Greetings people from the Interweb!
PaperWM is a Gnome extension that implements an experimental tiling window manager with a twist: horizontal scrolling instead of nested grids.
I should start by admitting I've bounced off every tiling WM I've tried. The rationale is sound — floating windows demand constant micromanagement of positions and dimensions — but traditional tiling WMs replace that tedium with a steep learning curve. Memorizing dozens of keyboard combinations to replicate what I could do (however inefficiently) with a mouse never felt like a win.
Gnome conservatively introduced half-screen tiling and it's not bad, but they stopped at that, quarter-screen tiling seems unlikely — I suppose 4 keybindings are unacceptable.
For the uninitiated: tiling WMs automatically partition screen space when applications open — no manual resizing. Traditional implementations (i3, dwm, xmonad) use complex grid layouts with master/stack arrangements, demanding memorization of dozens of keybindings for splits, resizes, moves, and container navigation.
PaperWM breaks from this tradition with a simple metaphor: windows are sheets of paper arranged horizontally on an infinite scroll. Instead of forcing windows into rigid grids, each window maintains sensible dimensions while you scroll left/right with three-finger touchpad swipes or keyboard shortcuts (Super+, and Super+.).
This horizontal paradigm clicked immediately. No mental model of master areas, no stack manipulation, no nested containers. Windows line up left to right, scroll to see them. It matches how I already think about task switching.
After years of bouncing off i3, dwm, and xmonad within hours, PaperWM is the first tiling WM I've continued using. The difference is cognitive overhead.
Traditional tiling WMs demand constant tree-structure thinking. Split horizontal? Vertical? Which container am I in? PaperWM: window goes to the right. Done. On a 13" notebook screen with limited real estate, this simplicity is liberating. Open terminal, swipe right, open editor, swipe right, open browser—linear workflow matches linear window arrangement.
It integrates naturally with Gnome's workspace paradigm. Each workspace gets its own horizontal strip. New windows consistently appear to the right of the focused one — predictable behavior that eliminates guesswork. Moving windows with the mouse/touchpad still works without fighting the tiling system.
Touchpad gestures are the killer feature. Three-finger swipes to scroll between windows feel natural on laptop trackpads. Try the same on a desktop mouse—awkward at best, impossible at worst. PaperWM is clearly designed for notebooks where touchpads are first-class input devices.
Small 13-15" screens amplify this advantage. Traditional tiling WMs force awkward compromises—waste space with padding, or make terminals 40 columns wide. PaperWM shows 1-2 windows at readable sizes, scroll for the rest.
PaperWM requires Gnome 3.28+, locking you into the Gnome ecosystem. No standalone i3-style config, no mixing with other desktop environments. Installation is straightforward from the Gnome extensions website — but it means you're committed to Gnome.
Also Touchpad dependency is real. On desktops with only a mouse, you lose the gesture fluidity that makes PaperWM shine on notebooks. Keyboard shortcuts still work, but the experience is less compelling.
If you've tried tiling WMs before and found them cognitively exhausting, PaperWM is worth 30 minutes if you're already using Gnome. The horizontal metaphor either clicks immediately or it doesn't. For notebook users tired of window juggling but allergic to traditional tiling complexity, this might be the sweet spot.