Software Alternatives & Reviews

Arcan VS i3

Compare Arcan VS i3 and see what are their differences

Arcan logo Arcan

Game engine and multimedia framework and display server.

i3 logo i3

A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.
  • Arcan Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-14
  • i3 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-19

Arcan videos

A Quick Review of Arcan XL3000 Low Profile Floor Jack

More videos:

  • Review - Arcan 2 Ton Jack For The Lexus Gsf
  • Review - Arcan 3 Ton Aluminum Low Profile Jack Review On The Jeep Wrangler YJ

i3 videos

30k Miles with the BMW i3 - End of Lease Review

More videos:

  • Review - 2016 BMW i3 - Review and Road Test
  • Review - 2018 BMW i3s Range Extender (REx) Review - The Future Of Cars?
  • Demo - Gaming With Intel's Core i3 9100F - The First Turbo Boosted Desktop i3
  • Review - The best EV for the money? Used BMW i3 Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Arcan and i3)
Linux
7 7%
93% 93
Window Manager
3 3%
97% 97
Operating Systems
100 100%
0% 0
Utilities
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Arcan and i3

Arcan Reviews

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i3 Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
Sway is a tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that dynamically arranges app windows to rationally maximise desktop space. It is free, open-source, and lightweight. By default, it arranges windows in a grid and supports practically all of the i3 commands.
Source: www.hubtech.org
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
i3-wm is one of my most loved standalone window managers, qualifying it to easily fit under the desktop environment list! The configuration is just very easy, and you can change everything that you see on screen. This includes what information you see on the bottom panel, how windows behave, and keyboard shortcuts to move, align, and set up windows on the screen.
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
Sway is a free, open-source, and lightweight tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that automatically arranges app windows to logically maximize desktop space. It arranges windows into a grid by default and supports almost all the commands included in i3.
Source: www.tecmint.com
5 Great Tiling Window Managers for Linux
I begun testing i3 just this week. I was always fascinated by the Tiling WM’s as they seem really light on system resources and functional. To my surprise , although i3 is really easy to customize, and works really well (at least for my needs) , I found that it isn’t really that lightweight. I had Mate desktop environment use the same amount of RAM. Maybe I was mislead to...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, i3 should be more popular than Arcan. It has been mentiond 89 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Arcan mentions (15)

  • VT330/VT340 Sixel Graphics
    Kragen, what's the current status of BubbleOS? Also, I'm curious what you think of Arcan (https://arcan-fe.com). - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • A Guide to the Terminal, Console, and Shell
    See https://arcan-fe.com/, in particular Lash: https://arcan-fe.com/2022/10/15/whipping-up-a-new-shell-lashcat9/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Is Wayland really the best solution
    LOL. Not. Meanwhile, one dude managed to write an entire display server that handles, both, Wayland and X11 apps: https://arcan-fe.com/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • SDL Tries Again To Prefer Wayland Over X11
    Arcan is a decent contender for an actual way forward (and like PipeWire replacing PulseAudio, Arcan natively supports X11 and Wayland clients). Source: over 1 year ago
  • i suspect that when Wayland will gained popularity: people will be replaced MPV (the only application that refused to implement window management) by another good video player application..
    Virgin Wayland babies vs the Chad Arcan users (I have no idea how to configure it help). Source: over 1 year ago
View more

i3 mentions (89)

  • "We understand" ;)
    This is partially why I use tools like i3 (/ sway). I like the tool; it works extremely well for me; the design has stayed the same for 20 years; there's no profit motive to come along and fuck everything up. It just works. It is boring in the best way possible. Source: 5 months ago
  • what machines have you used for development, and what do you prefer?
    I use MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid-2014) with Manjaro as OS using i3 as a window manager. It isn't perfect, but I'm thrilled with it. I have been a Mac OS user for the last 15 years and wouldn't change what I have now for a Mac OS because I don't need more than what I'm using for development. Source: 10 months ago
  • Machine for pentesting and general use?
    For daily usage I really like kubuntu with i3wm, but it takes some configuration and getting used to the shortcuts, but it's well worth it. Source: 12 months ago
  • What's the difference between Gnome and KDE? Do applications written for one work in the other?
    Some window managers are meant to be used as-is, and provide a minimalist yet functional environment that use very little resources or give power users an almost HUD-like interface. Examples of those window managers are OpenBox and i3wm for X, and Weston and Hyprland for Wayland. Source: 12 months ago
  • tiling window manager
    I did use i3 exclusively for a few years. The reasons I chose it were. Source: 12 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Arcan and i3, you can also consider the following products

Wayfire - Wayland compositor with 3d effects.

dwm - dwm is a dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled, monocle and floating layouts. All of the layouts can be applied dynamically, optimising the environment for the application in use and the task performed.

Unity8 - Mir compositor with Wayland apps support.

awesome - A dynamic window manager for the X Window System developed in the C and Lua programming languages.

GNOME - An easy and elegant way to use your computer, GNOME is designed to put you in control and get things done.

Xfce - Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.