I'm so glad you finally gave i3 tabs a shot! I've been preaching them for a long time now. The advantage of tabs over pure workspaces is, as you said, greater screen real estate and still having all your work in a single place. For me early on, switching workspaces was like alt+tabbing different windows on a regular DE. It's distracting and it quickly becomes unmanageable with too many things open. Workspaces work great for windows with completely different functions, e.g. it makes sense to have the music player in a workspace all on its own when you are studying or working. But if you need different windows for one single task, it's better to have a master window on one side of the screen, and tabbed ones on the other. If anyone is looking for further demonstration of how tabs work on i3, look up "budlabs" here on YT.
"layout toggle tabbed split" - will toggle the focused tree split into a tabbed split. Use it again to "untab" the split. "layout toggle split" - toggles vertical and horizontal split ---- Commands: Focus Parent / Focus Child When you have multiple splits like a column in a row. You can use "focus parent" to highlight the column and or row. To undo the "focus parent", you can use "focus child". Once you highlighted a column with "focus parent", you can do anything with them. Move direction, kill, toggle tab split, push to another workspace/monitor and etc. You can also highlight all windows by using "focus parent" a few/several times. Depends on how many splits you have on the screen. Example, I usually move my entire workspace by using "focus parent" and "move container to ...". Highlight all windows with "focus parent" then use the "move container to .." command to move them to another workspace or monitor. I also have a keybind to move containers to a workspace and then switch to that workspace in one motion.
Just in case someone wants to try these out. Here are the keybinds I usually do for these commands. Not sure if these are stock keybinds.. I haven't used the defaults for i3 in over a year or two. ---- "Focus Parent" = mod + a "Focus Child" = mod + z "layout toggle split" = mod + w "layout toggle tabbed split" = mod + e
I love your channel man! Great Linux content! I'm an i3 fanboy who's been using it for years, and I still learn new stuff from you from time to time. Keep it up!
I use tabs only in my browser Firefox and sometimes in my filemanagers. In Vim I prefer buffers. For a tiling window manager it feels weird to have tabs. Because I associate each window to a certain group or workspace. I am just not used to it, not saying it is bad. Edit: BTW Qtile has some layouts that work similar to what you are showing. I think the Stack layout works similar. And there is even a TreeTab layout too. I need to test these workflows. Like you hop around with applications, I am doing that with the layouts in Qtile. And sometimes reconfigure them to work a bit differently. Qtile has 16 layouts, which a few are just variations.
2:05 my setup is 125 workspaces (or 12 workspace grops of 10 workspaces plus 5 common workspaces), so I always have anough :) P.s. for this I have some keybinding on which I regenerate the whole i3 config with new keybindings for workspaces, i.e. press Ctrl+1 and win+(1-0) switches 1-10 workspaces, press Ctrl+8 and now the same bindings switches ws71 - ws80 etc
Matt, awesomewm allows you to put the title bar in the bar so that you don't have to waste another extra row for displaying the title bar for the window. I wish i3 had such a feature.
@@usefulknowledge6074 oh I should have said. I use polybar too. It's a script someone sent me on Reddit. I think it's in my script repo but I'm not sure.
I work on a laptop with no other monitor. I've been using i3 for over a year, and I've always used tabs because given the limited real estate of a laptop screen, there isn't really any other option.
omg herbstluft has tabs ... lol but seriously in herbstluft you can switch if you want to see through the top window the desktop a.k.a. the wallpaper, or the underlying windows, i'm pretty sure there's some option for it in i3 as well the idea with the 1 pixel title bar i like, will probably tinker arround with my bar to see if it works well :)
i know the video is a bit old, but could you explain how you did that to your tabs title bar? i want to try it in my i3 config too since i hate them, but i love the tabbed/stacked layout so i really wish i could know how to hide them like you did, i can't find anything online related to that D:
Okay, so I don't use i3 anymore, so it's been a while and I'm rusty. But I think that you need to do these three things: - set your font to 0 in i3 config - set "for_window [class="^.*"] border pixel 3" (not the outside quotes) - set default_border pixel 3 But again, I'm just guessing as I really don't remember.
dwm (+ tabbed) only works with xembed enabled applications which means you are limited to what apps can be tabbed. anyone know a way around this for dwm?
