Bug 387603

Summary: Smarter Smart Window Placement
Product: [Plasma] kwin Reporter: Andres Betts <anditosan1000>
Component: generalAssignee: KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: wishlist CC: nate
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Andres Betts 2017-12-04 21:04:27 UTC 
I know this bug has come up a lot in the past but I would like to push for this again. Especially now that we are moving toward Wayland.

Smart Window Placement, turned on by default, places windows in corners as its first action. It is convenient since windows don't overlap, but in using the entire area for it the system has a tendency to send a curve ball to the user by having them get their window from a corner. Imagine what this is like in 4K monitors, the window is small and very far away. It shifts the eyes and focus to a different area.

A better placement would be to prefer the center of the screen for the first new window being drawn and then extend new windows with smart placement from there. I would even be ok with some overlap of 20% so that there is an understanding of hierarchy. By centering windows "smartly" we can make sure that users focus on a more central area.
Comment 1 Martin Flöser 2017-12-05 05:16:38 UTC 
It is very unlikely that any of the KWin devs will start implementing new placement policies. This hasn't happened the last decade, so I doubt it. Focus is currently on Wayland and I doubt that will change any time soon.

Thus I'm setting to WONTFIX as I don't want to give a false impression by keeping this wish open.
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2019-08-28 15:29:18 UTC 

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 58063 ***