickly to wherever I want to be and also be somewhat intentional about what I keep on a desktop.
Being forced into using multiple virtual desktops with limited windows per desktop is great to limit my messiness.
3
u/jr735 Aug 02 '26
They're not essential. I use IceWM, more of a hybrid system that works with a lot more keyboard shortcuts, but without abandoning the floating system at all.
u/Hrafna55 sums it up nicely about keyboard shortcuts. My view is that you're not going to be productive or adept at a computer if the keyboard is your enemy.
3
u/random_cat_owner Aug 02 '26
saying you enjoy something is not the same as saying it is essential and other people should use it
i love niri and will tell that to anybody who will listen. moving to a tiling wm was like leveling up my linux experience. but by no means is it essential.
5
u/indvs3 Aug 02 '26
Tiling window managers are popular because they are relatively low on resource consumption and once you're used to them, very efficient in dealing with multiple windows on multiple workspaces. In my opinion, the fact that they look cool and flashy because they're customisable is almost entirely irrelevant.
2
u/StickyDirtyKeyboard Aug 02 '26
They're praised much for the same reasons that (Neo)vim and Linux are praised. No, it's absolutely not for everyone, but the people who use it are passionate about it.
I wouldn't recommend a tiling WM for anyone who isn't comfortable with using the terminal and familiar with vim keybinds.
It's not "essential for every Linux user," and anyone who says so probably just started using a tiling WM for the first time, likely with a config they didn't write themselves. They don't know what they're talking about.
2
u/RedWagon___ Aug 02 '26
I think they can become essential to your workflow, similar to how people get hooked on vim keybindings. I have learned to operate in a tiling window manager in such a way that makes me feel handicapped on a Windows PC. It's not essential to everyone, but I've come to depend on it in a way that feels essential to me.
0
Aug 06 '26
1
u/DB0Z_ Aug 06 '26
Floating windows can be clunky yes, I wouldn’t call them useless and a mistake though.
1
u/theTechRun Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Not “essential for every Linux user” but VERY essential for ME. My path was i3 to sway to scroll. I absolutely loathe any desktop experience with floating windows. For me every window should open where I expect it to and not overlap each other. And workspaces should be monitor independent (not have multiple monitors share the same workspace). I have a keyboard heavy workflow with scripting and scratchpads. No shortcut icons. I can get to any program (already open or launching) I use by keyboard shortcuts or my tui launcher. My setup is very minimalist. There’s no endless menus or desktop settings. Anything under the hood just gets edited via my tui text editor since I am on NixOS. So I don’t need a DE with its suite of tools and applications.
I setup my i3 and i3blocks config many many years ago and have only had to tweak it here and there ever since. And it worked exactly the same across many distros back when I use to distro hop a lot… and then when I switched to sway… still worked the same. I was completely satisfied with that until scrolling managers came and changed the game. I thought it was all hype at first, but it’s actually amazing on my ultra wide.
I should also mention that I live in the terminal and the only gui app I use most of the time is Firefox.
Also, I have never had an update bork anything. Most likely because it’s very low resource and doesn’t have a ton of features and extensions going on under the hood that could break.
2
u/FastBodybuilder8248 Aug 02 '26
I think people are very excited about scrolling window managers, because they really make using your computer better for a lot of people.
Tiling window managers are just very aesthetic.
3
u/K4milLeg1t Aug 02 '26
Superiority complex? A lot of people would say that DEs are for the normies (therefore bad), because they require less tech knowledge. It doesn't matter in any way, because what really matters is how often do you need to tweak your config, ie. do you use your computer to work or do you work to use your computer? I like Linux Mint or Manjaro with XFCE, because for me everything out of the box and I don't need to care about my setup.
1
u/Sert1991 Aug 08 '26
There's a fad about them, especially hyprland, niri etc etc at the moment.
I'm an Xorg user cause I don't like wayland, and been using KDE for nearly 20 years cause whenever I tried something else nothing looks as good.
I tried hyprland because someone wanted help so I installed it and ended up playing around with it for some fun and used it for some days.
It's nice, it's good, but also couldn't understand the hype. Especially when everyone is talking about eye candy and animations.The animations it has are basic stuff that major DEs had over a decade ago.
They don't come anywhere close near Plasma when it comes to eyecandy and animations. So people exaggerate sometimes.
But it's nice. If I had to jump ship from KDE, I might consider jumping to hyprland. Especially if Xorg completely dies, these compositors offer the closest thing flexibility wise.
2
u/Loud_Signal_6259 Aug 02 '26
They're not essential,.that's just plain wrong. Most likely the vast majority of Linux users aren't using them.
