i3 icon
i3 icon

i3

 70 likes

i3 is a dynamic tiling window manager with clean, readable and documented code, featuring extended Xinerama support, usage of libxcb instead of xlib and several improvements over wmii.

i3 with VIM, git, MPlayer, i3bar

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Application type

Platforms

  • Linux
  • BSD
4.8 / 5 Avg rating (6)
70likes
6comments

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Lightweight
  2.  Customizable

Features

  1.  Tiling Window Manager
  2.  Tiling
  3.  X server
  4.  Built-in bar/panel
  5.  Mod Keys
  6.  Tabbed interface

 Tags

  • xcb

i3 News & Activities

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Recent News

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Recent activities

  • RKitSeal and fridim liked i3
    4 months ago
  • K0RR added i3 as alternative to grefsen
    6 months ago
  • K0RR added i3 as alternative to orbital (Wayland compositor)
    6 months ago
  • App icon
    K0RR added i3 as alternative to PaperDE
    6 months ago
  • App icon
    Fander added i3 as alternative to Cortile
    7 months ago
  • App icon
    jdakfkj333 added i3 as alternative to Whim
    10 months ago
  • App icon
    RemovedUser added i3 as alternative to Emerald Theme Manager
    11 months ago
  • forcemajore liked i3
    12 months ago
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i3 information

  • Developed by

    Unknown
  • Licensing

    Open Source (BSD-3-Clause) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.8
  • Alternatives

    68 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Category

OS & Utilities

GitHub repository

  •  9,893 Stars
  •  782 Forks
  •  366 Open Issues
  •   Updated Apr 21, 2025 
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Our users have written 6 comments and reviews about i3, and it has gotten 70 likes

i3 was added to AlternativeTo by 6pi on Jan 10, 2012 and this page was last updated Mar 9, 2022.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
desgua
May 3, 2019
2

Fast, well documented, easy to learn and configure.

RemovedUser
May 13, 2023
0

It does what I need it to do. Very simple without added stuff you don't need.

RemovedUser
Oct 5, 2021
0

Best tiling windows manager on the planet period! If you have multiple monitors, this is WM to have and use.

Lunatica
Nov 20, 2020
0

PROS

  • probably the easiest dynamic window manager while also being feature-rich.
  • defaults are ok to begin with
  • very good documentation for users
  • very and easily customizable
  • has all the major container layouts out of the box: tiling, tabbed, stacked, floating
  • plust it has the very useful scratchpad (and sticking of windows)
  • resource usage is ok
  • has good performance
  • you can create customizable layouts

CONS

  • there are some annoying bugs related to the layouts
  • no way to restore sessions; however it's possible to create the customizable layouts (which has some degree of automation but still needs manual intervention) to sort of try and recreate those sessions
  • it will die with Xorg
Cora
Feb 27, 2019
1

I was skeptical at first of how well a tiling window manager would work, but decided to give it a try (with a base Debian MATE environment), and it has worked surprisingly well, allowed for every customization that I've needed, and has greatly improved the speed of my workflow. Color me impressed!

moitulok10
Jul 16, 2017
0

It's the best tiling window manager for my needs. Great documentation. Great config file syntax. Great performance.

What is i3?

i3 is a dynamic tiling window manager with clean, readable and documented code, featuring extended Xinerama support, usage of libxcb instead of xlib and several improvements over wmii.

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