Wow, I didn't expect my comment to actually make a difference! I'm glad you're enjoying the new approach. I think that most people don't realize that they don't actually need a tiling window manager, so it's good to spread the word 🍻. Just to give you a quick update on my current workflow: about two weeks ago, I reinstalled Aerospace because I started enjoying a semi-transparent terminal. For that, I needed a way to avoid having any windows underneath. Also, I'm developing iOS applications so I need a small simulator window side by side with Neovim. At first, I tried using macOS Spaces, but the performance was painfully slow, so I switched to Aerospace workspaces instead. (Apple, just give us FAST native spaces with NO transitions 😡) One idea I've been considering is binding a command that hides all windows except the one I want to focus on. Not sure if this approach would feel too "flickery", but it might be worth experimenting with. Oh, and btw. I was using Raycast for binding shortcuts to apps but recently switched to skhd, mostly because it supports a config file.
@wojciech-kulik Awesome! Your comment did make a difference! Aerospace is sweet and I might go back to it in the future though I do like this simpler alternative. Keeps things straightforward. I also want to try linux and its tilers in the future, though I do need to use a Mac for other non-dev work. Thanks for the update on what your workflow is currently looking like!
@@wojciech-kulik I recently moved from a workflow very similar to the one described in this video to Aerospace, in part because I also liked the semi-transparent terminal look - it's working for me so far, not noticing any performance issues yet. Just commenting to let you know that cmd+option+H is a native command that hides all windows but the focused one, this was my workaround previously (which got a bit annoying when I had a split with more than one window)
@@wojciech-kulik I use yabai to keep my terminal transparent, the trick is to use the window_focused event and set the opacity to 0.9 for the active window, and 0.000001 for the normal window. I use yabai in stack mode, so keep a single app on the screen at a time, so when I focus my terminal, it's transparent, and all the apps behind are hidden, when I focus other apps, they're shown without transparency. I use yabai in stack mode, all the apps in the same desktop, and just switch to them using karabiner-elements shortcuts, no lag, no delay I also keep my sticky notes app on the right padding area of yabai, which always starts in a specific position and size, so its outside the management area, that app is just kitty running a minimal neovim config
I also don't understand why people like to keep apps in different workspaces, I keep all my apps in a single desktop and switch to them with keyboard shortcuts. I have a layer to switch to apps, like hyper+a+*, a layer to switch to tmux sessions hyper+t+*, a layer for system settings hyper+s+*, and so on. I use yabai in stack mode and on the right padding area keep my sticky notes app, which is a kitty running a minimal neovim config
I work with multiple operating systems every day (Windows, macOS, different Linux distros) due to the nature of my work and since I have this very specific workflow I got accustomed to it means that have things setup on different OSes to work in the same way. It just made me realize that on macOS I need a surpricing number of 'utility' apps running in the background just to complete my workflow. It made me appreciate the beautiful simplicity of Arch with Hyprland, which does exactly what it's been told and in most cases I don't even need to install a separate app, just edit a configuration file. Yabai is good for macOS, not as good as Hyprland on Linux because it's built on top of macOS's window manager though.
I actually did it this way for years (assigning hyper+key to go to specific apps, and key combos for various window tiling presets), but switched after your Aerospace video and have been loving it. I have a few apps that I always keep side by side, like my email and calendar so in those cases aerospace is cooler because I can assign them to one space and have them both visible with one key command. For all my go-to apps I assign them to their own spaces, and for every other app, it defaults to open in floating mode, similar to the how MacOS normally behaves. That way I get the advantages of a TWM but it still feels like a Mac.
I had the same need for a very simple solution. I ended up using Karabiner for switching apps combined with Rectangle to resize windows. Found that to be the cleanest for me since I already had Karabiner installed. Great video btw as always!
Gotta agree, sometimes Aerospace becomes quite laggy, especially if you have something intensive running in the background. I had a similar setup, but with Keyboard Maestro, and it has even better control to create macro to setup side-by-side windows with a keyboard shortcut, though more complex to setup.
I created some custom scripts to do my window management, it's basically some `open` commands for app focusing and Raycast deeplinks. Then you just launch those scripts with Raycast and you have Raycast Pro Layout feature for free. For example I have a binding that opens my terminal on 2/3rd of the screen and the browser on the last third (focusing on terminal).
Unfortunately we only have bad TWM options on MacOS... I migrated to Hyprland on Arch and I'm loving it. I managed to replicate the MacOS keyboard behavior and my setup is simply wonderful.
@@joseanmartinez Yep, I installed it on my gaming computer to test it and see if I can get used to it. Maybe in the future (when it supports VRR/ProMotion), I'll install Asahi Linux on my MBP.
I rarely need to split anything, just switch to a maximized app. In macOs there is already built in app Shortcuts to do that. I think most common usecase for splitting is inside terminal, but many modern terminals support that feature.
