The Future Is Niri

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Niri and the scrollable tiling paradigm

  • Seen as a smoother, more polished successor to PaperWM’s “infinite horizontal strip” idea.
  • Many commenters say it immediately “fits their brain” and removes classic tiling “bin-packing” problems (constant relayouts, everything resizing).
  • Others report discomfort with off‑screen / half‑visible windows, finding the endless canvas visually distracting or anxiety‑inducing.
  • Some note that coming from i3/sway, they can reuse most of their keyboard habits and feel productive quickly.

Wayland, Xwayland, and compatibility pain points

  • Niri is “just” a Wayland compositor, not a full desktop environment, so users must bolt on: notifications, app launcher, dock/task list, etc.
  • Xwayland support is external (e.g. xwayland‑satellite); several people struggle particularly with X11↔Wayland clipboard syncing (password managers, editors → browsers).
  • Fractional/integer scaling currently leaves X11 apps blurry, which is a showstopper for some.
  • Screen‑sharing under Wayland is reported as fine in mainstream DEs (GNOME), but people remain wary of edge cases in more niche compositors.

Workflows, workspaces, and ergonomics

  • Niri supports numbered and named workspaces; initially they’re dynamically numbered and can’t stay empty, but named workspaces fix that for “Super+number” workflows.
  • Many like keeping “accessory” apps (password manager, terminals) off‑screen in the same workspace as the main app and just scrolling to them.
  • A recurring complaint is “losing” deeply stacked windows; some want a global overview or window map for discovery.
  • Debate over traditional tiling: some defend complex nested tabbed/stacked layouts as very ergonomic; others argue scrollable tiling removes those choices with little real loss.
  • Animations are polarizing: attractive to some, unusable to others with vision issues; they can be fully or selectively disabled.

Alternatives and ecosystem across platforms

  • Linux analogs: PaperWM (GNOME), Karousel and KWin tiling (KDE), hyprscroller (Hyprland), river, labwc, dwm, bspwm, herbstluftwm, stumpwm, xmonad, Awesome, etc.
  • macOS: PaperWM.spoon, AeroSpace, Amethyst, Rectangle, Moom, Magnet; users wonder if any can truly mimic Niri’s scrolling model.
  • Windows: komorebi and jwno cited for ideas like workspace scrolling, dynamic layout/offset rules, container limits, and Vimium‑style shortcuts.

Performance, resources, and practicality

  • Niri is praised for a clean Rust codebase and low total memory footprint (~400 MB for a full minimal desktop vs ~1.6 GB for GNOME+PaperWM), though others note X11 + lightweight WMs can be even leaner.
  • Battery/runtime comparisons are mixed: some report big gains from switching WMs; others get better life from x11 without a compositor.

Adoption hurdles and packaging

  • Setup burden (Wayland plumbing, Xwayland, DE‑like pieces) and fragile clipboard/X11 integration lead a few to revert to sway, i3, or traditional DEs.
  • Some frustration that binaries exist for many distros but not Debian/Ubuntu; NixOS and Pop!_OS users report flake/login‑integration hiccups.

Broader reflections

  • Long‑time users reminisce about earlier WMs (ratpoison, olvwm, fluxbox, wmii, compiz) and see Niri as one more entry in a long line of niche but influential tilers.
  • Several argue tiling’s biggest value is educational and ergonomic; others think most of its benefits have already been absorbed into mainstream DEs.