Not many computer users have ever heard about or used Xmonad - a tiling window manager- since all popular operating system like Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Fedora...are using the floating window managers, in which the application windows will be floating around on the desktop screen and users can drag the windows around inside the desktop screen. Xmonad is different from the floating window managers. Generally, a Xmonad divides the desktop screen into several tiles and put each application window into each tile to avoid overlapping. If you are curious about Xmonad, this article will show you the benefits that you can have if you use Xmonad.
The first and most important benefit of using Xmonad is that your productivity will gain a huge boost. If you use a tiling window manager, whenever you open up an application, it will automatically resize the window to fit the screen estate. In other words, you will not waste any time to arrange and drag the application windows around like what you would have to do in a floating window manager. More than that, because Xmonad is very keyboard-oriented, you dont need to use the mouse at all when using Xmonad, everything can be done easily and fast from the keyboard. With the keyboard, it will be more time efficient to switch between application windows and between work spaces. This is perhaps the reasons why programmers and developers are very fond of tiling window managers.
Secondly, using a Xmonad will save more screen space for your Linux desktop. By default, Xmonad comes with no panel pre-installed so you have the whole desktop screen to use. Besides, there is no window button bar in tiling window managers so you can save some more horizontal space and utilize your desktop space to the fullest. And this benefit will be more prominent if you use Xmonad on a netbook whose screen space is very limited
The third benefit of using Xmonad is that you will learn a lot of useful things. Xmonad is written in Haskell, a very interesting programming language. Moreover you will have to learn to configure everything from scratches if you choose to use this tiling window manager. And after you get your Xmonad fully working, I am pretty sure that you have already learned a lot about programming and other useful stuffs about computers.
And last but not least, another benefit of using Xmonad is the cool and geeky factor. As I have said before, not many people have ever known or used tiling window managers so you will have some special feeling if you choose to use one. I myself always loved it when my friends asked my about what kind of program I was using when I showed them my xmonad desktop.
If you are interested in Xmonad and want to learn how to set up and configure it, check my article about how to set up and configure Xmonad in my blog. You will also find many tutorials and reviews about Linux distributions and open-source applications in this blog.
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