Tiling window managers have always interested me, but spending a lot of time tinkering with config files or learning how to wrangle them? Not so much. What I really want is a dead simple way to organize my windows and still use a friendly desktop. And I found it, finally: the gTile extension for GNOME.

If you are using GNOME, pop open Firefox and head to the extension page. Click “on” and go ahead and install the extension.

Once it’s installed, you can click the tile icon in the GNOME menu up top. You’ll see a little overlay with a bunch of squares. The gTile overlay will hover over an open window, and you can click one (or more) of the squares to place the window in that area.

The row of icons that display dimensions (e.g. “2×2”, “4×4”) controls how the screen is tiled. If you just want to divvy up your screen in sixteen equal chunks, choose 4×4. If you have a lot of screen real estate and want many more windows, choose the 6×6. (I’m using gTile with a 4K monitor, and go with 3×2 for six windows.)

The really nice thing about gTile is you’re not locked into tiling. New windows aren’t automatically put on the grid, and existing windows aren’t “locked” so you can have the best of both worlds.

gTile works well with multiple workspaces, and with multiple monitors.

If you’re a GNOME user and want a lightweight solution for tiling windows, give gTile a try. It’s been a great tool for me, and maybe it’ll make you more productive as well.