Finding the right Desktop Environment/Window Manager

[Jerry3904]

Tiling on Fluxbox has been available as an option, but will now come installed by default with MX 21.

[andyprough]

Tiling on Fluxbox has been available as an option, but will now come installed by default with MX 21.

Oh really? Is that part of the MX 21 beta ISO installation, Jerry? Or do we still need to wait a bit?

[Jerry3904]

The MX-21 beta that with Xfce, one of 3 versions: Xfce, KDE and ... Fluxbox. The new stand-alone Fluxbox version of MX will have tiling by default.

[ceeslans]

The MX-21 beta that with Xfce, one of 3 versions: Xfce, KDE and ... Fluxbox. The new stand-alone Fluxbox version of MX will have tiling by default.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought MX-21_beta1 is Xfce only?
Definitely looking forward to standalone MX-Fluxbox version...

[Jerry3904]

I thought that's what I wrote, but yes. Though mx- fluxbox can still be installed via mxpi.

[moo]

oh thats cool, I didn't know you could create mappings similar to i3 within XFCE4 (I did actually try myself using default keyboard binding interface, but it was a bit weird, like certain bindings didn't seem to be recognised). How do you do it?
Also I'm interested by Fluxbox, how is that an imbetween?

Features I like about i3 are mainly the way it gives control through the keyboard, like rapidly switching workspace, resizing windows, moving windows about quickly, etc.

The keybindings are not going to be the same as i3, but it gives you some basic tile function. Go to XFCE4 Settings Manager and open the Window Manager settings. Go to the Keyboard tab.

Scroll down to where you see "Tile window to the top", "Tile window to the bottom", "Tile window to the left", "Tile window to the right", "Tile window to the top-left", "Tile window to the top-right", "Tile window to the bottom-left", "Tile window to the bottom-right". Set a keyboard shortcut for each one. I use the Control button and the 1-9 keys on my Number Pad so that the direction is similar. For instance, "left" is Ctrl-4, "right" is Ctrl-6, "top-left" is Ctrl-7, top-left is Ctrl-9, etc. Scroll back up to "Maximize window" - I use Ctrl-5 on the Number Pad for that one.

Currently "Resize window" is set as Alt+F8. That one is interesting to play with, allows you to use your arrow keys to resize your windows.

I also set keybindings for the "Move window to workspace 1-9" settings, using Shift-Super-1-9. If I want to go visit one of the workspaces 1-9, I set my keybindings for "Workspace 1-9" to Super+1-9. Those are the same keybindings I use for tags 1-9 on DWM. I like to set my workspaces up to look more like the dmenu bar on DWM. That can be set in the Settings Manager, Workspaces module, where I give myself 9 workspaces (same as DWM's 9 tags). I name them 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. I set up my XFCE4 taskbar as a top vertical bar and keep my workspaces to the left on the taskbar to make it look similar to the dmenu bar on DWM.

I also do some other keybindings to get XFCE4 to work more like DWM. For example, I use Super-P to bring up dmenu on DWM (not sure if i3 use dmenu or rofi or what for the menu function). On XFCE, I set the keybinding for starting up the Whisker Menu to Super-P also. That is set in Settings Manager, in the Keyboard module, in the Application Shortcuts tab - you need to have a keybinding set for /usr/bin/xfce4-popup-whiskermenu. I also have keybindings set in the Applications Shortcuts tab for the terminal (/usr/bin/xfce4-terminal) as Shift+Super+Return - the same as for the terminal in DWM. I launch the Brave browser (/usr/bin/brave-browser) with Shift+Super+B, and LibreWolf browser (~/.local/bin/librewolf on my computer) with Shift+Super+L, and Thunar (/usr/bin/thunar) with Shift+Super+F - same keybindings I use in DWM. You can set up as many of these as you like.

That's just a taste of what you can do with keybindings in XFCE. I would spend time looking at a lot of the options in that Window Manager - Keyboard settings module, see what options you can bring over from what you were used to on i3.

As far as Fluxbox, I need to dig into my configuration notes a little bit, I know I wrote up some basic tiling instructions. I'll try to post something tonight or tomorrow if I have time. MX comes with a very highly customized Fluxbox setup, thanks to the tireless work of @Jerry3904, who also makes great walkthrough videos on youtube to describe all the Fluxbox options and all the different ways to configure it. You can begin reading about it and setting up your Fluxbox environment and playing around in it with the information from this page: https://mxlinux.org/mx-fluxbox/

thanks for such a detailed response. I wasn't aware of the tiling commands, and have now bound them and hopefully will become familiar with using them