It’s been a couple of years since I tried Kubuntu again, and since then I’ve stayed on KDE (I use it on Manjaro too). Ubuntu, the main flavor, I use for testing, but GNOME, although I like some things, is not as productive or as light as Plasma. Without working with GNOME, and without needing many times to put applications in the corners, I was surprised to read about WinTile, something that may now be of interest because it is a way to put windows in the corners like Windows 11 will allow us to do.
Things as they are: the day of the presentation of Windows 11, the OMG medium! Ubuntu! he wrote in a tweet that I didn’t pay much attention to, partly because I didn’t understand it (“Can’t you?” I thought). A while ago Has published an article on WinTile, and that’s when I opened my virtual machine with Ubuntu 21.10 to verify that, indeed, Ubuntu, or to be more specific GNOME, does not allow us put windows in the corners natively.
WinTile: put windows in the corners like in Windo … KDE, for example
There are other graphical Linux environments that do allow this natively. I am going to say that KDE is safe, and i3 and Sway also because I tried them recently, they are actually window managers and every window we open splits the screen once more, but I am not going to assure that it is possible, for example, in the Deepin (DDE) that I have also recently tried because, quite simply, right now I doubt. I think it is something that should be available in any operating system, but it is not in Ubuntu.
But as almost always in the Linux world, there is a solution, and the one that works in Ubuntu is the aforementioned WinTile. Is available in this link, and it is an extension for GNOME Shell that works on Ubuntu 18.04 or higher and also in GNOME 40.
On the GNOME Extensions website they explain that:
WinTile is a window tiling system for GNOME that mimics the standard Win-arrow keys from Windows 10, allowing you to maximize, maximize to the sides, or 1/4 size to the corner via single or multiple monitors using only Super + Arrow.
In addition, the latest version allows:
- Put 2, 3 or 4 columns for standard or ultra-wide monitors.
- Upper / lower half support.
- Mouse preview and adjust to position windows.
- Toggle “maximize” mode, adding / removing GNOME animations.
It can help us be more productive
Personally, I only remember making use of something similar in KDE recently, when I wanted to copy files to three different disks, but it can help us be more productive, as was the case. Until Project GNOME adds it as native, or Canonical do the same as DING, which added the default extension in Ubuntu 21.04, WinTile is the best option.
