Tiling vs Floating

[dos2unix]

I suppose this is really just a personal rant. Maybe I'm just a creature of habit, and I just use what I'm used to. I don't know.

I tend to use Windowing desktops, I like KDE, MATE, Cinnamon, LXqt, and even Budgie. But every now and then I try something else. The last week I've been using Cosmic, which pretty close to Gnome. In the past I've also tried Tilex, i-3, sway, and Soas.

How does anybody use these? Seriously... why? I use two 2k monitors on my main driver. My secondary system has a 4k monitor. That's a lot of desktop real estate. I almost always have 4 or 5 windows open at the same time. I like to "see" what's going on. I like to browse while I'm doing a system update, or copying files, or doing a backup... or whatever. I like to watch the files scroll by in the back-ground. Maybe it's an OCD thing? On a more practical level, I copy and paste between windows quite a bit. I'll have a word-processor document open on one side f my screen, and and web page, or terminal console open on the other side of my screen. I keep these side by side to make it easy.

Sometimes I have 3 windows open side by side. It's just what I'm used to. I've been doing this since my Apple II days before there even was a Microsoft. I know how how to use the tab key shortcut to switch between applications, but what a hassle. I guess you get used to it. I watch people who are pretty proficient at it. Maybe it's the cell phone mentality? To me, Gnome looks like a cell phone interface. My cell phone has a small screen compared to my PC. I get it, having one application on the screen at one time makes sense. If I had two applications open, it would too small to read

But on my desktop, I want windows... (not Microsoft) I want multiple applications open on my desktop all at once. I want to chat, select Music from a playlist, use a browser, and have a console all on the screen at the same time. I mean really, who wants a 24 inch wide browser window?
I can not stand tiling desktops, I detest Gnome. It works well, but it's not my ... "style"? It slows me down having to switch back and forth from application to application in different desktop contexts. If I get distracted for lunch, or a phone call, I can't remember where I was or what I was doing (maybe that's just called getting old). But if I have these things all open at once, side by side. I can see where I was and what I was doing.
I can paste to the destination application, while the source application is still visible on my desktop.

There.. whew, I finally said it. I finally got it all out. I feel better. I can skip the therapy session with my psychologist today! Off the soapbox until next time.

PS.
What's the matter with all you sick'os using Gnome?

In all seriousness... why do you like a tiling desktop?

 

[f33dm3bits]

What's the matter with all you sick'os using Gnome?

I like Gnome which I use at home because it's a similar way of working as with a tiling window manager without having to setup everything manually. At work I use i3wm together with xfce so I can just use the Xfce panel and applications without having to think about how to configure my panel and what applications I want to use. It's also quite useful because I have a remote vm where can only see one screen at a time.

With using i3wm I have different work spaces with different applications open and I can just quickly switch work space and then I can do the task at hand in that workspace and don't have to shift around windows and also most of the time I only have 2-3 applications open per workspace and when I open a new application it just saves me time of not having to resize the windows of two applications when I open a new application and if I need to switch between tasks I just switch to that workspace.

I find it very efficient. At home I use Gnome because I like a full modern desktop without having to setup most things manually and I still get the use of work spaces. Even though I do less multi-tasking at home, which is the reason I don't find a tiling window manager worth for at home when I am not working.

I did use Hyprland for a while at home but in the end I just missed Gnome and didn't find it a tiling window manager worth it at home since of the reason mentioned before, that being I don't do a lot of multi-tasking at home.

P.S The title should be: "tiling vs floating"

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Sometimes I have 3 windows open side by side. It's just what I'm used to. I've been doing this since my Apple II days before there even was a Microsoft. I know how how to use the tab key shortcut to switch between applications, but what a hassle.

But on my desktop, I want windows... (not Microsoft) I want multiple applications open on my desktop all at once. I want to chat, select Music from a playlist, use a browser, and have a console all on the screen at the same time.

That's why I like KDE because of virtual desktops, I have 6 virtual desktops, each for it's own window.
1st desktop is for web browser, second for terminal, 3rd for VSCode, 4th for file manager, 5th for games and 6th for VM's.

Switching virtual desktops is much more elegant than having all those windows on just one old fashioned desktop and then having to click on taskbar icons.

---

if this is not sufficient KDE also has activities, which is similar to virtual desktops except you get brand new set of virtual desktops but switching is done with keyboard shortcuts.

So with 2 activities I have 2x6 =12 virtual desktops.
On another side having 12 windows open on single desktop is just pain especially if you like to have windows maximized.

 

[f33dm3bits]

That's why I like KDE because of virtual desktops, I have 6 virtual desktops, each for it's own window.
1st desktop is for web browser, second for terminal, 3rd for VSCode, 4th for file manager, 5th for games and 6th for VM's.

This is exactly why I like tiling for work and why I like Gnome for at home.

 

[vs2-free-users]

Hi,

I use the classic i3 as a workstation for programming. Once you get used to it, it feels more performant than normal window managers.

