alt text: Scene of The Punisher where he is desperate having a nightmare, captioned “When a tiling window manager user has to use a MacOS/Windows desktop”

  • sudo@programming.dev
    182·
    2 days ago

    “Window Managers” don’t exist on windows and mac. There’s third party programs that re-position your windows. But you can’t replace the window manager for these OSs. AFAIK they don’t have a concept of a window manager. Its all one seemless desktop experience.

    Love to be proven wrong or at least shown an adequate alternate. Because pic is me in a few weeks. Goodbye slack, google, and zoom. Hello M$ TEAMS.

    • Beacon@fedia.io
      3·
      2 days ago

      I’m not clear on what the distinction is that you’re referring to. How are the Linux window managers different than the win/mac ones?

      • muix@lemmy.sdf.org
        8·
        1 day ago

        Window managers in Linux take direct command from the display server (Xorg, Wayland, etc.) to decide where to position windows and what they should look like. Whereas “window managers” on MacOS/Windows are tricking the original window manager provided by the OS into positioning windows a certain way. I’m simplifying here, but hope that clears things up.

        • Beacon@fedia.io
          3·
          1 day ago

          Thanks for the info, but what is the functional difference to the end user?

          • Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            3·
            1 day ago

            They’re limited by what the original window manager allows them to do. Sway has its whole own window manager, so it can do whatever it wants.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
          11·
          1 day ago

          You mean like Windows registry which determines how the windows need to be managed, just like almost every other program running on Windows?

          Your explanation still doesn’t differentiate.

          Or do you claim Linux calls home to some rando server to get the information on how a window should be displayed? Because that doesn’t seem like a great feature at all.

      • sudo@programming.dev
        2·
        1 day ago

        https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Window_manager

        • Stacking (aka floating) window managers provide the traditional desktop metaphor used in commercial operating systems like Windows and macOS. Windows act like pieces of paper on a desk, and can be stacked on top of each other. For available Arch Wiki pages see Category:Stacking window managers.
        • Tiling window managers “tile” the windows so that none are overlapping. They usually make very extensive use of key-bindings and have less (or no) reliance on the mouse. Tiling window managers may be manual, offer predefined layouts, or both. For available Arch Wiki pages see Category:Tiling window managers.
        • Dynamic window managers can dynamically switch between tiling or floating window layout. For available Arch Wiki pages see Category:Dynamic window managers.

        Mac and Windows window managers aren’t different from Linux window managers. (Other than being difficult or impossible to replace). What you are calling “window managers” are software that reposition the windows after the actual window manager has positioned it.

    • lobut@lemmy.ca
      3·
      2 days ago

      I use Amethyst on Mac and it’s quite good but it is a fancy repositioning system because it bugs out a few times a day and I need to force a refresh.