River alternative. Introduction to River: A Minimalistic and Keyboard-Driven Tiling Window Manager

River is a tiling window manager for X11 that follows a minimalistic and lightweight design philosophy. It aims to provide a simple and efficient window management solution with a focus on keyboard-driven workflows. River is written in Lua and is highly configurable, allowing users to tailor it to their specific needs.

Here are some key features and characteristics of the River window manager:

• Tiling window management: River employs a tiling window management approach, automatically arranging windows in a non-overlapping manner. This maximizes screen space utilization and enables efficient multitasking by eliminating window overlap.
• Keyboard-driven workflow: River emphasizes keyboard-driven navigation and control. It provides customizable keybindings for various actions such as window resizing, moving, focusing, and workspace management. This allows users to perform tasks without relying heavily on a mouse or graphical user interface.
• Lua scripting and configuration: River’s configuration and extension capabilities are powered by Lua, a lightweight and flexible scripting language. This enables users to customize and extend River’s behavior using Lua scripts, giving them the ability to create complex layouts, define custom keybindings, and add additional functionality.
• Dynamic tiling: River supports dynamic tiling, allowing windows to be resized and repositioned on the fly. Users can change the layout of windows and adapt it to their workflow requirements in real-time, enhancing productivity and flexibility.
• EWMH and XDG compliance: River adheres to the EWMH (Extended Window Manager Hints) and XDG (Desktop Entry Specification) standards. This ensures compatibility and seamless integration with applications and desktop environments that follow these specifications, providing a consistent user experience.
• Lightweight and minimalistic: River is designed to be lightweight and minimalistic, prioritizing efficiency and simplicity. It has minimal resource requirements, resulting in fast and responsive performance, even on older or less powerful hardware.
• Extensibility: River can be extended through Lua scripting, allowing users to create additional features and functionalities based on their requirements. This extensibility enables users to customize and enhance the window manager to suit their specific workflow and preferences.

River is well-suited for users who prefer a minimalistic and keyboard-driven window management experience. Its focus on simplicity, configurability, and lightweight performance makes it an appealing choice for those seeking an efficient and customizable tiling window manager.

River primarily relies on manual configuration through editing its configuration file, which might be challenging for users who prefer graphical configuration tools. Unlike some other window managers that offer user-friendly graphical interfaces for customization, River may require more technical expertise and comfort with editing configuration files directly.

If River isn’t meeting your needs and you’re in search of an alternative, consider checking out SMBAct. This cross-platform solution (for Windows, macOS an Linux) provides a user video tutorial, excellent customer support, regular updates, and continuous improvements. Beyond functioning as a tiling window manager, SMBAct also serves as a capable window switcher. Explore SMBAct as a potential option to enhance your window management experience.

Here you can find detailed information about SMBAct