I have a really bad habit of changing my DE/WM every few months, usually alternating from a full DE to a stripped down tiling WM then back to a different full DE, etc. I can't seem to settle on anything long-term, maybe because exactly what I want doesn't exist yet.

I like a full DE that works like a single cohesive chunk of software.
-BUT-
I like an interface with interchangeable parts.

I like a "pretty" UI with nice, subtle effects that have meaning and indicate what's happening.
-BUT-
I like the speed of a no-frills WM that just shows you what you need and nothing more.

I like a desktop that handles a lot of things for me and makes me think "I'm glad that took no effort on my part"
-BUT-
I like the power and flexibility to control exactly what my computer does and how it does it.

I like that I can log into a full DE and know that I can handle any task that comes my way.
-BUT-
Sometimes I know exactly what I need to do and how I need to do it, and it's tough to beat the efficiency of a plain WM that throws all the fluff aside and lets you get down to business.

I like being able to size and place windows exactly as I want them.
-BUT-
I hate that I have a bad habit of fiddling with window size and placement almost unconsciously, and a tiling window manager fricks that habit right out of me.

Why can't one DE/WM give me everything I want?

Anyway, right now I'm using i3, and I really like it. It tiles and always fills the screen, but you can drag window borders with the mouse to resize, so it scratches that itch of mine. Another handy feature is the 'scratchpad', which just hides a window and you can make it visible (as a floating window) on any workspace. I always keep a terminal, file manager, and calculator on the scratchpad so I can just pop them up anywhere with a hotkey.

What is everybody else using?

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Posted by Meauxjeaux

98836 posts including my alters

Member since Jun 2005

39857 posts

Posted on 10/8/14 at 1:38 pm to Korkstand

quote:
-BUT-
-BUT-
-BUT-
-BUT-
-BUT-
-BUT-

Are you a woman?

ETA: don't listen to me... I barely make it out of CL for kde or gnome or whatever the hell it is I have on some machine.

This post was edited on 10/8/14 at 1:40 pm

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Posted by surprisewitness

Littleton, CO

Member since Apr 2013

556 posts

Posted on 10/8/14 at 3:20 pm to Korkstand

I like simplicity, relatively low memory usage, and no fluff. I use XFCE, and before anyone says 'OMG BUT LXDE', shut up, its not fully implemented

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28703 posts

Posted on 10/8/14 at 3:34 pm to surprisewitness

quote:
I like simplicity, relatively low memory usage, and no fluff. I use XFCE

XFCE is what I switched to i3 from. I like XFCE a lot. It basically gets the hell out of your way and lets you get shite done, and I especially like the right-click and middle-click menus.

quote:
and before anyone says 'OMG BUT LXDE', shut up, its not fully implemented

So I take it you don't like basic window managers?

The learning curve is steep, and setup takes a while, but I'm finally coming around to the tiling WM mindset. This is my 4th or 5th try, so it took a while for me, but I feel like it's such a load off my mind not worrying much about window placement and sizing that the time I put in learning to navigate was well-spent.

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Posted by surprisewitness

Littleton, CO

Member since Apr 2013

556 posts

Posted on 10/8/14 at 4:04 pm to Korkstand

I spend most of my time in a terminal and when I'm not, it's in Chrome. I usually do everything from the command line. I don't use most of the features of any environment, but, when I do, I XFCE

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28703 posts

Posted on 10/8/14 at 4:31 pm to surprisewitness

quote:
I spend most of my time in a terminal and when I'm not, it's in Chrome. I usually do everything from the command line. I don't use most of the features of any environment, but, when I do, I XFCE

Honestly, you sound like a perfect candidate for a tiling WM. On my current workspace I have chrome taking up the right 2/3 of the screen, and two terminals on the left 1/3. No wasted space, navigate between windows using the keyboard.

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Posted by surprisewitness

Littleton, CO

Member since Apr 2013

556 posts

Posted on 10/8/14 at 8:38 pm to Korkstand

I have 2 terminals with multiple tabs each on my left display, while another terminal on my right display in portrait orientation with 2 tabs. Chrome is in another workspace. IMO, tiling = memory, not sure why but I am a memory conscious fool even though I am using only 1/3 of system memory with 16GB (Windows VM running). Chrome pisses me off, each tab is a process and each is taking up atleast 150MB of memory

. 8 tabs = stupid memory usage

I will at least try out a tiling WM...

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28703 posts

Posted on 10/8/14 at 9:42 pm to surprisewitness

quote:
IMO, tiling = memory, not sure why but I am a memory conscious fool

Not sure what you mean by tiling = memory. Currently, i3 is using only 1.6MB, and i3bar plus i3status (the only other parts of the wm) are using another 4.3MB. So the whole deal runs in under 6MB. Compare that to Xfce's 70+MB.

Seriously, you seem like a total tiling WM type of guy.

Edit: Just logged into Xfce on the same machine. Just xfwm4 and xfdesktop together use 46MB on this laptop. Then xfce4-panel uses 5.4MB (about the same as the entire i3 system), and xfsettingsd, -session, -power-manager, and -volumed use another 9MB. That's over 60MB already, and I'm sure I'm missing a few other odds and ends.

Edit 2: After a fresh reboot, I ran free from a console without logging into any desktop (though the login manager was running). My system uses ~715MB without logging in. After logging into Xfce, I switched back to console and free reported ~1.15GB used. I rebooted again and ran free again before logging in. Again, ~715MB used before login. This time I logged into i3, switched to console and free reports... 711MB used!

I know i3 uses something, so I'm not sure what processes shut down, but needless to say i3 doesn't use much in the way of resources. And it really shows when using it, as everything is pretty instantaneous. Even Chrome is snappier.

This post was edited on 10/8/14 at 10:01 pm

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Posted by surprisewitness

Littleton, CO

Member since Apr 2013

556 posts

Posted on 10/9/14 at 9:26 am to Korkstand

quote:
Not sure what you mean by tiling = memory

I see now, I went to their site and i3 isn't what I thought it was. It looks pretty simplistic

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Posted by LSshoe

Burrowing through a pile o MikePoop

Member since Jan 2008

4001 posts

Posted on 10/9/14 at 9:45 am to Korkstand

Honestly, I used to play around with all of the different WMs at one point and every now and then I get an itch to play some more, but for the most part lately I've been pretty vanilla. After a brief stint with Mint (cinnamon WM I believe) I'm back to plain ol Ubuntu with Unity. I've actually grown to like it alot. I have implemented a few minor tweaks to it, and there are a few more I wish I had the ability to do, but it honestly works pretty well. I like a lot of the nuances they have put in with the progress bar and contextual right click menus on the launcher, the integrated music/volume and notification controls. I'm sure plenty will disagree with me, but hey there are 1000s of choices with linux so youre free to do so.

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28703 posts

Posted on 10/9/14 at 9:52 am to LSshoe

quote:
I'm back to plain ol Ubuntu with Unity. I've actually grown to like it alot.

I think Unity's HUD is pretty fricking sweet. I'm not sure how it's done (does Ubuntu have to modify programs in order for their menu items to hook into it?), but I wish more desktops would do something similar.

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