Alternatives to Forge
A GNOME Shell extension that adds i3 and sway style tiling window management to the desktop. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Forge
A GNOME Shell extension that adds i3 and sway style tiling window management to the desktop.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Forge.
Pop Shell
A keyboard-driven GNOME Shell extension from System76 that adds automatic tiling window management.
Pop Shell also adds keyboard-driven automatic tiling inside GNOME, backed by System76 and shipped with Pop!_OS, with development following the GNOME version Pop!_OS uses.
PaperWM
A GNOME Shell extension that tiles windows side by side on a horizontally scrolling strip.
PaperWM replaces i3-style tiling with scrollable tiling on a horizontal strip inside GNOME, with a settings pane for keybindings and per-app rules.
Tiling Shell
A GNOME Shell extension that adds FancyZones-style tiling layouts and Windows 11 style snap assistance.
Tiling Shell uses FancyZones-style custom layouts and a Windows 11 style snap assistant inside GNOME instead of i3 and sway style tree tiling.
Tiling Assistant
A GNOME Shell extension that adds Windows-style snap assist and expands GNOME's tiling layouts.
Tiling Assistant brings Windows-style snap assist and extra layouts to GNOME, maintained under the Ubuntu organisation, rather than i3 or sway style tiling.
Sway
Use an i3-style tiling workflow on Wayland.
Sway provides the i3-style tiling workflow directly as a Wayland compositor, which means leaving the GNOME desktop instead of extending it.
i3
Arrange X11 windows in a keyboard-controlled tiling workspace.
i3 is the original keyboard-controlled tiling window manager Forge imitates, but it runs on X11 and replaces GNOME rather than running inside it.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
GNOME
Use a Linux desktop organized around an activities overview and workspaces.
Dash to Dock
Keep GNOME's application dash visible as a configurable dock.
Dash to Panel
Combine GNOME application shortcuts and the system tray in one panel.
COSMIC
Use System76's desktop environment with configurable workspaces and window tiling.