You could also make use of the HyperKey mac app to make capslock key as the hyperkey when long pressed. For normal keyboards I use this workflow (Raycast and HyperKey)
Curious to know what macbook are you using? I have not noticed any performance drops with Aerospace yet with only a M1max and 32GB. I use wezterm, neovim, and aerospace which I think all my original configs were from your videos. I also use Raycast for opening apps and other shortcuts.
@@davidallred991 I have an m1 pro 16gb macbook so quite a bit less powerful than your machine. If its just Wezterm, Aerospace, Neovim and Chrome everything works fine. Its more so when I’m doing other work like 3d modeling with Fusion 360 and Blender, maybe a terminal window open, as well as Chrome and some other possible apps open at the same time. Maybe I need an upgrade, but I do like the simplicity of this alternative approach.
Oh, same here. Both yabai and aerospace are great tools but I'm noticing performance issues sometimes and looking for alternative solutions. The Raycast approach looks promising but I wonder if there is any option to assign app to a workspace and be able to move window to workspace with keycombos
I also have a similar mapping for the spacebar with my keyboards. I still don't know how to replicate the same behavior on the Mac keyboard because I don't want to map the left control to the hyper key; I would love to have the spacebar hold as a hyper key. Does anyone know a solution for this?
The problem I see is how do you handle easily placing a terminal next to a browser window when you have all your applications launched (notion, Spotify...). You close them all before displaying your browser and the terminal ?
@@thibaultvigouroux9056 You would simply have them side by side with the raycast window management and the other apps would essentially be hidden behind the terminal and the browser when the terminal and browser are active/you’re using them.
Aerospace is awesome! My primary issue has been that it would start to slow down when I had several intensive applications running at the same time. If this improves in the future, I might go back to it, but I like the simplicity of this approach as well!
thats what i said in last video aero space is too complicated raycast is a better solution it has some less features but its not that importannt nd raycast is very easy to use
Thank you @wojciech-kulik for the comment in my Aerospace video! It inspired me to try this approach out 🚀 Hope you guys enjoy the video!
Wow, I didn't expect my comment to actually make a difference! I'm glad you're enjoying the new approach. I think that most people don't realize that they don't actually need a tiling window manager, so it's good to spread the word 🍻.
Just to give you a quick update on my current workflow: about two weeks ago, I reinstalled Aerospace because I started enjoying a semi-transparent terminal. For that, I needed a way to avoid having any windows underneath. Also, I'm developing iOS applications so I need a small simulator window side by side with Neovim. At first, I tried using macOS Spaces, but the performance was painfully slow, so I switched to Aerospace workspaces instead. (Apple, just give us FAST native spaces with NO transitions 😡)
One idea I've been considering is binding a command that hides all windows except the one I want to focus on. Not sure if this approach would feel too "flickery", but it might be worth experimenting with.
Oh, and btw. I was using Raycast for binding shortcuts to apps but recently switched to skhd, mostly because it supports a config file.
@wojciech-kulik Awesome! Your comment did make a difference! Aerospace is sweet and I might go back to it in the future though I do like this simpler alternative. Keeps things straightforward. I also want to try linux and its tilers in the future, though I do need to use a Mac for other non-dev work. Thanks for the update on what your workflow is currently looking like!
I did the same thing (switching to Raycast shortcuts) earlier this week after seeing that comment! Sometimes simplicity is all you need.
@@wojciech-kulik I recently moved from a workflow very similar to the one described in this video to Aerospace, in part because I also liked the semi-transparent terminal look - it's working for me so far, not noticing any performance issues yet.
Just commenting to let you know that cmd+option+H is a native command that hides all windows but the focused one, this was my workaround previously (which got a bit annoying when I had a split with more than one window)
@@wojciech-kulik I use yabai to keep my terminal transparent, the trick is to use the window_focused event and set the opacity to 0.9 for the active window, and 0.000001 for the normal window. I use yabai in stack mode, so keep a single app on the screen at a time, so when I focus my terminal, it's transparent, and all the apps behind are hidden, when I focus other apps, they're shown without transparency.
I use yabai in stack mode, all the apps in the same desktop, and just switch to them using karabiner-elements shortcuts, no lag, no delay
I also keep my sticky notes app on the right padding area of yabai, which always starts in a specific position and size, so its outside the management area, that app is just kitty running a minimal neovim config
I also don't understand why people like to keep apps in different workspaces, I keep all my apps in a single desktop and switch to them with keyboard shortcuts. I have a layer to switch to apps, like hyper+a+*, a layer to switch to tmux sessions hyper+t+*, a layer for system settings hyper+s+*, and so on.