 

[Mike-BTU]

...
I tend to use Windowing desktops, I like KDE, MATE, Cinnamon, LXqt, and even Budgie. But every now and then I try something else. The last week I've been using Cosmic, which pretty close to Gnome. In the past I've also tried Tilex, i-3, sway, and Soas.

How does anybody use these? Seriously... why? I use two 2k monitors on my main driver. My secondary system has a 4k monitor. That's a lot of desktop real estate. I almost always have 4 or 5 windows open at the same time. I like to "see" what's going on. I like to browse while I'm doing a system update, or copying files, or doing a backup... or whatever. I like to watch the files scroll by in the back-ground. Maybe it's an OCD thing? On a more practical level, I copy and paste between windows quite a bit. I'll have a word-processor document open on one side f my screen, and and web page, or terminal console open on the other side of my screen. I keep these side by side to make it easy.

Sometimes I have 3 windows open side by side. It's just what I'm used to. I've been doing this since my Apple II days before there even was a Microsoft. I know how how to use the tab key shortcut to switch between applications, but what a hassle. I guess you get used to it. I watch people who are pretty proficient at it. Maybe it's the cell phone mentality? To me, Gnome looks like a cell phone interface. My cell phone has a small screen compared to my PC. I get it, having one application on the screen at one time makes sense. If I had two applications open, it would too small to read

But on my desktop, I want windows... (not Microsoft) I want multiple applications open on my desktop all at once. I want to chat, select Music from a playlist, use a browser, and have a console all on the screen at the same time. I mean really, who wants a 24 inch wide browser window?
I can not stand tiling desktops, I detest Gnome. It works well, but it's not my ... "style"? It slows me down having to switch back and forth from application to application in different desktop contexts. If I get distracted for lunch, or a phone call, I can't remember where I was or what I was doing (maybe that's just called getting old). But if I have these things all open at once, side by side. I can see where I was and what I was doing.
I can paste to the destination application, while the source application is still visible on my desktop.

There.. whew, I finally said it. I finally got it all out. I feel better. I can skip the therapy session with my psychologist today! Off the soapbox until next time.

PS.
What's the matter with all you sick'os using Gnome?

In all seriousness... why do you like a tiling desktop?

I covet your two big monitors!

I'm a KDE Plasma man. And I pretty much work like you, several windows open at once.

It's been years since I used Gnome, so I didn't know what it is like. I didn't know that you couldn't have two windows open side-by-side in Gnome until just now!

But having two smaller monitors, sometimes I do open lesser-used apps on a separate virtual desktop or two.

EDIT: Inserted virtual in above paragraph

(And after this, I realize that I don't really know what a tiling desktop is.)

 

[kc1di]

I'm pretty much a KDE man here also. use separate virtual windows and it works for me. Can't get into gnome any longer. But did run XFCE for a long time. Just like KDE better. But as I have said in the past It's wonderful that on Linux we have plenty to choose from and to each there own.

 

[DsturbD]

I almost always have 4 or 5 windows open at the same time. I like to "see" what's going on. I like to browse while I'm doing a system update, or copying files, or doing a backup... or whatever. I like to watch the files scroll by in the back-ground.

This makes me think you would prefer a tiling WM. If you want to see everything going on, this is what they provide. Nothing is hidden behind another window. Having said that, I use Mate or Cinnamon and I don't like Gnome either, but my workflow is also not like yours so I have no problem with switching between open apps using either a task switcher or icons on a task bar. To each his own

 

[Fanboi]

I've gotta agree. I tried tiling WMs -- well i3 at least since that's the popular one -- and I can see the advantages as someone very keyboard-centric, but I do like my windows all visible. Alt+tab works fine, especially since I added a binding to one of my 12 side buttons on my mouse so it's an easy tap, point, click when copying stuff between windows for example. XFWM has some crude tiling functionality in that you can tile a window up, left, down, right, which is good enough for me on the rare occasions I use it, but they still remain floating and visible.

I'm also not a huge fan of Gnome3. I 100% agree it looks like a phone. When I first saw it, that was my reaction; My PC is not a phone.
I've been stuck on XFCE since practically forever. It began as light weight, but now it's utilitarian. I have used KDE, and if I ever did change, it's be Plasma all the way because it keeps the desktop metaphor but extends it (well, also it looks pretty and is very theme-friendly). Mainly the KDE appeal is the integration of KDE apps. That all said, I'm a boring bugger and I'll probably be using XFCE until the day I'm forced to stop.
My XFCE desktop is setup like a standard Mac desktop and it does what I want, I know where things are, and with minimal effort, it looks reasonably modern. I'll admit on my laptop I sometimes put the panel on the left-hand side because at 1366x768, real estate is limited.

My thinking on DEs is basically if it ain't broke don't fix it. But this is the world of free software and the beauty is there's something for everyone. Choice is indeed a luxury of using Linux or BSD.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I'm also not a huge fan of Gnome3. I 100% agree it looks like a phone. When I first saw it, that was my reaction; My PC is not a phone.

