Apple introduced Split View with OS X El Capitan. A feature as useful as the touchbar on macbooks. Irrelevant. So, naturally, most users look for an alternative. There are a bunch of window managers in the Mac App Store, and most of them are ridiculously expensive.
There are, of course, some free ones too. Some more complex than others, like Amethyst and chunckwm. If that’s your thing, go ahead and check them out. I’ve tried them and they’re not for me. I can’t deal with i3, Awesome, XMoand or Openbox on Linux either.
What suits my needs and fits my workflow is a simple app that allows me to manipulate windows using quick keyboard shortcuts. It also needs to be free and open source and does not need to be installed from the Mac App Store.
For the last couple of years I’ve used Spectacle. Perfect app for me but, even if it still works, it’s no longer actively maintained. Luckily the developer, with the help of the community, recommended Rectangle as an open source alternative.
Just download the dmg and install it ( mount the dmg file > drag-and-drop app to /Applications/ ) or install it via Homebrew with brew cask install rectangle
. Once installed, open the app and click on its icon in the menu bar and authorize the app.
Once the app is authorized, check out its preferences to learn the predefined keyboard shortcuts or define your own and enable or disable window snapping.
That’s it. Simple, clean, free and open source. For more info check out the project page on GitHub.