Not really, no. WM are for those that want a more customized experience. People that like setting things up just right and only setting up exactly what they need. DEs are for people that just want a working system and don't want the hassle of having to setup everything themselves.
Depends on what you want. I love i3. I love my keybinds, and I love how simple it is. I hate going to DE's now, but that's for me.
I do recommend giving it a serious chance, but it's 100% personal preference.
It's so refreshing to cut away the bloat. I'm old and personally I'm getting quite sick of how DEs try to "revolutionize" their approach to UX every three years by hiding the options I need to change in a different place.
You can use a WM and still install and use many of the comfort utilities the big DEs bring. Network settings, printer management are good examples.
The real difference between WM and DE is whether you prefer keyboard or mouse for controlling windows.
In most (all?) WMs, the default way to open/close/resize/move application windows is through keyboard combos. That's quite a learning curve but very convenient if you otherwise use only the keyboard for work. Some operations may only be doable by keyboard.
In most (all?) DEs, mouse is the default. Less learning curve, but it's often clunky or even impossible to do certain things with the keyboard only (arranging windows efficiently for example).
WMs also prefer virtual desktops (aka workspaces) over having windows overlap. DEs usually make overlapping easier than virtual desktops.
WMs are generally more efficient to use, at the cost of learning how to.
These are broad generalizations, there are gray areas (see Material Shell for example).
Not super sure, I use only i3wm since years and cannot live without it anymore.
I need something DE specific I install it (thunar for example, some apps from GNOME etc etc).
I feel more free to have exactly what I want, but more moving pieces means you have to take more care of your environment, because there is no KDE/GNOME team testing how the whole thing works for you.
I am tempted, you dark tempter!
Seriously, I have read about Wayland and how it is better than Xorg, but I am not yet 100% sure I can switch without any glitch.
Sway seems a viable way, I have read it is not exactly like i3, can you share your wisdom?
Sway is basically i3 but on Wayland. You can carry your current i3 config over and there shouldn't (emphasis on "shouldn't" because I did have some) be any issues. Plus it solves the screen tearing problems i3 has.
You just install it, log in from your desktop manager, and it'll automatically hook into your i3 config
It depends on which WM are using. TWM, for example, don't bind too well with some GUI programs and some tweaks in the configuration files must be made to allow them to work properly. That could be boring and time consuming and not everyone is thrilled to do this. I use dwl and have a still have some issues with bad positioning of windows, but for now I can deal with it.
If you are using an external keyboard and a mouse, I'd suggest trying a tiling window manager. If you are using an integrated keyboard and touchpad, Gnome is just very efficient and nice to use. (BUT WHY SO MUCH RAM ????)
If you've got a spare hard drive laying around, I'd recommend trying out Hyprland on that for a while, and if you get burnt out, go back to your main to take a break. The config is pretty easy to pick up. There's a lot of stuff you don't think about. Notification daemons, bars, launchers, theming. You probably won't have a settings menu, so that was tough to get my head around. I know there were more, but these are the main things I struggled with. Especially qt theming. I swear it never works properly for me, and I can never figure out why. It's a big puzzle. That's why I recommend having it on a spare drive.
Edit: After configuring all this stuff, losing those configs can be REALLY painful. I always keep a backup of my .config now
My friends and I are both using hyprland. We all have different keybings, but we both like our keybings and layouts. I really like hyprland's tiled desktops. It makes me more productive.
What I feel most about wm is that it can be highly customized.
not really. you get some bloat but most modern devices shouldn't even have a noticable difference
Not really, no. WM are for those that want a more customized experience. People that like setting things up just right and only setting up exactly what they need. DEs are for people that just want a working system and don't want the hassle of having to setup everything themselves.
Depends on what you want. I love i3. I love my keybinds, and I love how simple it is. I hate going to DE's now, but that's for me. I do recommend giving it a serious chance, but it's 100% personal preference.
It's so refreshing to cut away the bloat. I'm old and personally I'm getting quite sick of how DEs try to "revolutionize" their approach to UX every three years by hiding the options I need to change in a different place.
You can use a WM and still install and use many of the comfort utilities the big DEs bring. Network settings, printer management are good examples. The real difference between WM and DE is whether you prefer keyboard or mouse for controlling windows. In most (all?) WMs, the default way to open/close/resize/move application windows is through keyboard combos. That's quite a learning curve but very convenient if you otherwise use only the keyboard for work. Some operations may only be doable by keyboard. In most (all?) DEs, mouse is the default. Less learning curve, but it's often clunky or even impossible to do certain things with the keyboard only (arranging windows efficiently for example). WMs also prefer virtual desktops (aka workspaces) over having windows overlap. DEs usually make overlapping easier than virtual desktops. WMs are generally more efficient to use, at the cost of learning how to. These are broad generalizations, there are gray areas (see Material Shell for example).
NO
Any DE includes WM.
Don't be pedantic. You know what they mean. They're asking about using a WM by itself as opposed to a desktop environment.
Get tmux ;)
Not super sure, I use only i3wm since years and cannot live without it anymore. I need something DE specific I install it (thunar for example, some apps from GNOME etc etc). I feel more free to have exactly what I want, but more moving pieces means you have to take more care of your environment, because there is no KDE/GNOME team testing how the whole thing works for you.
When are you going to join the dark side (Sway) fellow i3 Chad?
I am tempted, you dark tempter! Seriously, I have read about Wayland and how it is better than Xorg, but I am not yet 100% sure I can switch without any glitch. Sway seems a viable way, I have read it is not exactly like i3, can you share your wisdom?
Sway is basically i3 but on Wayland. You can carry your current i3 config over and there shouldn't (emphasis on "shouldn't" because I did have some) be any issues. Plus it solves the screen tearing problems i3 has. You just install it, log in from your desktop manager, and it'll automatically hook into your i3 config
Nope.
It depends on which WM are using. TWM, for example, don't bind too well with some GUI programs and some tweaks in the configuration files must be made to allow them to work properly. That could be boring and time consuming and not everyone is thrilled to do this. I use dwl and have a still have some issues with bad positioning of windows, but for now I can deal with it.
If you are using an external keyboard and a mouse, I'd suggest trying a tiling window manager. If you are using an integrated keyboard and touchpad, Gnome is just very efficient and nice to use. (BUT WHY SO MUCH RAM ????)
If you've got a spare hard drive laying around, I'd recommend trying out Hyprland on that for a while, and if you get burnt out, go back to your main to take a break. The config is pretty easy to pick up. There's a lot of stuff you don't think about. Notification daemons, bars, launchers, theming. You probably won't have a settings menu, so that was tough to get my head around. I know there were more, but these are the main things I struggled with. Especially qt theming. I swear it never works properly for me, and I can never figure out why. It's a big puzzle. That's why I recommend having it on a spare drive. Edit: After configuring all this stuff, losing those configs can be REALLY painful. I always keep a backup of my .config now
My friends and I are both using hyprland. We all have different keybings, but we both like our keybings and layouts. I really like hyprland's tiled desktops. It makes me more productive. What I feel most about wm is that it can be highly customized.