 When it comes to window managers, I've pretty much to use all the main ones. Like I've used Xmonad. I've used Qtile I've used DWM. I've used HrypsluftWM. I've used awesome. I've used Qtile. I'm I've used I3 obviously I've used You name it. I've pretty much to use all the main ones. I've used BSPWM You get that idea, right? I could sit here all day and list all the window managers that I've ever tried and While I've never spent a lot of time in some of them Like I've never spent a ton of time in Xmonad Mostly I've spent like a week there and learned that I really hate Haskell and decided to move on I haven't spent a lot of time in HerpsluftWM because it's just not my type of thing The point is is that I've used a lot of window managers. I've lived in some of them and Over the course of the last two or three years since I've started using tiling window managers I've moved between favorites. So as is typical of me. I find something that I really like I like it for a little while. I get the itch to try something new. I move on to something new I either like it and use it for a while or I don't like it and I go back to the other thing Very flaky when it comes to the things that I use. I understand that but The one constant over the last two or three years however long it's been since I started using tiling window managers The one constant has been I3 window manager now I3 window manager has a Reputation of being for new users only like if you use I3 you kind of have a reputation for or You can't you're kind of sullied with the idea that you are a noob or you don't know much about Linux or you don't know much About tiling window managers you're only using I3 because it's easy to use You know that's kind of the reputation that it has it's because it's easy to use for new users Therefore everyone who uses it must be a new user and it's not true like it's not true at all I know a lot of people who are much more knowledgeable about Linux than I ever will be that use I3 as their default window manager It's just Honestly the truth you don't have to be a new user to use I3 it doesn't mean you can be a new user You I3 is very welcoming to new users. It has fantastic documentation. I mean like top-notch Documentation is like so good the only other window manager that I've ever found that has Documentation that is as good or better than I3 and that is Q-tile That Q-tile is like the only one that has as good a documentation as I3 does and it's close like they're Top tier both of them. So as I said I3 has been a constant for me over the last two or three years It's been the window manager that I constantly return to the only other window manager that I've used as much as I3 it has been DWM like DWM has been one that I've kind of always had in the periphery, but DWM is also kind of a pain in the butt because you always have to patch it all the time in order to get it to work Properly and there are some features that I just can't get into or can't get it to work or something like that So DWM there's always just that one or two things that just don't really work for me I3 while it's not perfect is or at least has been the best for my workflow Overall for the last two or three years and that's the reason why I keep coming back to it It has almost every feature that I could possibly want two of the best ones obviously are Scratchpad integration. It's not the best scratchpad integration DWM's is better But at least it's there and if you set it up properly, it's not bad at all And the other feature is the ability to have key bindings for every workspace that you create. So if you Are like me and you use a ton of workspaces You can then create a key binding for everything one of them and that is just fantastic It's the best thing ever as far as I'm concerned So those two things alone mean that I3 kind of keeps drawing me back because there aren't a ton of window managers out There that allow you to do both of those things right out of the box Usually you can hack up a solution in order to actually get those things there But they're not easy to set up just like you would be able to do on I3 Outside of those two things I find I3 almost infinitely customizable because really When it comes to customizing it a window manager at least when it comes to look and feel What are you actually asking to customize for the most part? You're looking at borders and bar, right? Those are the things that you can really want to customize if you want to customize The transparency of a window or add rounded corners and that you're looking at adding something like pi com And that's kind of extraneous to what you're customizing and you can obviously do that on I3 or any window manager, right? With I3 because those are the two things that you really want to customize There's not much that's limiting you in terms of customization You can customize the color of the borders You can use whatever damn bar you want to it does come with a bar And you can add things to that bar like I3 blocks if you wanted to add to the actual stock I3 bar You can do that or you can use something like poly bar or you use EWW or you could use Tint to or you could use XMO bar whatever you want to use you can use it and While a lot of people will say well yeah, it comes with the bar. It's bloat. I don't buy that for a second I mean you could theoretically pull I3 bar out of I3 if you wanted to because it's taking up Two and a half kilobytes of space on your hard drive or something I don't know you could do that, but I mean that never really has bothered me. So it's not really I mean seriously People who say that's bloat Simultaneously will use emacs or something and you know so or they'll that was that was unfair of me I should I shouldn't have said emacs I should have said something like some of their program that people call bloat or something I don't know I Don't know I went totally blank there on what people think bloat is nowadays because everybody says everything is bloat and I can't I can't keep track of it. Anyways moving on so the point is is that I3 is my absolute favorite window manager and I've Waffled on this over the late years like I at one point if you'd asked me I would have said DWM at one point I probably would have said BSPWM because I used BSPWM for quite a while and I still like BSPWM But the problem with BSPWM is that the main feature of BSPWM is pre-selection It's a manual Tyler, but it doesn't really act like a manual Tyler unless you use pre-selection and I never used pre-selection So I wasn't actually using the premier feature that kind of made me stop using using BSPWM Because I just used it as a dynamic Tyler, which is not really what it is so as of right now like I said I3 is my favorite and I think that it's a combination of like I said customization the features that I want the great documentation They're a great community because if you need help you can find pretty much anyone who uses this they'll help you I've never heard one You know the funny thing is like I've been using I3 now for Off and on for like two or three years and I've had questions like I've got on the reddit and asked questions in their subreddit I've got on to discord and asked people who use I3 and not once not a single time Have I ever said someone had somebody tell me go read the effing manual not a single time I have had people like giving me a link to the manual like a certain part of the manual They'll send me a link, but I've never had anyone say that like even the developer of I3 Had is on reddit all the time helping people. It's amazing. It's really good And that's not to say that other projects don't have interactive Developers as well like people who help out in those projects are probably just as helpful as I3 But from my experience I3 has the most friendly community out there And I think that that's fantastic and on top of that is that there are a ton of people out there who use I3 So you're going to find a lot of tools that allow you to enhance I3 so things like auto tiling which basically turn I3 into a dynamic Tyler if you want it to be that way You can find scripts that give you the master stack layout if you want you can find scripts that do a better job of using scratch pads if you want There's a ton of examples out there where people have taken some of the functionality that is built into I3 and then extended it through either a script or something like that Just gives I3 just a little bit more functionality So that is why I3 is my favorite window manager and it's definitely the one that I keep coming back to so I installed DWM the other day And I used it for a little while I went through and did all the work of patching it getting it themed and everything and then I almost immediately ran back to I3 That's what I seem to end up doing and I'm okay with that So in the comment section below I would love to hear what your favorite window manager is Do you use a tiling window manager? Do you use a floating window manager? Are you a desktop environment user and wonder what the hell is The big deal about a tiling window manager leave those comments in the comments section below I'd love to hear from you if you want to follow me on twitter You can do so at the linux cast you can follow me on mastodon or any of my other social media networks You can find those links in the video description You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash linux cast just like all of these fine people I truly do appreciate everybody who supports me on patreon youtube. I can't even begin to find the words to Express my full gratitude over everyone who just supports me in this way It just constantly blows my mind. I know like every video. I'm like, man, I just don't know the words to say how grateful I am but That's because the best words are thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for supporting me I'll see you next time