Why move from gnome to i3 (window manager) in ubuntu?

The screenshot was taken at the time of writing this article

I am using ubuntu for the past 7 years. Using Linux systems instead of Windows or MAC machines gives me a feeling of a developer. I love mostly to work in command based environments. But in the recent versions of ubuntu, they started adding more customizations to the gnome and the GUI gives me a feeling that I am still using some light version windows.

I started hating gnome, after searching on the internet found a concept called Tiling Window Manager which inspired me to move to the i3 window manager a year back.

PS: I found arch Linux only after doing all the customizations to my current system.

i3 is a tiling window manager designed for x11 which is inspired by wmii. The whole i3 project is written in C, which makes it lightweight when compared to other windows managers. It supports tiling, stacking and tabbing the layouts, which it handles dynamically. i3 also supports floating pop up windows that are freely resizable and movable. Every command in i3 can be associated with keys. So when you press a key the command gets executed.

Tabbed mode

Stacked mode

Floating mode

The configuration is done via a plain text file found in ~/.config/i3/config, below is my current i3 configuration,

# This file has been auto-generated by i3-config-wizard(1).
# It will not be overwritten, so edit it as you like.
#
# Should you change your keyboard layout some time, delete
# this file and re-run i3-config-wizard(1).
#
# i3 config file (v4)
#
# Please see https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html for a complete reference!
set $mod Mod4
# Font for window titles. Will also be used by the bar unless a different font
# is used in the bar {} block below.
font pango:Noto Sans 8
# This font is widely installed, provides lots of unicode glyphs, right-to-left
# text rendering and scalability on retina/hidpi displays (thanks to pango).
#font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 8
# Before i3 v4.8, we used to recommend this one as the default:
# font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
# The font above is very space-efficient, that is, it looks good, sharp and
# clear in small sizes. However, its unicode glyph coverage is limited, the old
# X core fonts rendering does not support right-to-left and this being a bitmap
# font, it doesn’t scale on retina/hidpi displays.
# Use Mouse+$mod to drag floating windows to their wanted position
floating_modifier $mod
# start a terminal
bindsym $mod+Return exec i3-sensible-terminal
# kill focused window
bindsym $mod+Shift+q kill
# start dmenu (a program launcher)
bindsym $mod+d exec i3-dmenu-desktop --dmenu="dmenu -i -fn 'Noto Sans:size=8'"
bindsym $mod+Shift+d exec rofi -lines 12 -padding 18 -width 60 -location 0 -show drun -sidebar-mode -columns 3 -font 'Noto Sans 8'
# change focus
bindsym $mod+j focus left
bindsym $mod+k focus down
bindsym $mod+l focus up
bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
# alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
bindsym $mod+Left focus left
bindsym $mod+Down focus down
bindsym $mod+Up focus up
bindsym $mod+Right focus right
# move focused window
bindsym $mod+Shift+j move left
bindsym $mod+Shift+k move down
bindsym $mod+Shift+l move up
bindsym $mod+Shift+semicolon move right
# alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
bindsym $mod+Shift+Left move left
bindsym $mod+Shift+Down move down
bindsym $mod+Shift+Up move up
bindsym $mod+Shift+Right move right
# split in horizontal orientation
bindsym $mod+h split h
# split in vertical orientation
bindsym $mod+v split v
# enter fullscreen mode for the focused container
bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
# change container layout (stacked, tabbed, toggle split)
bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
bindsym $mod+e layout toggle split
# toggle tiling / floating
bindsym $mod+Shift+space floating toggle
# change focus between tiling / floating windows
bindsym $mod+space focus mode_toggle
# focus the parent container
bindsym $mod+a focus parent
# focus the child container
#bindsym $mod+d focus child
# switch to workspace
bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3
bindsym $mod+4 workspace 4
bindsym $mod+5 workspace 5
bindsym $mod+6 workspace 6
bindsym $mod+7 workspace 7
bindsym $mod+8 workspace 8
bindsym $mod+9 workspace 9
bindsym $mod+0 workspace 10
# move focused container to workspace
bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
bindsym $mod+Shift+3 move container to workspace 3
bindsym $mod+Shift+4 move container to workspace 4
bindsym $mod+Shift+5 move container to workspace 5
bindsym $mod+Shift+6 move container to workspace 6
bindsym $mod+Shift+7 move container to workspace 7
bindsym $mod+Shift+8 move container to workspace 8
bindsym $mod+Shift+9 move container to workspace 9
bindsym $mod+Shift+0 move container to workspace 10
# lockscreen
bindsym $mod+p exec ~/.i3/i3lock-fancy-multimonitor/lock
# volume controls
bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl -- set-sink-volume 0 +5%
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl -- set-sink-volume 0 -5%
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-mute 0 toggle
# brightness control
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec xrandr --output eDP-1 --brightness 1
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec xrandr --output eDP-1 --brightness 0.5
# reload the configuration file
bindsym $mod+Shift+c reload
# restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3)
bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
# exit i3 (logs you out of your X session)
bindsym $mod+Shift+e exec "i3-nagbar -t warning -m 'You pressed the exit shortcut. Do you really want to exit i3? This will end your X session.' -b 'Yes, exit i3' 'i3-msg exit'"
exec_always --no-startup-id feh --bg-scale ~/.config/i3/wallpaper.png
exec_always --no-startup-id compton --config ~/.config/i3/compton.conf
# exec_always --no-startup-id ~/.config/polybar/launch.sh
for_window [class="^.*"] border pixel 0
# resize window (you can also use the mouse for that)
mode "resize" {
        # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
# Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
        # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
        # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
        # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
        bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
# same bindings, but for the arrow keys
        bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
# back to normal: Enter or Escape
        bindsym Return mode "default"
        bindsym Escape mode "default"
}
bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
bindsym $mod+Shift+greater move container to output right
bindsym $mod+Shift+less move container to output left
bar {
        colors {
                    background #0B0B0B
                    statusline #000000
                    separator #0B0B0B
}
        font pango: Noto Sans 7.5
        status_command i3status
}

