[city41]

The window api makes me think one could pretty easily create an i3 like window manager. But my past experience with OSX window managers like amethyst has been subpar. Often the sizing/positioning is taken more as a “suggestion” by the window than a command. I also found eventually windows would get into a bad state. Has window management on OSX improved in the past couple years? On Linux with X11, window managers truly have control and thus provide a more reliable experience.

[athorax]

I have had a pretty stable setup using yabai[0] for my wm and skhd[1] for my hotkey daemon. Both are by the same dev and I have nothing but good things to say about them. Occasionally windows will get in a wonky state, but I have a hot key to reset them. It is usually stable for a week+

[0]https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai [1]https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd

[teamspirit]

+1 for yabai with skhd! I can't imagine working on macos without it and I really can't stress this enough. Hotkeys with skhd is game changer for productivity and nothing compares to yabai for a tiling window manager on macos (though you don't have to use the tiling if that's not your thing).

[butterthebuddha]

I've been using yabai as well! I was wondering if it was possible to replicate iTerm2's dedicated hotkey window [1] for other applications (primarily firefox) using yabai/skhd?

[1] https://www.iterm2.com/documentation-hotkey.html

[mnm1]

I do not know the answer to your question but the way I solve that problem in osx is using quicksilver and triggers. You can give each app or really any quicksilver command a hotkey to switch to it directly or start it and switch if it's not running. I couldn't live without it. I have hotkeys for all my commonly used apps and generally never launch or switch apps any other way. I also have hotkeys for manual tiling to the corners, sides, center, and full screen so I don't need to use the gui for that. The fact that this isn't doable out of the box makes me question if either Apple or Microsoft has ever considered hiring a single ux expert.

On Linux I use jumpapp for the same functionality.

[Sir_Omnomnom]

I've been using yabai and skhd for about a week, I was wondering what you are using for your menu bar? I'm not really sure about a suitable replacement for something like i3bar coming from Linux.

[athorax]

I have been using ubersicht[0]. The same developer of skhd/yabai has a dotfiles repo that I mostly copied his config from.

[0]https://github.com/felixhageloh/uebersicht

[OJFord]

I'm not the user you replied to, but have you tried yabai's built-in one?

I haven't had any issue with it coming from i3bar/polybar, but then I don't really do anything specific with it, just time and battery.

[tsss]

It really doesn't work that well especially on small screens. Spotify for example has a minimum size and will be unusable when the tile is smaller than that because half the window isn't visible. Focus-follows-mouse is also broken when using multiple screens and workspaces.

[pvinis]

I've been thinking of using these. What I want also is to "save and restore" or just "force" some windows to specific monotors and sizes. Is that possible with yabai?

[travolter]

"Usually stable for a week" does not sound great..

[OJFord]

Not GP, but that's better than my Mac as a whole. Weird OS issues with the trackpad, login, or fan/cpu/ram usage despite nothing big running necessitate a restart at least once a week.

[samatman]

I'm in the same boat and it sucks.

I had 240 days of uptime on my G5 Mac Pro at one point.

I doubt we'll ever see that kind of stability in macOS again, and it makes me sad.

[athorax]

I would generally agree, except in this case that makes it one of the more stable pieces of software I am running on my mac. When it happens I have a single hotkey mapped to restart the service which recollects all my windows and usually fixes anything that was going wrong in ~3-4 seconds.

[gigatexal]

I love i3. I wish I could get something like it for the Mac. I love it so much I might ditch my Mac for a Linux laptop. Regarding Phoenix I use magnet on the Mac which gets pretty much this. Though this is probably much more customizable. Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12

[lps41]

Yes, i3 drastically improved my ability to be productive and not get lost in my windows.

I sorely miss it when I am using windows or MacOS.

[macinjosh]

I have good success with yabai:

https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai

[gigatexal]

Yeah I’ll check it I it after the many testimonials here but m leery about having to disable system integrity protection even temporarily

[athorax]

I actually run it with SIP still active. Some features are disabled, but it still does everything I need it to.

[toyg]

I have run with SIP disabled pretty much since it was introduced. Nothing happened. Unless you are a three-letter-agency target or a person clicking on random files, you’ll be fine.