spectrwm VS i3

spectrwm

spectrwm is a small dynamic tiling window manager for X11.

i3

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

Landing page //
2023-10-01

Landing page //
2021-09-19

Categories	Window Manager Linux Utilities Open Source
Website	github.com
Details $	-

Categories	Window Manager Linux Open Source Utilities
Website	i3wm.org
Details $

spectrwm videos

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Spectrwm Is An Impressive Tiling Window Manager

i3 videos

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to spectrwm and i3)

i3

Window Manager

19 19%

Window Manager

81% 81

Linux

17 17%

Linux

83% 83

Utilities

25 25%

Utilities

75% 75

Productivity

100 100%

Productivity

0% 0

User comments

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

Reviews

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

spectrwm Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022

spectrwm has a plain text configuration file, defaults that are identical to xmonad and dwm, and built-in keyboard shortcuts. Other features include colour and border width customization, drag-to-float, quick launch menu customization, adjustable status bar, dynamic RandR compatibility, and more.

Source: www.hubtech.org

13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux

spectrwm uses a plain text configuration file, boasts defaults similar to those in xmonad and dwm, and features built-in keyboard shortcuts. Its other features include customizable colors and border width, drag-to-float, quick launch menu, customizable status bar, dynamic RandR support, etc.

Source: www.tecmint.com

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.

Source: www.journaldev.com

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...

Source: www.maketecheasier.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, i3 should be more popular than spectrwm. 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.

spectrwm mentions (10)

Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?
I use the tiling WM spectrwm. It lets me pull windows out of tiling mode and into window mode. I think a common operation on most tiling window managers. Most of the time I don't want overlapping windows(thus the tiling WM) but every once in a while I do, so the best of both worlds. It is a bit obscure but I quite like spectrwm, it fills this sweet spot where it is much simpler than I3 but much more feature... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
Easy window manager?
Spectrwm is by far the easiest WM I've tested. Also Fluxbox is pretty much straightforward. Source: over 2 years ago
Which WM should I use ?
Spectrwm is by far the most beginner-friendly WM I've ever tested. Im now running EXWM the buffers management is something else. Source: over 2 years ago
How can I undo mod+v?
I'm a recent convert to i3/sway, after a solid decade using spectrwm (which has not been ported to Wayland, I'm afraid). Source: over 2 years ago
About to declare emacs bankruptcy before I lose my job
Me I like the default Emacs buffer management. C-x 1, C-x 2 and C-x 3 with winner-mode is enough for me. Actually that's what made me switch from Spectrwm to EXWM. Source: over 2 years ago

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: 4 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: 11 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: 11 months ago
tiling window manager
I did use i3 exclusively for a few years. The reasons I chose it were. Source: 11 months ago

What are some alternatives?

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

bspwm - A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

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.

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

Xmonad - xmonad is a dynamically tiling X11 window manager that is written and configured in Haskell.

qtile - Qtile is a full-featured, hackable tiling window manager written in Python.

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.