2
u/chilichiller Aug 02 '26
Tiling WMs offer a very different workflow. You can operate the system without using the mouse, which makes it somehow more streamlined when working a lot with the keyboard.
Some application that are mouse/GUI heavy require some extra config to make them useable. So it is a trade off.
Just try it out and make you own judgement. For me i3 was the window manager that I sticked with, but your milage might vary.
1
u/Silent_Bite_5892 Aug 06 '26
They help people who work quickly on a lot of different things move around without using a mouse or taking their hands off the keyboard.
They work well on REALLY old or underpowered computers. They use less battery in laptops. They can help some people focus.
It's basically just a minimalist UI that can be easily managed with the keyboard instead of the mouse.
They are absolutely NOT essential for every Linux user. Most Linux users aren't using them in 2026, believe me. But, if the qualities above appeal to you, it might be worth looking into.
But peer pressure from elitist gatekeeping nerds is exactly the WRONG reason to use one (or to do anything, really)
Also, running one because it "looks cool" and you want to take screenshots and pretend to be a L337 H4X0R is also a really dumb reason.
1
u/Metasystem85 Aug 03 '26
I use til for 15 years... You don't have to think to organize window, don't need to use mouse... tabbed windows are more interesting (as tabbed terminal emulator). They are less memory usage than plasma or gnome... In fact I think, majority of float users just just one window per screen (fullscreen or widowed) with alt-tab switch. In til you just open new window, use it, close without changing anything in your organization, you can open a browser to make search with terminal in splitted mode. many things in micro-movement are change from mouse to keyboard and eye-movement. when you use for years, you can't come back.
1
u/Impressive_Bag_3505 Aug 03 '26
They are not essential at all. If you happy with KDE, stick with it. Personally I prefer using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse - saves my wrists. Also with any TWM you can configure everything, the look, the bars, notifications, the launchers, scripts, terminal, and of course all the keyboard shortcuts. You start with a blank minimal slate and add just what you need. It's more efficient in memory and cpu usage and if function exactly like you want. Also moving floating windows around all the time is so tiring (IMO).
1
u/sidusnare Aug 02 '26
They're so fundamentally different, they get a loud devoted following that feels the need to hype it.
It's the same way with dvorak users and vegans.
What works best for you is what's best for you. I would strongly recommend trying it for a little while to see if it is better for you. If not, chuck it and go back to what your used to, but at least you know now. It's like making kids try new food, you never know if you don't try it, and it just being what you're used to is a poor metric for better.
1
u/zoharel Aug 03 '26
Well, I suppose that one way to solve the numerous problems in the average graphical interface is to just remove most of it. There's something to be said for simplicity and efficiency, I guess. Though, let's be honest, it's a trend. They're popular simply because the buzz around them reached a certain critical mass and that has been enough to hold interest for a while now. Yes, that's a lot like saying they're popular because they're popular, but I think that really is how trends work
1
u/oldbeardedtech Aug 02 '26
Been in the linux community for decades and never heard anyone say tiling WMs are "essential for every linux user".
It's just preference. If you prefer a keyboard centric workflow, you are likely to have a better experience with a tiling WM. If you prefer a mouse centric workflow, you are likely to have a better experience with a conventional DE. Obviously neither are set in stone.
Just like DEs, WMs vary wildly and you may hate one and love another. Only way to know is to try some out
1
u/shmcg Aug 02 '26
I like tiling window managers because my computer use is either browser and terminal or games which are full screen. I end up moving my floating windows into a split of the browser and terminal anyway. I also like being able to hop from desktop to desktop and have easily arranged windows there. I know desktops are a thing on floating WMs too, but my brain just works with tiling and it is just easier for me. I would never recommend a tiling window manager to my spouse or parents.
1
u/person1873 Aug 03 '26
i have used TWM's in the past and they do make the experience an extension of yourself once you have them configured and into muscle memory.
they pair really well with programmable keyboards and allow you to spend less time reaching for the mouse.
that said, i just use cinnamon at the moment. TWM's tend to force windows into aspect ratios they werent necessarilly designed for which can cause some interesting problems. they're not hard to resolve, but its just extra friction.
1
u/someblokeonhere Aug 03 '26
I think younger generations have been so entrenched with this kind of thinking from mobile devices dominating.
It was the most sought after thing throughout the entire 1980s; overlapping, resizable windows. And for good reason, because it's the most flexible and usable way to use a WIMP GUI environment. It follows decades of usability and interaction design research.
The fact Windows 2.0 could only tile windows was and is a joke.
Yet oddly we're back there again....
