Comment by code_duck | Hacker News Reader

Comment by code_duck | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

As far as Ubuntu supporting window snapping, it’s worth noting that Linux has supported every conceivable window management feature for years, including some that have never come anywhere near Windows or Mac, like tiling window managers. making window management entirely modular.

Every WM or desktop combo in Linux has other features I find highly convenient which are strangely missing from Mac and Windows, such as a drag modifier key for windows, which allows you to move a window when the title bar is off screen. I prefer features like windowshading to minimization, too, and it is simple to configure Linux to do that, unlike Mac or Windows. I don’t use the feature, but would surprised if window-snap-to-borders wasn’t supported as far back as KDE 1.3 or WindowMaker .92.

Sure, but I don't think it was available out of the box for Ubuntu until recently (I could be wrong), and I also think Windows 7 invented snap-to-sides (could be wrong on this too).

Linux has always been the OS where you can do just about anything you want with enough research and effort, but it still matters what the most mainstream distro offers out of the box at any given time.

I do believe that WM feature was available long before Windows 7... I recall similar options in many WMs as well as apps like Gimp, called sticky edges, edge attraction, snap-to-borders, and so forth. It seems like a fairly apparent idea to assist window placement, and i’d be surprised if it hasn’t been around in some form since the 80s.

Linux is highly extensible and modular, so it’s hard to say what it provides ‘out of the box’, even a given distro. For almost any distro, it’s very simple to start using a different WM (literally 3 steps).

I suppose it’s true that for the majority of users, what the defaults are is more important than an option merely being available as most people will never even read the settings menus.

My favorite feature, minimize to title bar, seems to be left for Window Maker and KDE, everyone else apparently has dropped it.

Xfce calls it shade window. I believe it is still there, and can be configured to be double click, or whatever you'd like.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com