Linux windows tiling manager

How to Install and Use i3 Window Manager on Linux

Written in C language, the i3wm ( i3 Windows Manager ) is a lightweight, easy-to-configure, and hugely popular tiling windows manager. Unlike the conventional desktop environment, a tiling manager provides just sufficient functionality to arrange windows on your screen in an easy and appealing manner suited for your workflow.

i3 is a minimalist tiling manager that intelligently arranges the windows on your screen in a seamless non-overlapping manner. Other tiling managers include xmonad and wmii.

In this guide, we will explain how to install and use the i3 Windows manager on Linux desktop systems.

Benefits of i3 Windows Manager

Unlike X windows managers such as Fluxbox, KWin, and enlightenment, i3 comes with a bag of goodies that we have listed below for a smooth desktop experience.

1. Resource Friendly

Unlike the fully-featured desktop environments such as GNOME, i3 windows manager is quite minimalistic and is designed for simplicity and efficiency. With low resource utilization, it makes up for a fast tiling Windows manager and leaves your system with plenty of RAM and CPU for other applications.

2. Flexibility

Apart from having the ability to automatically arrange windows in a neat and organized manner, i3 is fully configurable and you can tweak a few settings to match your preferred screen layout. Using external tools, you can enhance the appearance by selecting the background image, adjusting the transparency and window fading effect, and enabling desktop notifications.

3. Easy to Navigate Between Workspaces

The i3 tiling manager provides an easy and quick way to switch between workspaces thanks to a wide array of keyboard shortcuts that you can easily configure. You can seamlessly group Windows to suit your workflow, which enhances your productivity.

Installing i3 Window Manager on Linux

The i3 tiling manager is available in Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint repositories and can be installed using the apt package manager as follows.

$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install i3

On Fedora distribution, you can install i3 using dnf package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt update $ sudo dnf install i3

Once installed, you will need to restart your system and click on the small gear wheel at the login window and select the ‘i3’ option as shown.

Once logged in, you will be prompted to either generate the config file which will be saved in your home directory ~/.config/i3/config, or use the defaults which will save the file in the /etc/i3 directory.

In this guide, we will go with the first option so we are going to hit ENTER to place the configuration file in our home directory.

Next, you will be required to define the i3 wm modifier key also known as the $mod key which can either be the Windows Logo key or the Alt Key. Use the arrow up or down keys to select your preferred modifier key.

Once you are done with the initial setup. There isn’t much to do with the default i3 window, it saves as a blank screen with a status bar at the very bottom of the screen.

How to Use i3 Window Manager in Linux

Having installed the i3 tiling manager, here are a few keyboard combinations that you can use to get off the ground and use the tiling manager with ease.

Launch a terminal: $mod + ENTER .

Launching application using the menu: $mod + d – This opens up a menu at the top of your screen that allows you to search a specific application by typing a keyword at the text field provided.

• Enter a fullscreen mode – on and off: $mod + f .
• Exiting an application window; $mod + Shift + q .
• Restarting i3: $mod + Shift + r .
• Exiting i3 windows manager: $mod + Shift + e .

Manipulating Windows

When launching applications, they are usually tiles as shown below. Obviously, the workspace looks so cramped with multiple tiled windows and makes you feel overwhelmed.

For a better experience, you can detach a window and bring it into the foreground to have a ‘floating’ experience. This can be achieved by pressing the $mod + Shift + Space combination.

In the example below, the terminal window is seen in the foreground instead of being tiled.

Additionally, you can make the window go fullscreen by hitting the $mod + f combination and repeating the same to revert to the tiling mode.

i3 Status Bar

This is one of the most important yet overlooked section of the i3 tiling manager. It displays information such as the available disk space, IP address & bandwidth rate, Battery level, date, and time.

i3 Basic Configurations

If you didn’t generate the configuration file in your home directory, you can find it in the /etc/i3/config path. To copy it to your home directory

$ sudo cp /etc/i3/config ~/.config/i3

Then change the ownership to your user

$ sudo chown user:group ~/.config/i3

The configuration file comes with numerous settings that you can tweak to your preference to alter the look and feel of the tiling manager. You can change the colors of workspaces, change the layout of windows, as well as resize windows. We will not dwell so much on that or now. The aim of this guide was to give you a decent introduction to the i3 tiling manager and the basic functionalities to get you started.

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Comparison of tiling window managers

This article provides an unbiased comparison of the most popular tiling window managers (as opposed to floating window managers).

Comparison table

The following table lists the most popular tiling window managers alongside notable features, providing readers with a quick overview.