1
u/Joe-Arizona Aug 02 '26
I used Hyprland on Arch for about 3 years. They can be extremely efficient, especially when programming and with vim key bindings. Only time I had trouble was with gaming typically.
That said, I moved to Gnome on Fedora and set up the key binds to be essentially the same. I navigate and open windows just as fast.
I don’t think everyone needs them but they can be excellent depending on your use case. If I absolutely lived in the terminal they’d be irreplaceable.
1
u/ThankThePhoenicians_ Aug 02 '26
I don't like traditional tilers. I hate that when I open a new window, the sizes of my existing windows are liable to change. BUT I fell in love with niri, which is a SCROLLING tiling windoer manager, because it opens new windows in an infinitely long scrolling strip! Combine that with arbitrarily many workspaces stacked vertically, and it's the most intuitive desktop interface I've ever seen and I never want to use anything else. I really want it on my phone
1
u/ropid Aug 02 '26
I feel you will not fully understand why people like them until you try them yourself.
They aren't essential so don't worry about that. They are just different. I went back to XFCE and Gnome and KDE after years of using i3 and it's fine, a normal DE is good enough for me, but I picked up some ideas about how to use a desktop from my tiling WM experience. I've set up my own keyboard shortcuts and such on Gnome, KDE etc., installed some Gnome extensions or kwin scripts to add features I was missing.
1
u/CBSmitty2010 Aug 03 '26
Not essential. But I used awesomewm and am now using KDE and I can say I had an amazing experience with awesome. Granted I'm a vim user so finding ways to do things without my hands leaving keyboard is kinda up my alley, but I loved it. I could navigate just so much quicker. Had 6 workspaces by default and it was highly customizeable.
The most annoying part was trying to setup little Bluetooth and wifi widgets honestly. Other than that it was fantastic.
1
u/JackDostoevsky Aug 02 '26
i like tiling managers for my laptop (i use hyprland) because it has one screen and a mediocre pointing device (trackpad). makes the keyboard-driven nature of it pretty convenient for the single screen.
but on my desktop, with multiple monitors and a proper mouse, it's way easier to manage floating windows, and independent workspaces on different monitors (as is the default in sway) quickly turns awkward
1
u/LeN3rd Aug 02 '26
I just love that i can open terminals next to each other, and one desktop for one thing ( 1 is for terminals, 2 gor coding, 3 for web browsing), and nothing is obscured or behind other things. I just have more overview and get where i want quicker. Thqt being said, if you dont want or need that, just use KDE. Its great, and i have it on my couch pc i am using for entertainment, not for work.
1
u/JuliusFIN Aug 04 '26
I’ve used TWM’s for years and vastly prefer it to a normal DE. I definitely don’t think it’s something essential or that you could not work without it. Why do I like it? Because I hate dragging and resizing windows and I like to use all of my screen real-estate whenever possible. Stacking buries things. A TWM can be used with keyboard only which I like as well.
1
u/Mirec17 Aug 02 '26
They are often not practical for regular desktop use.
TWM forces small sizes of windows to fit them into desktop without overlapping, or ends up with too big window sizes and many virtual desktops.
On, QHD screen I run browsers sized around FullHD size (because majority of web is designed for this size) and communication tools floating in the same virtual desktop, corners visible to easily switch. On another virtual desktop a full screen IDE, and on another terminals.
I don't know much seasoned Linux users, who prefer tiling WM(s). Everyone Linux user I know personally uses normal WM (DE) as daily driver.
1
u/senpaikcarter Aug 03 '26
So I dont use a twm currently but I have in the past. I live in the terminal for work and I emulate it with tmux and nvim. Its really nice for me at least to not have to move my hands from the keyboard. I can just use the keyboard with hot keys to navigate. I also have an rsi so thats why moving my hands to the mouse was less than ideal during recovery.
1
u/Eccomi21 Aug 04 '26
For myself there's 2 reasons. TWMs don't usually ship a suit of preinstalled stuff like a desktop environment would, and they are usually also less resource intensive by default because of that. Its less so about tiling behavior, most TWMs also can have floating windows, it's more about having only that stuff running on my system that I truly want.
1
u/JGhostThing Aug 03 '26
They are not essential. I used Gnome for years before I experimented with Sway.
Tiling window managers have some advantages:
-
They are designed to use the screen efficiently
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They use fewer resources
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They are designed to use the keyboard, so you don't need to use the mouse as much
I do like Sway, but I'm not an evangelist for it.
