I confess tiling envy. I try them out every year or two, but I generally abandon them because I can't get comfort functions to work, especially managing power, sleeping, hibernation and the lid, and key management. These things generally/often come with the more mainstream window managers, so I've never had to figure them out (and don't seem to be able to with twms).
I remember looking for solutions to power for awesome (which is otherwise awesome) and finding chains of solutions depending on debian releases, including gaps.
You can try using a tiling window manager with in a more traditional desktop environment. I think Awesome has a wiki article on running Gnome with Awesome as the WM.
Thanks, tried that. As I recall it did help with things like power, but I had issues, since forgotten.
As it happens, I am right now using i3 4.7.2, installed last night from linuxmint's repositories. I'm trying to use just i3, along with whatever i3's package recommended.
So far so good. But it didn't sleep last night, the screen just blanked. At least it's Saturday. :)
I've been using a tiling window manager for some while now, and this was definitely a pain point for some while. Subjectively, it has recently got better, though I don't know whether it will be better enough for your needs.
FWIW, I use ratpoison on Ubuntu on my laptop, and used ratpoison on Debian on my work desktop at my last position.
I remember looking for solutions to power for awesome (which is otherwise awesome) and finding chains of solutions depending on debian releases, including gaps.
I'll try again come spring, I'm sure.