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bismuth/docs/VISION.md
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🕶️ Vision

Simple by default, powerful when needed

  • KDE Plasma motto

Bismuth aims to be a full replacement to the standalone tiling window managers within the KDE Plasma ecosystem, that works out of the box, has a good UI/UX, and provides a reasonable amount of features.

Comparison with alternatives

If you want a tiling windows experience, you have the following options right now:

  1. Standalone tiling window managers (i3, Sway, bspwm, dwm, XMonad etc.)
  2. Pop Shell in GNOME
  3. Various tiling KWin scripts in KDE Plasma

The above solutions have problems, that Bismuth tries to overcome, and the features it tries to implement.

What about standalone tiling window managers?

Classic tiling window managers are powerful, but require too much work to make the user system usable and also lack of general integration of the desktop environments.

For example, to install and use Sway/i3 - you need also to install and configure:

  1. Panels
  2. Power management
  3. Volume control
  4. Brightness keys
  5. Keyboard layouts
  6. Screen locking
  7. Drive management
  8. Notifications
  9. App Launcher
  10. Networks manager
  11. ... (Did we forgot something?)

Even more, all those features the users have to configure are disjointed and not integrated between each other. They are not looking good. While on the desktop environments all those features come out of the box, and they are integrated, look good and consistent. Oh, and they also have more functionality. Also, you have to configure everything in the config file, which is not an intuitive approach, which wastes user time.

Man! I just wanted to try out window tiling. I have better things to do.

  • A busy user, probably

What about Pop Shell?

You have to install GNOME and meet all the unforeseen consequences of that decision. This is of course is a fine solution, if you're fine with GNOME. But what if you are already using KDE Plasma? Maybe you also would like to apply some themes, customize some panels, colors and other things... Or you're short on time and don't want to install and mess around with the different desktop environment?

Pop Shell does not help you with any of that, but, honestly speaking, it is a very user-friendly and well-made solution, that is very polished, so it's a good example for Bismuth as the mid-to-end goal.

What's the problem with the existing KWin Scripts?

KWin Scripts are powerful extensions of KDE Plasma functionality, but they have technical limitations that make them not so nice to use.

For example, the configuration is done in a non-user-friendly manner, where the user has to make a symbolic link to some .desktop file, that enables some dialog window, where settings are not applied without the script restart. Furthermore, the settings window is ugly and does not match KDE HIG. KWin Script also cannot use dynamic Plasma Applet or Window Decoration, which limits its functionality. Not to mention, KWin Scripting API does not let you register shortcuts in a user-friendly manner with the separate shortcuts' category in the System Settings.

The list of technical limitations could go on and on, but I think the reader would understand, that KDE Plasma needs more, than a KWin Script to compete with standalone tiling window managers and Pop Shell.

So, what is Bismuth, then?

Bismuth is a KDE Plasma tiling extension, which means that it combines all the types of KDE Plasma add-ons, that would make the User Experience better. All of those add-ons are able to communicate together and with KDE Plasma, to that the resulting solution feels integrated by itself and with the desktop, as if it was baked into KDE Plasma natively.

What Bismuth is not?

There should be a notice about what the Bismuth is not going to have as a part of its lifetime.

First, Bismuth is not a piece of software, that aims to replicate every feature of every tiling window manager in existence. Only a reasonable subset of the features will be implemented. This might be a technical limitation or UI/UX limitation.

And second, Bismuth won't be able to have a particular functionality implemented that heavily depends on the upstream technologies, such as KWin. This might include, for example, a "workspaces" feature (a.k.a. "different virtual desktops for different displays"). This is a technical limitation.