1
u/0xBEEFBEEFBEEF Aug 02 '26
The thing is that once you’ve learned a tiling manager and is fully comfortable with it, nothing else compares to that experience, so you’ll find that the pro-tiling people online are very passionate about their thing. But it is a steep learning curve so it’s hard to “get” unless you force yourself to use it for a while
1
u/Emergency_Banana5082 Aug 02 '26
They don't work for me. I layer my windows so I can see certain parts but not the whole window. If I need to see the rest of that window I will bring it to the front. It's rare that I need to see the entirety of multiple windows.
Use whatever works for your flow and setup your own keyboard shortcuts for that.
1
u/vac-ation Aug 02 '26
when you need to work with too many windows at once its very useful to have a proper tilingwm setup set up on your computer that you know how to use, for everyday stuff ig it is overkill
a bonus is that you get to learn quite a lot about the system youre running while setting the tilingwms up
1
u/a3a4b5 Aug 03 '26
Because people like a novel idea or a gimmick. In a tiling manager, you can fill you screen with shit pretty nicely.
I never liked it, because I don't like big screens. So a TM is useless to me, when it's easier and neater to just use workspaces and alt+tab.
To each their own, though.
1
u/velleityfighter Aug 02 '26
For me they are essential on my PC with two monitors, using gnome or kde with dual monitors is painful, but on my laptop, I use gnome with some keyboard shortcuts and it's okay, but I don't use it heavily as my desktop, with many navigation and manipulation shortcuts and wofi scripts etc.
1
u/Beautiful_Ad_4813 Aug 02 '26
I just use Sway on lower spec machines that maybe get hamstringed by a full DE
My Dell ThinClient has been working well, too and I just use moonlight to access my higher power machines in my network
But really it’s up to the user themselves and their personal preference
1
u/nightraven3141592 Aug 02 '26
I was running ratpoison for a while when my mouse broke and I needed to save for a new one as I was broke. Today I am using a stock Fedora 44 KDE/Plasma or whatever it’s called and I am happy with it. As u/Hrafna55 said it’s probably a small but vocal group.
1
u/SuAlfons Aug 02 '26
┐( ∵ )┌ if you like them, you tell the people. If you don't, you've got nothing to tell.
I like some window snap defaults, but don't have a workflow that would benefit from an auto-tiler. So I don't use one.
1
u/Feisty-Writing4354 Sep 02 '26
I would say a majority of people like it because it looks cool and keybinds help with workflow also you can customize a TWM to be minimal so you can use more ram for something else in your workspace at least thats why i like it :)
( and also people who say a TWM is essential are wrong just use what you like and works best for you <3 )
1
u/ficskala Aug 02 '26
They're not essential at all
The biggest advantage is the fact that for workloads where you don't use a mouse much, you have a much easier time organizing your workspace without relying on moving your hand over to the mouse
1
u/realmauer01 Aug 03 '26
Its just different and people find it cool.
I seen it like twice and am not sure about it yet. It seems to be problematic with windows that should realistically be sharing a tile because they are spawning from each other.
1
u/fuzunspm Aug 03 '26
use whatever you prefer but once you use tiling wm, there is no going back then. because it's much faster and easier to use your pc, even on a small screen laptop. It feels like i have multiple monitors in the same monitor
1
u/kilkil Aug 03 '26
they're pretty niche tbh
I like them because, before I knew they existed, I was already basically doing the same thing with my windows on "normal" desktop environments. and they just make doing the same thing easier
1
u/siodhe Aug 03 '26
Because some people are weird. I hate tiled window managers. Give me FVWM and focus-follows-mouse. Anything that puts an app's menu's at the top of the monitor should be burned (I have a 65" main monitor).
1
u/Nix_Nivis Aug 02 '26
With Plasma, I believe you're already getting the best of both worlds. You can free float windows, but you can also META+<arrow_key> and easily get 4 tiles. I almost exclusively use 2, mostly left/right and I don't see how a tiling WM could improve my workflows.
(That might be different, if I had a 32:9 or otherwise large display. I can see how tiling WM can be appealing, it's just not for me.)
2
u/Complex-League3400 Aug 02 '26
TIL something super useful about that key + what happens when you press arrow keys. Not even using Plasma but the result was great. Ta!
1
u/Randolpho Aug 03 '26
Give me a DE that has decent window snapping rather than a tiling window manager any day.
So far, Plasma/KDE has the best. Almost as good as Windows 11's snapping which, sadly, is still the best.
1
u/Grand_Pop_7221 Aug 02 '26
This is a bit aside. But can my games run in a tiling WM? Do they have to run in windowed mode for them to respect the tile and have mouse capture on? Or is it something the WM can do for me?
