Still Unbuilt

All 100 ideasDesktop and OS

#56 of 100 · Desktop and OS

Keyboard tiling on any desktop

Reliable keyboard tiling or FancyZones-style snapping on macOS, Windows or Wayland, like i3 or xmonad on X11.

13asks, each re-read
13separate threads
9of 19 years
2since 2024
2009first asked

Asks per year

’0811’10’121’14’162’183’201’2221’241’26

What the askers want

  • Would pay0%
  • Want it local or private46%
  • Object to subscriptions0%
  • Want it open source or self-hosted0%
  • Want AI to do it0%

Share of the 13 asks that say so, as judged by Jev.

What exists on Show HN

Built, still asked for15 Show HN launches do this job, and 19 more do part of it. People still ask, so the launches are missed, unknown, or not what they want. Ask what they’re missing before you build.

Instead of: xmonad, PowerToys, Divvy, Spectacle

The idea, as matched

A reliable tiling or grid-snapping window manager (i3, xmonad or FancyZones-style) with keyboard-driven layouts that works natively on macOS, Windows or Wayland Linux.

Jev first matched 14 requests to this idea; a second reader kept 13 of 14.

Every ask, newest first

Each line is an AI paraphrase of what the writer wanted. The link goes to their own words on Hacker News.

Reader’s note. MacOS is the most named platform.

  1. Aug 2025Wants an XMonad-style workspace tiling setup for Wayland. Read it: a comment in “Hyprland – An independent, dynamic tiling Wayland compositor”
  2. Oct 2024Wants a less hacky Mac plugin for tiled windowing, like PopOS tiling. Read it: a comment in “Using an 8K TV as a Monitor”
  3. Jun 2023Was searching for a Divvy alternative with more features for Mac window snapping. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?”
  4. Jan 2023Wants a Mac version of FancyZones supporting shift-drag into templated cells. Read it: a comment in “My Controversial Opinion: Ventura Is Apple’s Worst macOS Yet”
  5. May 2022Wants a Linux equivalent of FancyZones that works well, unlike GNOME plugins tried. Read it: a comment in “PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities”
  6. Dec 2020Wants a tiling window manager recommendation for Windows 10 like DWM. Read it: a comment in “I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager”
  7. Oct 2020Wants a Mac window manager that auto-lays out windows, surfaces the right tabs and offers keyboard search. Read it: a comment in “Re-Thinking the Desktop OS”
  8. Apr 2020Wants a decent Wayland desktop or window manager, since Sway makes XWayland apps blurry on high-DPI screens. Read it: a comment in “Firefox 75.0”
  9. Mar 2017Wants an Ubuntu window-snapping tool as good as sizeUp on macOS. Read it: a comment in “Dell’s 32-inch 8K UP3218K Display Now for Sale”
  10. Feb 2017Asks for a good tiling window manager for Windows. Read it: a comment in “XMonad 0.13 released”
  11. Dec 2014Wants out-of-the-box tiling on a 4K display finer than quarters, beyond BetterTouchTool. Read it: a comment in “Amethyst – A tiling window manager for OS X”
  12. May 2010Wants software to tile more than four windows on a 30 inch monitor. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: What's the best way to use a 30" monitor?”
  13. Oct 2009Wants an XMonad-like non-overlapping window manager for OS X to avoid arranging windows manually. Read it: a comment in “Mac OS X’s Hidden Single-Application Mode”

Building this?

Read ten of the asks above first, because they say what the existing launches miss. If you ship it, post it as a Show HN so the next run of this list finds it.

See all 100How the counts work

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