Comparison of X window managers
This article compares variety of different X window managers. For an introduction to the topic, see X Window System.
| Name | Language | License | Type | Configurable titlebar buttons | Graphical configuration | Hotkeys | ICCCM/EWMH compliant | Panel for window switching | Tabbed windows | Themeable | Memory (MB)[1] | Initial Release | Last Stable Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9wm | C | MIT | Stacking | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | 0.4 | 1994 | ||
| aewm | C | MIT | Stacking | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | |||
| awesome | C, Lua | GPL | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 9 | 2007-09-18 | |
| Blackbox | C++ | MIT | Stacking | No | third-party | with bbkeys | through 0.65 / from 0.70[2] | Yes | No | Yes | 3 | ||
| Compiz | C (OpenGL) | MIT | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes | 2006 | ||
| cwm | C | ISC | Stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | 2004-07-10 | |||
| dwm | C | MIT | Dynamic | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 1 | 2006-07-14 | ||
| Enlightenment | C | BSD | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 1997 | ||
| evilwm | C | Artistic[3] | Stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | Partial[4] | No | No | Yes | |||
| Fluxbox | C++ | MIT | Stacking | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes[5] | Yes | Yes | Yes | 16 | ||
| FLWM | C++ (FLTK) | GPL | Stacking | No | Yes | There is a window list menu | No | No | 1998 | ||||
| FVWM | C | GPL | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[6] | third-party[7][8] | 13 | 1993-06-01 | |
| i3 | C | BSD | Dynamic | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 3 | 2009-03-15 | |
| IceWM | C++ | LGPL | Stacking | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 4.5 | 1997 | |
| Ion | C, Lua | LGPL with naming restrictions on modified versions | Stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 2000 | |||
| JWM | C | MIT (Formerly GPL) | Stacking | Yes | No | Yes | EWMH | Yes | No | Yes | 3 | ||
| KWin (KDE) | C++ (Qt) | GPL | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 41 | ||
| Matchbox | C | GPL | Stacking | EWMH compliance | No | No | Yes | 2007-04-13 | |||||
| Metacity (GNOME) | C, C++ (GTK+) | GPL | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 2002-10 | ||
| Mutter (GNOME/MeeGo) | C (Clutter) | GPL | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Gnome Shell | No | Yes | 18.6 | 2001-04 | |
| mwm (Motif Window Manager) | C | The Open Group Public License | Stacking | No | No | Yes | can change colours | 1989 | |||||
| Openbox | C | GPL | Stacking | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes | third-party | No | Yes | 7 | 2002-09-18 | |
| PekWM | C++ | GPL | Stacking | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | No | Yes | Yes | 5.3 | ||
| PlayWM | C | GPL | Stacking | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||
| Ratpoison | C | GPL | Tiling | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | 1 | 2000-12-04 | |
| Sawfish | Lisp, C | GPL | Stacking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | primitive | Yes | 3.1 | 2000-01-01 | |
| sithWM | C | GPL | Stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | ||||
| spectrwm | C | ISC | Stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | solid colors | |||
| steamcompmgr | unknown | BSD-2-clause | Compositing | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | 2013 | |||
| StumpWM | Common Lisp | GPL | Tiling | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| twm | C | MIT | Stacking | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | solid colors | 1.2 | 1987 | ||
| WMFS | C | BSD | Tiling | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Window Maker | C | GPL | Stacking | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7 | 1997 | |
| Wingo | Go | WTFPL | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||
| wmii | C | MIT | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 2005-06-01 | ||
| Xfwm (Xfce) | C, C++ (GTK+) | GPL, LGPL | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 70 | ||
| xmonad | Haskell | BSD | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes / ? | third-party | Yes | Yes | 2 | 2007-03-06 | |
| uwm | C | Similar to BSD license | Stacking | 1985 | |||||||||
| Name | Language | License | Type | Configurable titlebar buttons | Graphical configuration | Hotkeys | ICCCM/EWMH compliant | Panel for window switching | Tabbed windows | Themeable | Initial release |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops". l3net - a layer 3 networking blog. 2013-03-17. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
- ^ "NetWM - Blackbox".
Blackbox releases up to and including version 0.65.0 follow the ICCCM standard, while 0.70 and later follow EWMH.
- ^ "EvilWM on Freecode".
- ^ "evilwm - standards support".
evilwm releases following and including version 1.1.0 follow the EWMH standard.
- ^ http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docs/ewmh-support.html
- ^ FvwmTabs Archived 2009-08-02 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Fvwm Themes
- ^ FVWM-Crystal
External links[edit]
- Comparison of extensible window managers compares window managers "extensible" by user scripts, like Sawfish, xmonad, etc.
- The Comprehensive List of Window Managers for Unix