Why I Switched to Aerospace: Tiling Window Management Made Easy on macOS

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2024-11-12 22:30:06

Discover how Aerospace, a tiling window manager for macOS, simplifies window management and boosts productivity. Learn about its powerful features, easy setup, and tips for mastering your workflow on macOS.

It's rare to see productivity significantly improve just by installing a single app. Even apps with bold promise often require some effort to configure and get to used to. This is especially true for keyboard-centric software aimed at power users. I’ve seen people perform magic with highly customized Vim setups, navigating and editing code at lightning speed, but such proficiency doesn’t come overnight.

That's why I was surprised by how quickly I became productive on macOS with a tiling window manager called Aerospace. Tiling window managers can sound intimidating, often seeming like tools designed for terminal-focused, tech-savvy users. Aerospace itself even warns that it’s “targeted at advanced users and developers.” However, the reality turned out to be much more accessible.

Aerospace allowed me to fully utilize macOS’s concept of organizing apps into “desktops”. Aerospace refines this idea with its own “workspaces,” offering an intuitive and efficient alternative. In this post, I’ll cover how Aerospace works, how I use it, and which features allowed me to integrate it smoothly from day one.