What is very convenient in i3 is the fact, that you can keep and maintain your configuration as a code in the single file located in ~/.config/i3/config. We can also use the same key bindings and shortcuts across whole system, which is very convenient, because you don’t have to memorize shortcuts and keybindings for each program separately.

In i3, we have this functioality out of the box for all programs we use in the system. We also have applications like iTerm for macOS or Tilix for Linux, which mimics the same thing, but just for terminals. This functionality is available in Unity for Ubuntu and can be achieved with additional plugins for Gnome environment. Today we can see that operating systems like Windows or macOS are trying to mimic behavior of tiling window managers with window splitting, etc. It’s possible to do that in i3 by detaching a windows and moving them around, but it’s not usual case and default behavior.

It makes sense, because when one window is behind another, you cannot see its content anyway.

The original concept of i3 and tiling windows managers in general is the fact, that windows are not layered one on top of another like in all typical GUIs for popular operating systems we know today. I also read some part of docs and user’s guide to customize my configuration. Recently, I watched several videos and tutorials about Linux and i3 on youtube, which helped me to learn this WM, how it works and how to use it. I installed i3 once a few years ago, but I had no idea how to use it, so I just closed this thing and got back to Gnome. From a long time I wanted to try lightweight WM (Window Manager) for Linux.

Macos i3wm