Guide to X11/Window Managers

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Window Managers

A window manager is a program which draws the frames around windows and allows the user to move, resize, iconify, and otherwise manage windows. Unlike with some other window environments, one can find many window managers for X11.

Features and Facilities of Window Managers

Using X11 Without a Window Manager

One can also use X11 without a window manager. Typically, one writes a session script which starts an "xterm" at a "-geometry" location. Keyboard-oriented users may start a keyboard shortcut daemon like xbindkeys and manage windows through Xresources geometry hints or with tools like xdotool.

See the resources at http://github.com/patrickhaller/no-wm

0-9, a, b, c

2wm An initial version of the stereo window manager written by Anselm Garbe.
3dwm 3D Workspace Manager is a compositing window manager by Niklas Elmqvist and Robert Karlsson.
4dwm The window manager that is normally used on Silicon Graphics workstations running IRIX
9wm An emulation of the Plan 9 Window Manager
aegis a scriptable window manager written in C++ (in development)
aewm a minimal X window manager written in C
aewm++ Based on aewm, but rewritten in C++
afterstep A stacking window manager is a continuation of the BowMan window manager... based on fvwm
ahwm a small stacking window manager by Alex Hioureanu
alloywm A stacking window manager based on aewm
alptwm A small fast window manager based on dwm
amaterus A GTK+ based stacking window manager
amiwm An X11 window manager that tries to make your display look and feel like the Amiga Workbench
anarchy A lightweight window manager written in scheme
antico A fast and simple window manager based on Qt libraries
antiwm A minimal full screen keyboard driven window manager
asclassic A classic window manager based on afterstep
awesome A highly configurable, next generation dynamic window manager primarily targeted at power users, developers
awm The Ardent Window Manager was an early window manager for the X Windowing System.
azalea A gnustep window manager based on openbox3
badwm A window manager based on evilwm
beryl A legacy Xgl compositing window manager, which was later merged with compiz
blackbox a small fast and efficient stacking window manager with simple to use menus.
bluetile a dynamic window manager
blwm FreeBSD: "Portuguese derivative of qvwm, simplified to conserve resources"
braintop
bspwm An alternative window manager which uses tree-like spacing and changes are triggered with bspc shell commands.
calmwm
clementine FreeBSD: "Has title bars, iconizing, and styles (unstable)"
clfswm
compiz Xgl accelerated amazing modular window manager, which matches Apple's Expose, uses a cube for the four desktops, and adds neat effects like window fading, transparent alt-tab window selection, and window warping when dragging at high velocity. After installing, look up shortcut keys.
ctwm - Claude's Tab Window Manager is an extension to twm, that provides multiple desktop support and other facilities
cwm Included in OpenBSD. Excellent code base, very minimal system requirements. OpenBSD: "cwm has several novel features, including the ability to search for windows. It features a very simple and attractive aesthetic."

d, e, f, g

dtwm - the CDE window manager
dwemo
dwm - dynamic window manager
dxwm - a window manager used on DECwindows workstations
e16
e17
echinus
eclipse
ecomorph
ede includes a window manager, FreeBSD: "Equinox Desktop Environment"
efsane
enlightenment has expensive graphics, OpenBSD: "Enlightenment goes beyond this, not just Managing Windows, but providing a useful, good looking graphical shell from which to work."
epiwm FreeBSD: "Another fast, small, configurable window manager"
euclidwm a minimalistic tiling window manager
evilpoison
evilwm a lightweight minimalistic window manager for the X windowing system
expocity FreeBSD: "A metacity spin-off with Expose(tm)-like features"
exwm a full-featured tiling X window manager for Emacs
failsafewm
firebox
fluxbox — "Looks like blackbox and handles styles, colors, window placement and similar thing exactly like blackbox (100% theme/style compability)" http://fluxbox.org/ (Package size: 681 KiB, plus its dependencies (OpenBSD 4.1))
flwm A lightweight window manager that utilizes the FLTK toolkit.
framer
fvwm the F Virtual Window Manager (meaning of F is uncertain), a twm derivative with nice appearance, virtual desktops, but obscure text configuration files
fvwm2 a newer version of fvwm, OpenBSD: "Fvwm... provides a virtual/multiple disjoint desktop, a 3D look for windows decorations, shaped/color icons.... A nice button-bar can be used to provide convenient access to frequently used functions or programs."
fvwm95 feels like Windows 95 (similar to AnotherLevel for fvwm2), OpenBSD: "It tries to emulate the good features of a well known product without bloating the regular fvwm code."
fxwm
golem OpenBSD: "Design goals are that it be fast and lightweight, as well as very customizable in any way that will not prevent the first goal from being realized."
gwm A Generic Window Manager with a builtin lisp interpreter (from Bull)
gwml