Window Manager	Written in	Configured with	Management style	System tray support	On-the-fly reload	Information bars	Compositing	Default layouts	Pixel usage	External control	Library	Multiple (n) monitor behavior	ICCCM/EWMH compliant	Maintenance
Awesome	C	Lua	Dynamic	Built-in	Yes	Built-in, images and text	External	max, nh-stack (and invert), nv-stack (and invert), free	Variable borders, optional h-tab titles	dbus (if enabled)	XCB	n-tags (workspaces). Per default 9 are enabled. Example	Yes	Active
bspwm	C	Anything	Hybrid	None	Yes	Can write internal state to a FIFO	External	v-split, h-split	Variable borders	via bspc	XCB	Monitors hold Desktops	Yes	Active
dwm	C	C (recompile)	Dynamic	Optional Patch	Optional	Built-in, reads from root window name	External	v-stack, max	via dwmfifo	Xlib	n regions, 9 workspaces fixed to each region	No	Active
FrankenWM	C	C (recompile)	Dynamic	None	No	No, outputs information to stdout, which can easily be parsed and displayed by an external monitor or panel (dzen2, conky, etc)	External	v-stack (and invert), h-stack (and invert), dual-v/h-stack, grid, fibonacci (vh-stack), rows, columns, max, free	Variable borders	XCB	No	Active
herbstluftwm	C++	Anything	Manual	None	Yes	External	vertical, horizontal, grid, max, tabbed	1-pix borders	commands via herbstclient	Xlib	n regions, 9 workspaces visible in any region	Yes	Active
i3	C	Text	Manual	i3bar	Yes (Layout is preserved)	text piped to i3bar ( i3status / conky and others can be used)	External	tree, v-split, h-split, stacked, tabbed, max, can be nested infinitely	None, 1-pix or 2-pix, optional titlebars, can hide edge borders	commands via ipc (or i3-msg, which uses ipc)	XCB	n regions	Yes	Active
LeftWM	Rust	RON (user settings) / Anything (themes)	Dynamic	None	Yes	Yes, many options through theme system	External	v-stack, columns, rows	Variable based on theme	supports _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW and sending commands to a named pipe	Xlib	Workspaces and monitors are not tied. Many workspaces for monitor or many monitors for workspace	Yes	Active
Notion	C, Lua	Lua, compatible with Ion3 configs	Manual	trayion, stalonetray	Yes	configurable	?	h-tab, max	Configurable borders and titlebars/tabs	EWMH, arbitrary Lua scripts which have access to the rich internal API	Xlib	n workspaces on each monitor. Supports on-the-fly changes in topology	Active
qtile	Python	Python	Dynamic	Yes	Yes	Yes	External	tree, v-split, h-split, stacked, tabbed, max	No borders, although customizable	Hooks, Server mode	XCB	Active
Ratpoison	C	Text	Manual	None	Yes	Yes	External	max	No	Active
Snapwm	C	Reloadable Text	Dynamic	None	Yes	Built-in, reads from root window name	External	nVertical, Fullscreen, nHorizontal, Grid, Center Stacking	Variable borders, no titles	Xlib	Number of desktops distributed evenly between monitors	Active
Spectrwm	C	Text	Dynamic	None	Yes	Built-in, reads from user script	No	nv-stack, nh-stack, max	1-pix borders, no titles	XCB	n regions, 10 workspaces visible in any region	No	Active
Stumpwm	Common Lisp	Common Lisp	Manual	StumpTray	Yes	Yes	External	max	SLIME server («Swank»)	Xlib	No	Active
xmonad	Haskell	Haskell	Dynamic	None	Yes	No	Yes, with xmonad-contrib and an external manager	nv-stack, nh-stack, max	Variable borders, no titles	via XMonad-Hooks-ServerMode	Xlib	n regions, 9 workspaces visible in any region	Yes / via XMonad-Hooks-EwmhDesktops	Active
Window Manager	Written in	Configured with	Management style	System tray support	On-the-fly reload	Information bars	Compositing	Default layouts	Pixel usage	External control	Library	Multiple (n) monitor behavior	ICCCM/EWMH compliant	Maintenance

Tip: External control can also be achieved by programs like xdotool which simulate keystrokes.

Management style

Dynamic management emphasizes automatic management of window layouts for speed and simplicity. Manual management emphasizes manual adjustment of layout and sizing with potentially more precise control, at the cost of more time spent moving and sizing windows.

Layouts

A number of common layout types appear in several tiling WMs, although the terminology varies somewhat.

• max: one window shown fullscreen (with or without a status bar, title and borders). Aka: monocle (dwm, monsterwm).
• h-stack: master area in top half, other windows stack up horizontally in the bottom half. The master area may be resizable. May be inverted top-bottom (wmfs). Aka: bottom stack (dwm), bstack(monsterwm).
• v-stack: master area in left half, other windows stack up vertically in the right half. The master area may be resizable. May be inverted left-right (wmfs). Aka: tile (dwm, monsterwm).
• nh-stack: h-stack allowing >=1 windows in master area. Aka: nbstack (dwm)
• nv-stack: v-stack allowing >=1 windows in master area. Aka: ntile (dwm)
• mirror-h: nh-stack with stacks above and below the master area
• mirror-v: nv-stack with stacks to the left and right of the master area
• h-tab: one window shown fullscreen with all window titles shown horizontally (like browser tabs)
• v-tab: one window shown fullscreen with all window titles shown vertically. Aka: stack (wmii).
• h-split: a keybinding splits the current window horizontally creating space for another
• v-split: a keybinding splits the current window vertically creating space for another
• columns: manual layout style which treats windows as belonging to vertical columns
• rows: manual layout style which treats windows as belonging to horizontal rows
• grid: window positions and sizes based on a regular NxM grid. May be automatic (like wmfs, monsterwm) or manual (like Subtle).

Key bindings

Tiling window managers are usually designed to be used entirely with the keyboard or with keyboard & mouse. This is for speed (reaching for and moving a mouse is slow) and ease of use. Sensible key bindings are crucial to making workflow fast and efficient. Some default sets are better than others, but generally the keys can be rebound as desired by the user.

See also

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