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I'm very interested in tiling window managers but none seem to conform to my idea of how it should work.

I have a mouse and I'm not afraid to use it! Most tiling window managers seem to focus on keyboard combinations to get things done.

  • I'd like to be able to drag and drop my window into prearranged placeholders.

  • I'd like to exit the app via an X button on a titlebar.

  • I'd like to resize the tile layout (window sizes) by dragging the window borders around.

  • I'd like to see the name of my document in the window's titlebar.

If there's no such thing as a tiling window manager that fits the above description, I would love to have some kind of software running on my floating window manager that I could drag my windows into predetermined arrangements.

Does anything like this exist?

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  • i3-wm does many of these things by default (and the rest may be doable through modification. Have you looked into it yet?
    – HalosGhost
    Aug 9, 2014 at 18:16
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    No. I believe I got halfway through the screencast and all he talked about was keyboard stuff. So I figured it wasn't what I was looking for.
    – user46279
    Aug 9, 2014 at 21:54
  • I'm not convinced a mouse-operated tiling WM exists. But i3 definitely allows for it. And, there are plugins to give faux-tiling to GNOME and the like.
    – HalosGhost
    Aug 9, 2014 at 22:04
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    For Openbox, make sure to look at this and this. In the case of i3, also take a look at the newest layout features. Most gui apps have their own menu for closing, and something like lxterminal can be right clicked and closed, or I can type exit if I have focus. Using the mouse is not the same thing as relying on window decorations.
    – user44370
    Aug 10, 2014 at 8:24

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You are looking for tiling window managers having non-tiling windows capabilities. Maybe the answer is not getting something working out-of-the-box, but using something like openbox or fluxbox (which allows to use everything you put in your description, and being mouse-friendly) plus an add-on or program running on top of that - for example, check the following link:

You might want to try Tile-windows:

The Tile-windows application is a tool which allows for the tiling of windows within non-tiling window manager.

Also, acording to the Tiling window manager Wikipedia's article, there are some tiling window managers that allows the placement of windows in the screen using the mouse:

i3 - a built-from-scratch window manager, based on wmii. It has vi-like keybindings, and treats extra monitors as extra workspaces, meaning that windows can be moved between monitors easily. Allows vertical and horizontal splits, and parent containers. It can be controlled entirely from the keyboard, but a mouse can also be used.

Musca - features manual tiling, multiple screen support, virtual desktops and mouse or keyboard navigation.

ShellTile - tiling window manager extension for GNOME Shell, started from the code of shellshape, allows manual arrangement of windows using mouse and keyboard.

Ctrlwm is a tool for automatic window position in various layouts, also processing mouse screen edge/corner actions.

You may want to take a look at the Third party tiling applications on Xorg section of the article.

So, there's a lot to try - Have fun!

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