I thought so first too back around 2011 when Gnome3 came out but after having tried different tiling window managers. I came to realize Gnome is just a good midway between a tiling window manager and a desktop environment. Besides that Gnome3 was really bad when it first came out because it was crashing a lot, 4 years ago I gave it another chance after having tried tiling window managers and I look at it differently now because of it. My experience is a lot different from 2011, been using Gnome now since I think around 44.

 

[909mjolnir]

I'm just an amateur, but I have a rather tiny laptop screen so I regularly in Manjaro XFCE use...

1) multiple workspaces (virtual desktops)
2) window shading
3) window edge snapping
4) keyboard shortcuts to launch programs of my choice (instead of clicking icons).

With all of those, I don't need to install a tiling wm, but I did consider it.
I just don't need to be learning yet another program just to do what I already do.
A friend let me borrow their monitor for a while, and I tried that too, but my actual desk is too small for multiple monitors.

My screen size is only about 1366 x 768

 

[theLegionWithin]

KDE user here as well. I tried gnome once, didnt like it. didnt try again - I know a new version of it was released recently though... maybe I'll toss it on my testbench laptop & see how it is.

 

[MikeRocor]

I've heard the terms "tiling" and "floating" applied to window managers but not to desktop environments but perhaps I'm nit picking and we mean the same thing?

I don't use a DE per se - not kde nor gnome nor cinnamon etc. I just use a window manager - occasionally flwm or flwm-topside but usually (almost always) jwm.

jwm allows multiple "virtual desktops", only one of which is visible at a time - would that be like a "tiling desktop"? The application windows on any desktop are floating/stackable (and can be "sent" from one desktop to another or can be made "sticky" so they appear on all desktops) - so jwm is a "floating window" window manager.

To top it all off, my text editor window can be divided into arbitrarily many "virtual windows" (tiles?) and I can have arbitrarily many instances of the editor running, each in it's own floating window, and possibly running on different hosts and.. just "no"! It works flawlessly but if I get interrupted and lose track of what's where, I'm doomed.

So I guess I have a "tiled desktop" with floating windows containing a tiled text editor. Even though it all just works, my brain hurts from thinking about it. Here's a screenshot so -your- brain doesn't get too comfortable:

 

[CaffeineAddict]

jwm allows multiple "virtual desktops", only one of which is visible at a time - would that be like a "tiling desktop"?

DE or virtual desktops have nothing to do with these terms except shipping with default window manager which may be tilling or floating.

Tilling vs floating is a property of window managers.

Window manager - ArchWiki

 

[MikeRocor]

Tilling vs floating is a property of window managers.

Good - I feel much better about the whole thing now.

 

[spacebanana]

Tiling is great to prevent that any window is on top of another, making everything you have open fully visible. Once you get used to that workflow and combine it with multiple virtual screens, your productivity improves. I still prefer floating windows because they just work, only followed by a basic snapping/tiling for convenience. I also don't like how keyboard-centric window managers tend to be, even more keybinds to memorize.

 

[Fanboi]

I thought so first too back around 2011 when Gnome3 came out but after having tried different tiling window managers. I came to realize Gnome is just a good midway between a tiling window manager and a desktop environment. Besides that Gnome3 was really bad when it first came out because it was crashing a lot, 4 years ago I gave it another chance after having tried tiling window managers and I look at it differently now because of it. My experience is a lot different from 2011, been using Gnome now since I think around 44.

I suppose when transitioning to a new anything, it takes getting used to and I tend not to give change much of a chance. Back in the Windows days, I kept setting everything on XP to classic view. I'm one of those people who resists change -- probably because I like things to just work how the always do. There's a certain irony to that, since I literally transitioned to a whole new OS (but I'm glad I did, especially seeing the state of Windows today).

 

[f33dm3bits]

I suppose when transitioning to a new anything, it takes getting used to and I tend not to give change much of a chance.

I resisted Gnome3 for that reason back then, but I'm glad I gave it another chance years later after having used tiling window managers and after Gnome3 has improved a lot since it was released and is now Gnome4x.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I'm one of those people who resists change -- probably because I like things to just work how the always do.

You're not unique, many people (me too) stuck with their setup sooner or later and stop exploring further because it works.

From what I've gathered most people will embrace this or that distro, will get used to it and will get used to collection of software they like and then nothing will make them consider some known alternative except in rare cases.

Also distro hoppers are an exception but even they will eventually land on something and stop there.

 

[Fanboi]

I resisted Gnome3 for that reason back then, but I'm glad I gave it another chance years later after having used tiling window managers and after Gnome3 has improved a lot since it was released and is now Gnome4x.

Well, suppose it can't hurt next time I reinstall the Fedora VM since it's the default. Maybe my mind will be changed.

You're not unique, many people (me too) stuck with their setup sooner or later and stop exploring further because it works.

Amen!

From what I've gathered most people will embrace this or that distro, will get used to it and will get used to collection of software they like and then nothing will make them consider some known alternative except in rare cases.

In a nutshell. And when I do want software from the outside world, some kind soul has usually made an AppImage for me so it just stays in the corner and doesn't bother the rest of my machine.