WindowSizer, the tiling window manager for Microsoft Windows, was released this summer and continues to mature. Feedback has varied from “fast and powerful” to “a throwback to Windows 1.0”. Most are curious and there seems to be an acknowledged window management issue. Less clear is how this problem should be solved. With WindowSizer you can create a tiled workspace with automatic window resizing, swap window positions with drag and drop, quickly open saved sets of windows, quickly close all windows, hide Internet Explorer and Explorer toolbars quickly and more. Is the program on the right track? What’s the future of window management, especially on the Windows platform?
WindowSizer 1.21 Released; Future of window management?
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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It’s not the future of window management. In the future, the window metaphore is gonna start to disappear. IMO the w.i.m.p. model leads to bad UIs.
Think everything, full screen.
well, this is something that is/was already there (in many aspects, just look at some options in different linux-desktop-environments) and that is used rarely (for good reason?). just imagine a normal user, being suddenly confronted with automatically shifting, resizing, twisting window-boxes. he will be quite irritated, imho. naaah… this won’t have a big impact.
Just wanted to inform you that a window tiler for Gnome is in the works as well:
http://www.studenter.hb.se/~arch/images/gtiler-with-icons.png
The user chooses what windows to arrange, a layout, and then clicks ‘Perform’. Simple as that.
The functionality depends on one metacity and one libwnck patch, see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=148364.
Note: this will *not* be in 2.8, but hopefully in the next release of Gnome (as a metacity patch / wnckapplet patch)
I find WindowSizer elegant in it’s simplicity, makes me wonder why Windows doesn’t already have this feature.
i’ll use alt-tab and size the apps myself, thanks anyway.
Cool. Mainly for those who hate the mouse. I ran ION for a while and once you’re accustomed to its ways (as is required of any window manager but the familiar) it can be a very pleasant desktop experience. True though, not for the ‘normal’ user.
The problem with ION is that applications arn’t designed for it which leads to akward window sizes and popup windows that pop up in strange ways.
For instance, if you have gaim open and open the preferences, the new window will be in the same space as the main gaim window. The preferences windows is several times larger then the main window.
It’s actually possible to configure ION to open that preferences window in a bigger frame, but yes, it does create problems and you’re forced to configure it if you want it to work nicely like that. Of course you could just move the preferences window to a bigger space every time you need it, but that’s a nuisance. ION does also support workspaces with floating windows though, so you could run the programs that don’t work nicely with ION there. GIMP is a classic example, although now that they are moving on to having less windows open at the same time, it might not be a problem anymore.
The Nvidia graphics drivers have a similar feature for arranging windows into grids, its not as fully featured but it is free.
“i’ll use alt-tab and size the apps myself, thanks anyway.”
Yeah, and you probably waste 15+ minutes a day shifting windows around your screen.
They say, “save the pennies and the pounds will save themselves.” Well, I also say, “save the seconds and the hours will save themselves.” I know, sounds stupid, but the concept is right… that 15 minutes a day saved by an app like this will add up over time!
Yes, theres a big problem with ION and apps like mozilla. Dont’ get me started on gaim, xmms, or vmware, but I think this metaphor would work a lot better if there was something like OS X sheets for these applications to work with.
… and it’s applying the worst feature of MDI to the entire system at once.
Visual Studio achieves something like this with its tiling. I’d rather bring the window I need to the front when I need it (which I admit I realistically can’t, w/ VS within an 8 hour day) rather than constantly resizing it to show more than one line, then stretching the one next to it, on and on and on.
This might be okay if you have a 50 inch monitor and/or two or 3 simple applications at a time.
Maybe do it as a variation on Apple’s Expose, where all the tiny tiled windows can be seen at once, expand when activated, and then be pinned open or left to snap back when the next window is “opened?”
I hate tiled windows; I want my windows to stay where I left them… and I’d rather use virtual desktops (via VirtuaWin) to organize my apps.
– chrish
the developer is still not nameing the install file something else then setup. sure there is a very distinctive icon there but when you do like me and stuff all install files you download into a folder for future reference (or reinstall when system goes down and you dont have a inet connection at hand) then its a real anoyance!
other then that, some people will like it, some people will not sure it, thats how it is. personaly i have my own ideas and they are kinda similar to what ronald talks about at the end. but with a added change to the current taskbar into something more fitting the name…
If I wanted a Windows 3.1 look, I’d install Windows 3.1.