Products · Product
i3
Raised as a usability problem by 38 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2013–2025), in 32 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Adjusting window sizes is slow when new windows keep openingUnreviewed
20132026- Every window gets resized when new windows open, disrupting layout2025-03-13
- Adjusting window sizes is slow when opening new windows often2022-07-05
- Resizing and opening windows feels painful, and conky widgets take 5-10 seconds to load2021-01-12
Hard to quickly create and manipulate window splitsUnreviewed
20132026- New windows sometimes open as splits, causing unwanted relayout instead of tabbing2025-03-12
- Repeated show presses cycle windows in and out unpredictably, across workspaces2019-02-26
- Hard to quickly create and manipulate window splits; windows always feel like a fight to place2016-03-15
Mixing window arrangement styles in one workspace is less usableUnreviewed
20132026- Hard to organise per-project workspaces and fixed window layouts; needs hacky workarounds2020-02-17
- Rearranging windows gets messy; unclear how to regroup them under a different layout2016-03-15
- Mixing window arrangement styles in one workspace became less usable2013-05-19
Desired features need tedious configuration in tiling window managersUnreviewed
20132026- Rigid tiling model makes windows hard to arrange, so the commenter finds it essentially useless2024-08-26
- Achieving desired features in tiling window managers requires tedious configuration, feels like wasted time2024-04-09
- Popup windows like emulator and dialogs are awkward to handle under tiling2020-12-16
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 40 complaints
- Doing unforeseen things requires googling bash commands, which is annoying2025-09-18
- Scaling requires many manual steps: environment variables, gsettings, config files, Chromium flags2025-09-09
- Keyboard input gets trapped in a pane after quitting a GPU app2025-05-08
- Must write regex to place windows, can't simply specify position and size2025-05-04
- Every window gets resized when new windows open, disrupting layout2025-03-13
- New windows sometimes open as splits, causing unwanted relayout instead of tabbing2025-03-12
- Notifications, volume and brightness keys don't work well by default, needing fiddling on each machine2025-03-12
- Rigid tiling model makes windows hard to arrange, so the commenter finds it essentially useless2024-08-26
- Forces users to manage windows they never needed to think about, slowing them down2024-05-26
- Achieving desired features in tiling window managers requires tedious configuration, feels like wasted time2024-04-09
- Requires many key chords and manual layout planning to get an optimal layout2023-06-13
- Tearing, poor input/output management, and no working scaling on X/i3 make it hard to use2022-08-31
- Adjusting window sizes is slow when opening new windows often2022-07-05
- Has to install many basic utilities separately like screenshot and network tools2022-07-05
- Multi-window apps like GIMP and Eclipse are hard to configure as floating windows2022-06-11
- Pairing on his setup is impossible because the window manager and keyboard layout are unusable for others2022-01-07
- Took way too much fiddling to configure and broke with certain apps2021-12-07
- Resizing and opening windows feels painful, and conky widgets take 5-10 seconds to load2021-01-12
- Popup windows like emulator and dialogs are awkward to handle under tiling2020-12-16
- Containers add friction to arranging and resizing windows compared with other tilers2020-12-16
- Simple tasks like configuring Bluetooth, switching audio and multiple displays are painful2020-09-16
- I3's window tabs can't replace app tabs, making tabs harder to read and navigate2020-09-16
- Default launcher takes up to 10 seconds to open, and faster alternatives are hard to discover2020-05-26
- Default i3/awesome settings are nearly unusable until much time is spent configuring2020-04-29
- Connecting monitors, wifi and bluetooth all require manual configuration, which is painful2020-02-17
- Hard to organise per-project workspaces and fixed window layouts; needs hacky workarounds2020-02-17
- Too easy to accidentally mess up window layout when using tab mode2019-06-02
- Repeated show presses cycle windows in and out unpredictably, across workspaces2019-02-26
- Documentation is very long and complicated for newer Linux users2018-09-15
- Gets tangled in nested containers and struggles to get windows out of them2017-01-22
- Simple settings like time zone need symlinks and manual process restarts2017-01-03
- Confusing for people unfamiliar with it, a friend struggled to use it2016-10-14
- Hard to quickly create and manipulate window splits; windows always feel like a fight to place2016-03-15
- Rearranging windows gets messy; unclear how to regroup them under a different layout2016-03-15
- Can't get past the learning curve, so keeps switching back to GNOME2015-03-01
- Default vi-style focus keys feel perverse to Emacs and Unix users, requiring manual rebinding2014-12-17
- Finds i3 usability not as good as the older wmii window manager2014-05-20
- Cursor jumps back to the middle of the screen when moving it to another monitor2013-10-04
- Can't drag panes or containers into place with the mouse, must use keyboard2013-10-04
- Mixing window arrangement styles in one workspace became less usable2013-05-19