If you have a workspace dedicated to a particular context, you can toggle between different windows in that context when you don’t need to see them concurrently
I use only tabs without gaps on sway. I need all space and nothing should distract me. And I have only 3 workspaces with all applications on it. Terminal and emacs always in scratchpads.
Just the transparency problem alone is a deal breaker for me. I just have a desktop with my browser and a terminal, both applications have several tabs open at a time, works great. XFCE4 terminal handles tabs without the transaprency problem and a pretty minimal tab size
@@TheLinuxCast it is possible to fix the issue of transparency in tabbed windows using picom. look up this section "Tabbed windows (shadows and transparency)" in the Arch Wiki for picom. Hot take, there are almost no difference between workspaces and tabs. many workspaces can be replaced by tabs. ws1:browser , ws2:texteditor -> tabbed-main-container
Do you know how to preset different layouts for different workspaces? I'm using the i3 autotiling script you showed in another video and now I am trying to get "workspace 7" to open up tabbed. the autotiling script is set to work o workspaces 1-6 but after I unncoment "workspace_layouts tabbed" the default is tabbed for all workspaces, it overrides the autotiling script Basically, i'm trying to have have multiple instances of Haruna multimedia player open up "tabbed" automatically I am unaware of a multi media player tabs itself, so this i3 seems like the perfect thing
Hey Matt, Interesting video. However, I would never call myself an Uber-nerd. I am a tinkerer with nerdy tendencies. I have zero need for huge numbers of tabs these days. Curiosity does cause me to watch videos like this one. I have learned that options that I won’t use today may very well become options I will use in the future. Take care and have a great day.
@@glidersuzuki5572 I am not on i3, but on Qtile. And I don't use much gaps at all (only 3 pixels or so on my 1440p monitor). Just asking for curiosity, because i3 was the first tiling window manager I tried. Finally it is happening. Very nice that they bring the projects together.
@@thingsiplay I really like qtile. But I have some doubts before using it. Does it support tabbed layouts? Not the monocle layout. But on other windows. Like multiple windows stacked infront of each other. Also, is it based on wlroots? Does the dmenu/rofi alternatives work properly?
@@glidersuzuki5572 Qtile has a Stack layout that works somewhat similar to what Matt shows in the video in i3. But you define how many stacks there are (usually 2, left and right). And then opening a window will just add to the stack, like buffers in Vim. I am not a fan of this, but well there is a reason why its exists. I use Qtile in X11. It is also usable in Wayland with wlroots, but I don't have experience with Wayland (thanks Nvidia). So I cannot comment on anything about this topic.
the tiling aspect of WMs is so overrated and the tabs feature is way underrated. i use tabs almost exclusively along with workspaces. tiling only for the occasional workspace with terminals
Never thought I be first the comment. It feels strange to be the first. I usually always be last in most things I do. Well time to watch the video all the way through while I am here.
Want more Linux content? Follow me on Mastodon fosstodon.org/@thelinuxcast
If you think about it, Workspaces are just really big tabs. So with Workspaces, i3 tabs, and vim, you can have tabs within tabs within tabs!
and if you use tmux, you can have tabs (window)
+tmux, +kitty tabs
I'm so glad you finally gave i3 tabs a shot! I've been preaching them for a long time now. The advantage of tabs over pure workspaces is, as you said, greater screen real estate and still having all your work in a single place. For me early on, switching workspaces was like alt+tabbing different windows on a regular DE. It's distracting and it quickly becomes unmanageable with too many things open. Workspaces work great for windows with completely different functions, e.g. it makes sense to have the music player in a workspace all on its own when you are studying or working. But if you need different windows for one single task, it's better to have a master window on one side of the screen, and tabbed ones on the other. If anyone is looking for further demonstration of how tabs work on i3, look up "budlabs" here on YT.
You may have convinced me to start using tabs again. Thanks for another great video dude.
YES! Tabs are awesome.
at 03:41, try these commands: "focus parent" and then "layout toggle tabbed split"
"layout toggle tabbed split" - will toggle the focused tree split into a tabbed split. Use it again to "untab" the split.
"layout toggle split" - toggles vertical and horizontal split
----
Commands: Focus Parent / Focus Child
When you have multiple splits like a column in a row. You can use "focus parent" to highlight the column and or row. To undo the "focus parent", you can use "focus child". Once you highlighted a column with "focus parent", you can do anything with them. Move direction, kill, toggle tab split, push to another workspace/monitor and etc.