I use yabai in stack mode and on the right padding area keep my sticky notes app, which is a kitty running a minimal neovim config
I work with multiple operating systems every day (Windows, macOS, different Linux distros) due to the nature of my work and since I have this very specific workflow I got accustomed to it means that have things setup on different OSes to work in the same way. It just made me realize that on macOS I need a surpricing number of 'utility' apps running in the background just to complete my workflow. It made me appreciate the beautiful simplicity of Arch with Hyprland, which does exactly what it's been told and in most cases I don't even need to install a separate app, just edit a configuration file. Yabai is good for macOS, not as good as Hyprland on Linux because it's built on top of macOS's window manager though.
I actually did it this way for years (assigning hyper+key to go to specific apps, and key combos for various window tiling presets), but switched after your Aerospace video and have been loving it. I have a few apps that I always keep side by side, like my email and calendar so in those cases aerospace is cooler because I can assign them to one space and have them both visible with one key command. For all my go-to apps I assign them to their own spaces, and for every other app, it defaults to open in floating mode, similar to the how MacOS normally behaves. That way I get the advantages of a TWM but it still feels like a Mac.
I had the same need for a very simple solution. I ended up using Karabiner for switching apps combined with Rectangle to resize windows. Found that to be the cleanest for me since I already had Karabiner installed. Great video btw as always!
@@henrymisc Awesome, appreciate it!
You are my favorite tech content creator!
@@MelkeyDev Thank you so much!
Gotta agree, sometimes Aerospace becomes quite laggy, especially if you have something intensive running in the background. I had a similar setup, but with Keyboard Maestro, and it has even better control to create macro to setup side-by-side windows with a keyboard shortcut, though more complex to setup.
Thanks for the video. I don't like to use several monitors and your approach looks great to me.
I created some custom scripts to do my window management, it's basically some `open` commands for app focusing and Raycast deeplinks. Then you just launch those scripts with Raycast and you have Raycast Pro Layout feature for free. For example I have a binding that opens my terminal on 2/3rd of the screen and the browser on the last third (focusing on terminal).
Unfortunately we only have bad TWM options on MacOS... I migrated to Hyprland on Arch and I'm loving it. I managed to replicate the MacOS keyboard behavior and my setup is simply wonderful.
Awesome! Definitely want to give a linux twm a try! Are you using a separate machine to run Arch?
@@joseanmartinez Yep, I installed it on my gaming computer to test it and see if I can get used to it. Maybe in the future (when it supports VRR/ProMotion), I'll install Asahi Linux on my MBP.
@@Glitchzzy Sweet! Thanks!
I rarely need to split anything, just switch to a maximized app. In macOs there is already built in app Shortcuts to do that. I think most common usecase for splitting is inside terminal, but many modern terminals support that feature.
You could also make use of the HyperKey mac app to make capslock key as the hyperkey when long pressed. For normal keyboards I use this workflow (Raycast and HyperKey)
Curious to know what macbook are you using? I have not noticed any performance drops with Aerospace yet with only a M1max and 32GB. I use wezterm, neovim, and aerospace which I think all my original configs were from your videos. I also use Raycast for opening apps and other shortcuts.
@@davidallred991 I have an m1 pro 16gb macbook so quite a bit less powerful than your machine. If its just Wezterm, Aerospace, Neovim and Chrome everything works fine. Its more so when I’m doing other work like 3d modeling with Fusion 360 and Blender, maybe a terminal window open, as well as Chrome and some other possible apps open at the same time. Maybe I need an upgrade, but I do like the simplicity of this alternative approach.
Oh, same here. Both yabai and aerospace are great tools but I'm noticing performance issues sometimes and looking for alternative solutions.
The Raycast approach looks promising but I wonder if there is any option to assign app to a workspace and be able to move window to workspace with keycombos
hell yeah, now we are talking!
I also have a similar mapping for the spacebar with my keyboards. I still don't know how to replicate the same behavior on the Mac keyboard because I don't want to map the left control to the hyper key; I would love to have the spacebar hold as a hyper key. Does anyone know a solution for this?
Aerospace is so good i have been using for a lot of time i would really recommend but it is still in beta so
The problem I see is how do you handle easily placing a terminal next to a browser window when you have all your applications launched (notion, Spotify...). You close them all before displaying your browser and the terminal ?
@@thibaultvigouroux9056 You would simply have them side by side with the raycast window management and the other apps would essentially be hidden behind the terminal and the browser when the terminal and browser are active/you’re using them.
what's the wallpaper?
I think Aerospace with Sketchybar is great!
Aerospace is awesome! My primary issue has been that it would start to slow down when I had several intensive applications running at the same time. If this improves in the future, I might go back to it, but I like the simplicity of this approach as well!
man... I was hoping that the aerospace lag was just bc im using an older macbook air 😭
I'm still sticking with yabai. It's more scriptable.
Just use amethyst tilling window manager ong
thats what i said in last video aero space is too complicated raycast is a better solution it has some less features but its not that importannt nd raycast is very easy to use
@@rajscholz I’m really liking this simpler approach for sure!