Come on, isn't it time for the stacking window manager to go?
Why do we still use the stacking window manager when it's clearly high time it died?
Okay, some theory first.
A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface.
For short, let's refer to it as a WM.
If you think you have never heard of it - you have been using a stacking window manager your whole life, and that's sad. As a Windows victim, what I hate most about it is not the bugs, stupid updates, enshittification of the OS, or closed-sourceness... I truly despise its WM.
The UX for stacking WM was designed back in the '80s when the display resolutions were smaller than an Ipad's, so it made sense back then.
But recently big tech (Microsoft/Apple) haven't really bothered to try and improve it.
Apparently, the UX of the tools that millions of people use for productivity doesn't deserve research and innovation.
If you think it's good, most likely it's because you either
- don't use your pc for professional needs;
- have never tried something else, and/or are afraid to learn something new.
Why do I constantly have to change the size of my windows there, which means I always have to use mouse? As a keyboard geek, every second spent away from my keyboards deeply hurts me. No mentioning that it's also bad for ergonomics. Also, why pinning your windows works, but only if you are not in the full-screen mode: the second you click outside of the pinned app - it's taken to the background. Why is it so hard to have more than one app in the foreground?
There are dozens of other issues that I am too lazy to write about, but trust me, you won't be able to work on it again after you try it (and perhaps suffer through the learning curve for the first week).
I use niri, and it's such a breash of fresh of air, I really hope alternative WMs go mainstream and finally replace the junk that we have been forced to use by default!
On linux I recommend to try
And even if you are running windows, there are still some options available!