Software Alternatives & Reviews

i3 VS Ubuntu

Compare i3 VS Ubuntu and see what are their differences

i3 logo i3

A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.

Ubuntu logo Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a Debian Linux-based open source operating system for desktop computers.
  • i3 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-19
  • Ubuntu Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-12

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

Ubuntu videos

Ubuntu 19.10 Review | The Best GNOME Desktop, Yet?

More videos:

  • Review - Review: Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine"
  • Review - Ubuntu 19.04, My Review (And Why Most Users Should Avoid It)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to i3 and Ubuntu)
Window Manager
100 100%
0% 0
Linux
19 19%
81% 81
Operating Systems
0 0%
100% 100
Utilities
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using i3 and Ubuntu. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

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...

Ubuntu Reviews

Top 9 Fastest Linux Distros in 2024
Ubuntu and Mint are both based on Debian and share many similarities. However, some differences may impact performances in certain use cases. For example, Ubuntu tends to be more resource-heavy than Mint, especially the GNOME desktop environment, on the other hand, is known for its lightweight Cinnamon desktop environment, which can be more responsive & faster.
Source: linuxsimply.com
10 Most Popular Linux Distros of the Year 2023
Ubuntu also has some lightweight games like chess and Sudoku. GNOME Files, formerly known as Nautilus, is the default file manager. It is recognized for its strong community support, regular releases, and focus on user experience. There are several Ubuntu flavors available as well per the demand of users such as Ubuntu Studio for users who need the best multimedia-supported...
12 Best Linux Distros You Should Use
Ubuntu uses Snaps for package management, and the latter is the reason the Linux community has started repelling it. They completely dropped out-of-the-box support for Flatpaks, as we mentioned in our Ubuntu 23.04 features list. Although it’s a good starting point for a complete beginner, we would argue there are better Linux distros to try than Ubuntu.
Source: beebom.com
Finding the Best Linux Distro for Your Organization
Based on the open source Ubuntu community, Canonical provides commercial support and services for Ubuntu Enterprise deployments. Ubuntu Enterprise is known for its ease of use, regular updates, and compatibility with cloud environments. Commercial versions include Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu for IoT, and Ubuntu Cloud -- all optimized versions for their...
The best Linux distributions (operating systems)
Around since 2004, Ubuntu is a classic Linux distribution. The operating system is aimed at different user groups and simplifies the first steps for beginners. On the one hand, Ubuntu is customizable, but also offers numerous technical tools to simplify installation and configuration. Many programs are pre-installed, and additional packages can be conveniently added. Ubuntu...
Source: www.ionos.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ubuntu should be more popular than i3. It has been mentiond 229 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.

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

Ubuntu mentions (229)

  • `Nano`sphere
    So, yeah, no .deb file, no curl/wget, no apt repository that they maintain. OK, cool 😎 no problem. I'll keep looking on Ubuntu side to see if Ubuntu has something 😁 you know. I could see that GNU Aspel's appendix does seem to have a recipe for how to make it myself if I wanted to go that route, as I pointed out earlier, however, since I have Ubuntu, I kept stomping the pavement and then it happened, I was able to... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Microsoft Edge ignores user wishes, slurps tabs from Chrome without permission
    * As always, Ubuntu(https://ubuntu.com/) All solid, functional, and not treating you like cattle. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Any ideas on how to fix
    Yes, visit this website and install: https://ubuntu.com/. Source: 5 months ago
  • Multipass: Ubuntu Virtual Machines Made Easy
    $ multipass shell server Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.0-87-generic x86_64) * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com * Management: https://landscape.canonical.com * Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage System information as of Fri Nov 10 01:32:53 CST 2023 System load: 0.0 Processes: 90 Usage of /: 30.9% of 4.67GB Users logged in: 0 ... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How to rescue an encrypted LUKS partition that was partially modified by a Windows tool?
    The Linux installation is/was Ubuntu with an encrypted LUKS partition and before applying a week-old backup I thought that there might be a change of rescuing some data. Source: 6 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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.

Linux Mint - Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions and used by millions of people.

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

Arch Linux - You've reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. Currently we have official packages optimized for the x86-64 architecture.

bspwm - A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

Fedora - Fedora creates an innovative, free, and open source platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users.