You can also highlight all windows by using "focus parent" a few/several times. Depends on how many splits you have on the screen.
Example, I usually move my entire workspace by using "focus parent" and "move container to ...". Highlight all windows with "focus parent" then use the "move container to .." command to move them to another workspace or monitor. I also have a keybind to move containers to a workspace and then switch to that workspace in one motion.
Just in case someone wants to try these out. Here are the keybinds I usually do for these commands. Not sure if these are stock keybinds.. I haven't used the defaults for i3 in over a year or two.
----
"Focus Parent" = mod + a
"Focus Child" = mod + z
"layout toggle split" = mod + w
"layout toggle tabbed split" = mod + e
I love your channel man! Great Linux content! I'm an i3 fanboy who's been using it for years, and I still learn new stuff from you from time to time. Keep it up!
I also love i3 too been using it since 2009 and every time I try to move away I always come back cus i3 is and always will be the best :)
You can put opened windows into tabs in Pop Shell, it is a really awesome feature.
Tabs FTW!
I thought every i3 user utilized tabs often. They’re indeed great
I use tabs only in my browser Firefox and sometimes in my filemanagers. In Vim I prefer buffers. For a tiling window manager it feels weird to have tabs. Because I associate each window to a certain group or workspace. I am just not used to it, not saying it is bad.
Edit: BTW Qtile has some layouts that work similar to what you are showing. I think the Stack layout works similar. And there is even a TreeTab layout too. I need to test these workflows. Like you hop around with applications, I am doing that with the layouts in Qtile. And sometimes reconfigure them to work a bit differently. Qtile has 16 layouts, which a few are just variations.
It's also possible to have stacked/tabs layout as default. To split screen just move out window from container
2:05 my setup is 125 workspaces (or 12 workspace grops of 10 workspaces plus 5 common workspaces), so I always have anough :)
P.s. for this I have some keybinding on which I regenerate the whole i3 config with new keybindings for workspaces, i.e. press Ctrl+1 and win+(1-0) switches 1-10 workspaces, press Ctrl+8 and now the same bindings switches ws71 - ws80 etc
You can have that in XMonad :)
Also, there is a cool thing in XMonad called sublayout which is some sort of nested tabs.
I like using tabs to have vim on the left and then have documentation and info on the right. Real good setup for programming
just switched from herbstluftwm to i3 for some time now and just missed that important feature. thx for raising it up
Matt, awesomewm allows you to put the title bar in the bar so that you don't have to waste another extra row for displaying the title bar for the window. I wish i3 had such a feature.
I have that in i3 in most of my rices. It's not quite the same as it is only the focused window but it's good enough.
@@TheLinuxCast How do you put the titlebar in the top bar in i3? I use polybar.
@@usefulknowledge6074 oh I should have said. I use polybar too. It's a script someone sent me on Reddit. I think it's in my script repo but I'm not sure.
Great, thanks Matt. Very helpful and interesting. Something I did not know.
I work on a laptop with no other monitor. I've been using i3 for over a year, and I've always used tabs because given the limited real estate of a laptop screen, there isn't really any other option.
omg herbstluft has tabs ... lol
but seriously in herbstluft you can switch if you want to see through the top window the desktop a.k.a. the wallpaper, or the underlying windows, i'm pretty sure there's some option for it in i3 as well
the idea with the 1 pixel title bar i like, will probably tinker arround with my bar to see if it works well
:)
we are in the tab club matt lol 😂
i know the video is a bit old, but could you explain how you did that to your tabs title bar? i want to try it in my i3 config too since i hate them, but i love the tabbed/stacked layout so i really wish i could know how to hide them like you did, i can't find anything online related to that D:
Okay, so I don't use i3 anymore, so it's been a while and I'm rusty. But I think that you need to do these three things:
- set your font to 0 in i3 config
- set "for_window [class="^.*"] border pixel 3" (not the outside quotes)
- set default_border pixel 3
But again, I'm just guessing as I really don't remember.
@@TheLinuxCast well, it worked! thank you for the time you took to answer me, i really appreciate it! :)
budlabs had a way of fixing the transparency issue by changing some compositor settings
dwm (+ tabbed) only works with xembed enabled applications which means you are limited to what apps can be tabbed. anyone know a way around this for dwm?
