Automatic Tiling Added to ‘Tiling Shell’ GNOME Extension
I’d promise to shut up about the Tiling Shell GNOME Shell extension but I can’t because new features are coming thick and fast — the latest: support for automatic tiling.
Yes, this nifty workflow wonder is finally able to automatically tile newly opened windows based on the currently active tiling layout (and as you may sick of me re-emphasising: you can switch between different layouts ad-hoc, and create and save your own).
Windows auto-tile to the best vacant slot in the layout. But what’s ‘best’? Tiling Shell developer Domenico Ferraro says this will be the ‘vacant tile nearest to the center of the screen’.
With the addition of automatic tiling you no longer need to tile windows manually.
Not that tiling windows by hand is hard with this extension given the myriad of options it already supports, from mouse-friendly ones like a slide-in snap assistant, mixed use like snapping whilst holding a hotkey, to keyboard-driven tiling using configurable shortcuts.
But if you’ve long-lusted after the auto-tiling experience Pop!_OS offers, but love the other features and customisation options Tiling Shell has, the addition of automatic tiling will be good news!
Of course, not everyone will want to use it so automatic tiling is off by default.Enable or disable at any time from the extension’s well-stocked Preferences dialog (it would be easier if, per Pop Shell, an applet menu option toggle was added, but minor quibble).
Tiling Shell is free, open source software that works with any Linux distribution equipped with GNOME 42 or above (i.e., Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or later).