csant/log

The WIMP paradigm is an antiquate paradigm. We are tired of WIMP interfaces. What is needed is some new approach to interacting with computers. There are few, but very interesting projects in the UNIX world trying to propose new approaches - namely two light-weight, easily configurable window managers.

ion3

ion3 deserves first mention. Not because it was first, or because it is *the best* - there is no such thing as *the best* solution fitting every user. Each user needs to discover her own most useful interaction. There is no dogma in what is right and what is wrong - but everyone has to *search* for his or her own "best" solution. Do not take anything for granted.

So ion3 is my favourite.

The tiled approach allows you to make best use of your screen estate. The traditional arrangement of windows on the desktop is everything but sensible: the tiled space will place all windows next to each other, not overlapping, according to a predefined "grid" you have set up: once. No more need to grab the mouse as a first thing after creating a new window and resizing it to what you like it to be, no more dragging the window into the position on the screen you want it to be - after telling the window manager once, it will do the job for you and place windows into the frames your grid defines.

Ion3's tabbed approach allows you to have several windows in one frame: the title bar will be divided into as many tabs as there are applications in that frame.

Keyboard!

One special plus point for ion3 is that it has been designed with keyboard users in mind: everything you can do in ion3 is possible to achieve without mouse. Of course this doesn't mean that you cannot use the mouse at all, but you can decide not to use it. Ion3 presents a minimal user interface, no icons, no buttons on title bars, no wasted space.

Most applications that have a GUI written in accordance with the ICCCM behave very well in ion3, some (few, to be honest) other applications that want to manage their own GUI fit a bit less well into ion's approach.

One of the things I like most about ion3 is its way of handling transient windows, i.e. temporary windows that belong to a main window, like e.g. dialog windows. Ion3 will not assign a frame on their own to these transients, but truely place them almost as "floating" *inside* the main window. This approach will guarantee that the transients always belong to their parent - preventing one of the major annoyances users complain about when using e.g. dual screen.

Why not?

Ion3 is certainly not a window manager for everybody, and its usability requires a certain learning curve. Furthermore, Ion3 is not what you are looking for if you belong to those that primarily are looking for a shiny GUI: it offers a very lean, simple interface, and development focus is on its functionality rather than its "look". There has been a start for a Cairo drawing engine to enhance the look of the tabs, and a ptach is provided in case you are looking for xft fonts for the GUI - but none of them are official, nor really maintained.

wmii

Another project moving away from the WIMP approach is the window manager wmii - a tiled, tagged, *dynamic* window manager. It is strongly influenced by Plan 9's acme, rearranging windows dynamically for the best usage of screen real estate. If you are not familiar with acme's window management you might wonder whether this actually can ever work - but you'll be surprised by how usable this approach actually is.

Tagging

wmii introduces tagging, a new approach aimed at replacing tabs: each window gets a tag, and windows can be grouped according to their tags. The idea of switching to a different workspace gets replaced by the principle of views: a view is a set of clients matching a specific tag.

As much as ion3, wmii is not the window manager you are looking for if you need shiny, polished 3D surfaces - both window managers grow out of the console culture and retain the primarily text-based approach.

wmii gets my sympathy note mainly because this was the project that made me discover Plan 9: an older version of this window manager was based on a version of Plan 9 from User Space tools, and that got me curious…

Make your choice

My main concern is not to promote one or the other solution - every user has different requirements and will find answers and solutions in different places. It is however important, in my personal view, to make a choice about how you want to interact with your computer and search for your best solution - don't take things for granted, don't assume the long-aged desktop paradigm is the only, let alone the best solution. Needless to say, this might require some experimenting and discovering: be open to it, explore different approaches - and what you will learn from it will certainly be rewarding.