Hm.. there's probably a way to get a list of windows in a tab put into rofi, and create a selector like that?
I gotta ask: what’s the benefit of this versus just using multiple desktops and switching as-needed?
You don't have to switch workspaces. Which means you can keep interacting with the same windows.
If you have a workspace dedicated to a particular context, you can toggle between different windows in that context when you don’t need to see them concurrently
I use only tabs without gaps on sway. I need all space and nothing should distract me. And I have only 3 workspaces with all applications on it. Terminal and emacs always in scratchpads.
Hey, Matt. Question: why do you put i3 on top of a KDE base rather than XFCE or LXQT, for example?
Matt did you drink Tab too? jk. I love tabs in Brave. Usually have 20+ open. Your use of tabs in i3 looks pretty enticing though
Just the transparency problem alone is a deal breaker for me. I just have a desktop with my browser and a terminal, both applications have several tabs open at a time, works great. XFCE4 terminal handles tabs without the transaprency problem and a pretty minimal tab size
yeah, but I can have anything in a tab, that's why I like it
@@TheLinuxCast it is possible to fix the issue of transparency in tabbed windows using picom. look up this section "Tabbed windows (shadows and transparency)" in the Arch Wiki for picom. Hot take, there are almost no difference between workspaces and tabs. many workspaces can be replaced by tabs. ws1:browser , ws2:texteditor -> tabbed-main-container
Do you know how to preset different layouts for different workspaces?
I'm using the i3 autotiling script you showed in another video and now I am trying to get "workspace 7" to open up tabbed.
the autotiling script is set to work o workspaces 1-6
but after I unncoment "workspace_layouts tabbed" the default is tabbed for all workspaces, it overrides the autotiling script
Basically, i'm trying to have have multiple instances of Haruna multimedia player open up "tabbed" automatically
I am unaware of a multi media player tabs itself, so this i3 seems like the perfect thing
love your video , wish i was as smart as you :)
i watch all video thanks for giving me something to watch
:) Thank you
Hey Matt,
Interesting video. However, I would never call myself an Uber-nerd. I am a tinkerer with nerdy tendencies. I have zero need for huge numbers of tabs these days. Curiosity does cause me to watch videos like this one. I have learned that options that I won’t use today may very well become options I will use in the future. Take care and have a great day.
I'd really appreciate if anyone pointed me to how i can remove the titlebars when in tab mode
Tabs are the default setting on my Arch i3
Hey matt, i3 merged i3-gaps. Maybe a video on it?
You mean gaps is now officially supported by mainline i3?
@@thingsiplay yes. You can use i3 HEAD to use it or wait for release
@@glidersuzuki5572 I am not on i3, but on Qtile. And I don't use much gaps at all (only 3 pixels or so on my 1440p monitor). Just asking for curiosity, because i3 was the first tiling window manager I tried. Finally it is happening. Very nice that they bring the projects together.
@@thingsiplay I really like qtile. But I have some doubts before using it. Does it support tabbed layouts? Not the monocle layout. But on other windows. Like multiple windows stacked infront of each other.
Also, is it based on wlroots? Does the dmenu/rofi alternatives work properly?
@@glidersuzuki5572 Qtile has a Stack layout that works somewhat similar to what Matt shows in the video in i3. But you define how many stacks there are (usually 2, left and right). And then opening a window will just add to the stack, like buffers in Vim. I am not a fan of this, but well there is a reason why its exists.
I use Qtile in X11. It is also usable in Wayland with wlroots, but I don't have experience with Wayland (thanks Nvidia). So I cannot comment on anything about this topic.
Hi my ubuntu not showing font icons Help me
Do you have the font installed?
In the first 30 seconds it isn’t clear if you like tabs or not
I knew I should have been clearer. 😂
the tiling aspect of WMs is so overrated and the tabs feature is way underrated. i use tabs almost exclusively along with workspaces. tiling only for the occasional workspace with terminals
First
Never thought I be first the comment. It feels strange to be the first. I usually always be last in most things I do. Well time to watch the video all the way through while I am here.
@@TarsteelPCGaming You are even the first commenting your own first. xD
Nice. Edit: And congratz.
At the time that you read this comment. Tell us how many tabs you have open.
I guess 1 tab for each tab.
64 tabs spread out between Firefox, Krusader and Vim.
4 tmux tabs with a total of 9 windows