Gnome extension with a tiling function

Strictly Structured

Article from Issue 244/2021
Author(s):

The Gnome extension Material Shell organizes the windows on your desktop, giving you many options for smoothly switching between different applications and views.

Ever since Xerox Alto, the first workstation with a graphical user interface, was introduced in 1973, computer users have been pushing windowed applications across the screen with a click of the mouse [1]. At that time, the motion was still very jerky when moving open applications. Today, organizing applications on the desktop is hardly likely to faze the computer's graphics card.

Especially on systems with small monitors, however, freely floating windows have disadvantages: For example, the control elements for reducing, enlarging, or closing windows require valuable space on the screen. The now common screen format with resolutions in the 16:9 ratio intensifies the problem compared to the previously common 4:3 format. There is a massive amount of space available horizontally, but every pixel counts in the vertical direction.

Many users therefore prefer a tiling window manager (like i3 or herbstluftwm) that organizes the windows in a static grid on the screen. If windows cannot be moved freely, you don't need a window bar. In addition, there is often no need to use the mouse – the windows can be arranged on the screen using keyboard shortcuts.

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