h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o

HackedBox FreeBSD: "Hackedbox is a small and fast window manager based on Blackbox"
haze
heliwm A compact window manager with minimal memory consumption
hpwm this window manager from Hewlett Packard offers a 3d look
i3
icewm a small window manager that one configures by editing text files or using third-party tools, OpenBSD: "Optimized for "feel" and speed, not looks. Features multiple workspaces, opaque move/resize, task bar, window list, clock, mailbox, CPU, Network, APM status."
integrity
interfacewm
ion OpenBSD: "Ion is a new kind of window manager that brings a text-editorish, keyboard friendly user interface to window management. Ion simply divides the screen into frames that take the whole screen."
ion2
ion3
jwm Linux: "Joe's window manager". http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/ Used in Puppy Linux.
kahakai A window manager with scripting language support (based on "waimea")
karmen A simple lightweight window manager with no additional dependencies other than xlib
kwin the window manager for KDE (formerly called kwm)
larswm FreeBSD: "Tiling Window Manager for X"
lucca
luminosity
/lunchbox
lwm FreeBSD: "A lightweight window manager"
maewm
matchbox FreeBSD: "Window manager suitable for low-resolution screens"
mavosxwm A minimal stacking window manager in early stages of development
MaXX Interactive Desktop; formerly "5dwm".
metacity a common GNOME window manager
miwm The Microscopic Window Manager written in C++
mlvwm FreeBSD: "Macintosh like window manager for X11"
monkeywm
mosquito
mpwm
mswm
multicursorwm
musca
mutter
mvwm
mwm Motif Window Manager included with Motif or OpenMotif, also found with the commercial Common Desktop Environment (CDE)
ncdwm
novawm FreeBSD: "A window manager for X, developed with speed, size, and style in mind"
olvwm - OPEN LOOK virtual window manager adds virtual windows to olwm
olwm - The OPEN LOOK window manager from Sun Microsystems for OpenWindows
omegawm
openbox OpenBSD: "Openbox is a standards compliant, fast, light-weight, extensible window manager."
orion FreeBSD: "An X11 window manager written in Scheme"
oroborox
oroborus OpenBSD: "Oroborus is a really minimalistic X11 window manager. It provides good default key bindings, full keyboard controls (in addition to the mouse!), ..."
oswm

