I've been using KDE on Opensuse for some time now and I feel like improving performance and using the most of my dual screens.
I discovered tiling window managers and thought it would be a cool thing to try out. However, I'm stuck on a couple of issues.
- Will all my applications still be compatible? LibreOffice? Google Chrome? The GIMP? Kate? VLC? VirtualBox?
- Will it fully support my dual screens?
- Is it difficult to change environments from the one OpenSuse shipped with? Do I need to change anything internally?
- How easy is it to switch back to KDE and keep all my previous settings?
- Which tiling window manager should I be looking for?
I realize that the last bullet point might be seen as off-topic (recommendation), but I will remove it if it's an issue.
Best Answer
I have lots of experience using xmonad and I think you'll be fine if you give it a whirl. Regarding your specific questions:
Almost everything will work just as they normally do. Regarding the specific list you gave, the only one that needs some TLC is chrome. Full screen is a bit flaky and you'll need to futz with your xmonad.hs config to get it to work properly but it's totally doable -- a little googling will turn up the proper changes to your config.
You can find xmonad.hs files for dual screens here.
Here's a link that gives you the details on installing xmonad using cabal.
Xmonad is my favorite (tiling) window manager but I don't have much experience with the others but I hear RatPoison is pretty good.