i3status bar (bottom bar on my system)

i3status is a small program for generating a status bar for i3bar, dzen2 or similar programs. It is designed to be very efficient by issuing a very small number of system calls, as one generally wants to update such a status line every second. Its the one that updates the bottom bar on my window.

The configuration of i3status is also done via text file found at ~/.config/i3status/config. Here is my i3status configuration.

general {
        output_format = "i3bar"
        colors = false
        markup = pango
        interval = 5
        color_good = '#2f343f'
  color_degraded = '#ebcb8b'
  color_bad = '#ba5e57'
}
order += "disk /"
order += "disk /home"
order += "load"
order += "ethernet _first_"
order += "wireless _first_"
order += "battery all"
order += "cpu_temperature 0"
order += "volume master"
order += "tztime local"
load {
        format = "<span background='#50fa7b'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> %5min Load </span>"
}
cpu_temperature 0 {
        format = "<span background='#bf616a'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> %degrees °C </span>"
        path = "/sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp"
}
disk "/" {
        format = "<span background='#fec7cd'>   </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> %free Left </span>"
}
disk "/home" {
        format = "<span background='#a1d569'>  %free Free </span>"
}
ethernet _first_ {
        format_up = "<span background='#88c0d0'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> %ip </span>"
        format_down = "<span background='#88c0d0'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> Disconnected </span>"
}
wireless _first_ {
        format_up = "<span background='#bd93f9'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> %essid </span>"
        format_down = "<span background='#bd93f9'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> Disconnected </span>"
}
volume master {
        format = "<span background='#ebcb8b'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> %volume </span>"
        format_muted = "<span background='#bf616a'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'> Muted </span>"
        device = "default"
        mixer = "Master"
        mixer_idx = 0
}
battery all {
     last_full_capacity = true
        format = "<span background='#a3be8c'>  </span><span background='#e5e9f0'>%percentage [%status] </span>"
        format_down = "No Battery"
        status_chr = " Charging "
        status_bat = ""
        status_unk = " Unknown "
        status_full = " Charged "
        path = "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT%d/uevent"
        low_threshold = 10
}
tztime local {
  format = "<span background='#81a1c1'> %time </span>"
  format_time = " %a %-d %b %I:%M %p"
}

Even the lock screen can be customized using i3lock.

Screen after locking. (Photo was taken with external device)

I hope by now you started exploring more on i3wm and i3lock. Happy Coding :)