p, q, r, s, t

parti
pawm FreeBSD: "The Puto Amo Window Manager"
pekwm OpenBSD: "Pekwm is a fork of aewm++ which includes new features such as window grouping (a la fluxbox/pwm) a configurable keygrabber, Xinerama support, pixmap themeing and configurable buttons."
perlwm
phluid
piewm OpenBSD: "This is piewm, a tvtwm with "pie" (i.e., round) menus."
plwm
plpwm
pmwm
pswm The postscript window manager from Sun Microsystems
puppet A keyboard driven window manager with no window decorations. Written in Java
pwm OpenBSD: "PWM is a lightweight window manager for X11 with emphasis on usability. It was the first window manager to implement "tabbed frames"."
pwm2
pycawm
pywm PyWM is small, fast and extensible with Python. It's based on flwm. http://www.freenet.org.nz/python/pywm/
qlwm
qtile
qlwm OpenBSD: "A window manager that takes advantage of qt to stay small and maintainable."
quarkwm
qvwm OpenBSD: "Qvwm is a Windows 95/98/NT like window manager..."
ratpoison similar to GNU screen, a tiling window manager which dislikes the mouse (see Wikibook Using Ratpoison)
rox
rtl A tiling window manager used by Siemens
sapphire FreeBSD: "Small window manager"
sawfish an efficient and configurable window manager that was formerly default for GNOME, OpenBSD: "Sawfish is an extensible window manager which uses a Lisp-based scripting language."
scrotwm
scwm The scheme constraints window manager
sigmawm The sigma window manager
sithwm A minimalist window manager based on evilwm with menus and multiple desktops
skatoswm
smallwm FreeBSD: "Window manager for low-memory systems, with title bars and shading" http://www.small-window-manager.de/
spookwm
stumpwm is intended as the successor of ratpoison. Written in Common Lisp, and designed from the ground up to be customizable.
subtle is a another tiling window manager with a very flexible and dynamical layout, support for window tagging, mouse and keyboard control as well as an extendable statusbar. http://subforge.org/projects/subtle
sugar
swm Solbourne Window Manager
talwm
tecwm
tinywm FreeBSD: "Ridiculously tiny window manager"
toyd
treewm OpenBSD: "From the README:... In addition to the client windows the user can create desktops which can themselves contain windows and desktops."
tritium
trswm
tsubasa
tvtwm OpenBSD: "tvtwm is a version of twm which incorporates virtual desktops, similar to vtwm and swm."
twindy
twm the Tab Window Manager included with X11

u, v, w, x, y, z

UDE a window manager with a unique design (get used to it), developed by the "Unix Desktop Enviroment" project http://udeproject.sourceforge.net/
ultimate window manager
universalwm An outdated window manager that it is still popular because of its speed
unwimp
uwm Ultrix Window Manager
vtwm FreeBSD: "Twm with a virtual desktop and optional Motif-like features"
vuewm
w9wm FreeBSD: "A hack of 9wm to give virtual screens"
waimea OpenBSD: "It uses Blackbox image rendering engine (Blackbox styles support) and can use Xft library for font rendering (anti-aliased font support)."
weewm FreeBSD: "Fast and ultra light window manager with total keyboard control"
whim A multiple desktop window manager written in tcl
whimsy
wimpwm
windowlab FreeBSD: "A small window manager for X11"
windowmaker a NextStep-like window manager that works well with GNUstep and has configurable themes
wm a simple titlebar window manager
wm2 a very minimal, small, fast window manager
wmaker
wmfs a tiling window manager
wmg FreeBSD: "Small GTK-based GNOME-compliant window manager"
wmi OpenBSD: "WMI... attempts to combine the best features of LarsWM, Ion, evilwm and ratpoison into one window manager.... WMI is the vim among the window managers..."
wmii FreeBSD: "The next generation of WMI window manager"
wmx OpenBSD: "It is based on wm2... but in place of wm2's minimal functionality, it offers many of the features of more conventional managers in the most simplistic implementations imaginable."
wwm Weird Window Manager
xcompmgr
xd640 a stacking window manager
xdswm
xfce-wm part of desktop environment called XFCE (Cholesterol-Free Desktop Environment which also has a toolbar and file manager, and uses less system resources than GNOME or KDE), FreeBSD: "XFce 4 window manager"
xige xilicius desktop environment
xfwm a compositing window manager
xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising screen use.http://xmonad.org
xpwm
xswm
xwem
xwm
yawm FreeBSD: "Has title bars, iconizing, maximizing, taskbar, placement, clock"
yeahwm A stacking window manager
zwm Written in C++, and available under the GNU General Public Licence