1
u/Sea-Macaroon9814 Aug 03 '26
Mostly because of eye-candy and high level customization but i for one as a 20 year Linux veteran have always sticked with XFCE and never had liking to a tiling window manager.
2
u/NotPrepared2 Aug 02 '26
Tiling is not modern - it's Windows 1.0 before MS figured out how to do floating. It doesn't "organize by itself", it disorganizes.
2
u/picastchio Aug 02 '26
It doesn't "organize by itself", it disorganizes.
Depends on the wm. There are manual, dynamic, scrolling. Then there are river and mango where you can choose the tiling strategy.
0
1
u/PossibleProgress3316 Aug 02 '26
Hyprland is cool until they update it and you spend a weekend fixing your config file.. I used Hyprland for a few months and it was great but Im lazy and went back to gnome
1
u/bornxlo Aug 03 '26
I tried hyprland for a day or two and ended up just installing Krohnkite on KDE. I think tiling is a bit easier than dragging windows, but I still use lots of workspaces
1
u/Tutorius220763 Aug 02 '26
Its a form of tuning, like tuning on cars.
Nobody needs a lighted carburateur, but if this will be available there may be some people willing to install such a thing.
1
u/Educational-Coast266 Aug 03 '26
nothing is special about it. Just use what you know and able to configure. people who uses tiling wm is just different, and difference does not mean better.
1
u/zeroXLVVV Aug 02 '26
Nothing is essential. Just use whatever you want. They just often have cool animations and those god looking "rices". As for the productivity aspect of it, I heard that they help organize your workflow and make it optimal for yourself.
Edit: plus it's smth different from macos and windows
1
u/Amesbrutil Aug 04 '26
90% of hyprland users just use it bc it looks cleaner even if it‘s a pain to use it. They would work way more effectively by just using kde
1
u/uxgpf Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
It depends on a person using it and what they need.
Tiling window managers are great if you mostly work with the keyboard. No need to reach for the mouse.
It's like vim vs point and click editors.
Vim will be blazing fast for someone who invests time in learning it, but what's the point if you are not coding/editing files everyday?
Why would you spend days learning a text editor, when you can just use some point and click editor those two times a year that you need it.
Saying that everyone should use tiling WMs is as misguided as saying that everyone should use vim.
1
u/RandomXUsr Aug 02 '26
Because they are clean, customizable, and low on resources relative to to full DE's
It's a matter of preference.
-1
u/Headpuncher Aug 02 '26
Hype. People like and fall for hype.
Tiling managers let you use the keyboard only to use the OS. I can do that with most DEs like xfce and it’s easier to set up.
They let you create macros and resize programs etc. again, most DEs also allow this.
Does it make you look more geek to use a tiling wm? Only to people who don’t know you wasted 6000 hours setting it up, only to lose your config and have to spend another 6000 hours setting it up. To everyone else a pc is a tool to be used to do other things than setting up the pc.
lol, you aren’t a geek, you’re a time waster. Just use KDE/xfce/cinammon/etc.
1
u/FLSOC Aug 02 '26
I prefer the concept of scrolling window managers, because all your windows are in an infinite row and its very easy to switch between them. That being said, you don't need to use them at all
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u/Much_Dealer8865 Aug 03 '26
People tend to talk about things they like. If you really want to know you could try one out.
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u/roadrails Aug 02 '26
I have arthritis. I really want to be convinced that tiling window managers are better.
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u/Mr_Flandoor Aug 02 '26
essential for every linux user?
Most Linux users don't use tiling window managers.
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u/LesStrater Aug 02 '26
Not the ones on laptops. How many windows are you really going to have open on a small laptop screen...
Additionally, one of the reasons to use Linux is having multiple workspaces (desktops). I always have 5 workspaces, with 3 always committed to a browser, email client, and RSS feed. The other 2 are usually a terminal and file manager.
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u/chikamakaleyley Aug 02 '26
bro have you seen how fast i can open up 10 terminal windows
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u/allunia333 Aug 02 '26
wait you open them ? when i login to my no DE/WM , terminal only computer,
tmux has already open my 20 terminals (10 on each screen )1
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u/Mr_Razbowski Aug 02 '26
just try it once and you wont go back, its much better and easier to navigate lol
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u/Amazing_Mycologist75 Aug 02 '26
They arent essential. Dont get confused by larpers and gatekeepers or purists and let them ruin the fun you have/could have using linux the way YOU like. Its all about individualization after all!
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u/Hrafna55 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
They aren't essential. What you are probably experiencing is a group of people who are passionate about TWM and are therefore loud about it.
A huge array of keyboard shortcuts exist in every regular Linux desktop to help speed up your workflow.