you can try dwm, that comes with simpler layout imho, but the principle of work is just the same. There is a taskbar at the top of the screen with prearranged (1,2,3,4....) tags for window layouts. It is heavily hotkeyed, so works pretty fast. I seem to like it more that wmii. Dunno what kind of tabs did you exactly mean. Anyway, being less cluttered dwm can be your choice, it lacks good documentation though.
- [dev] [wmii] Tabbed mode? Henri Ducrocq
- Re: [dev] [wmii] Tabbed mode? Le Tian
- Re: [dev] [wmii] Tabbed mode? hiro
- Re: [dev] [wmii] Tabbed mode? Le Tian
- Re: [dev] [wmii] Tabbed mode? Henri Ducrocq