Window manager

A window manager (WM) is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface (GUI). It can be part of a desktop environment (DE) or be used standalone.

Window managers are unique to Xorg. The equivalent of window managers on Wayland are called compositors because they also act as compositing window managers.

Overview

Window managers are X clients that control the appearance and behaviour of the frames ("windows") where the various graphical applications are drawn. They determine the border, title bar, size, and ability to resize windows, and often provide other functionality such as reserved areas for sticking dockapps like Window Maker, or the ability to tab windows like Fluxbox. Some window managers are even bundled with simple utilities like menus to start programs or to configure the window manager itself.

The Extended Window Manager Hints specification is used to allow window managers to interact in standard ways with the server and the other clients.

Some window managers are developed as part of a more comprehensive desktop environment, usually allowing the other provided applications to better interact with each other, giving a more consistent experience to the user, complete with features like desktop icons, fonts, toolbars, wallpapers, or desktop widgets.

Other window managers are instead designed to be used standalone, giving the user complete freedom over the choice of the other applications to be used. This allows the user to create a more lightweight and customized environment, tailored to their own specific needs. "Extras" like desktop icons, toolbars, wallpapers, or desktop widgets, if needed, will have to be added with additional dedicated applications.

Some standalone window managers can be also used to replace the default window manager of a desktop environment, just like some desktop environment–oriented window managers can be used standalone too.

Prior to installing a window manager, a functional X server installation is required. See Xorg for detailed information.

Types

Stacking (aka floating) window managers provide the traditional desktop metaphor used in commercial operating systems like Windows and OS X. Windows act like pieces of paper on a desk, and can be stacked on top of each other. For available Arch Wiki pages see Category:Stacking WMs.
Tiling window managers "tile" the windows so that none are overlapping. They usually make very extensive use of key-bindings and have less (or no) reliance on the mouse. Tiling window managers may be manual, offer predefined layouts, or both. For available Arch Wiki pages see Category:Tiling WMs.
Dynamic window managers can dynamically switch between tiling or floating window layout. For available Arch Wiki pages see Category:Dynamic WMs.

See Comparison of tiling window managers and Wikipedia:Comparison of X window managers for comparison of window managers.

List of window managers

Stacking window managers

2bwm — Fast floating window manager, with the particularity of having 2 borders, written over the XCB library and derived from mcwm written by Michael Cardell. In 2bwm everything is accessible from the keyboard but a pointing device can be used for move, resize and raise/lower. The name has recently changed from mcwm-beast to 2bwm.

https://github.com/venam/2bwm || 2bwm^AUR

9wm — X11 Window Manager inspired by Plan 9's rio.

https://github.com/9wm/9wm || 9wm^AUR

AfterStep — Window manager for the Unix X Window System. Originally based on the look and feel of the NeXTStep interface, it provides end users with a consistent, clean, and elegant desktop. The goal of AfterStep development is to provide for flexibility of desktop configuration, improving aesthetics, and efficient use of system resources.

http://www.afterstep.org/ || afterstep-git^AUR

berry — Healthy, bite-sized window manager written in C for Unix systems. It is controlled via a command-line client, allowing users to control windows via a hotkey daemon such as sxhkd or expand functionality via shell scripts. It provides extensible themeing options with double borders, title bars, and window text. Berry intuitively place new windows in unoccupied spaces and supports virtual desktops.

https://berrywm.org/ || berry-git^AUR

Enlightenment — Enlightenment is not just a window manager for Linux/X11 and others, but also a whole suite of libraries to help you create beautiful user interfaces with much less work than doing it the old fashioned way and fighting with traditional toolkits, not to mention a traditional window manager.

https://www.enlightenment.org/ || enlightenment

FVWM — Extremely powerful ICCCM-compliant multiple virtual desktop window manager for the X Window system. Development is active, and support is excellent.

https://www.fvwm.org/ || fvwm^AUR

Karmen — Window manager for X, written by Johan Veenhuizen. It is designed to "just work." There is no configuration file and no library dependencies other than Xlib. The input focus model is click-to-focus. Karmen aims at ICCCM and EWMH compliance.

http://karmen.sourceforge.net/ || karmen^AUR

Muffin — Window and compositing manager for Cinnamon, fork of Mutter, based on Clutter, uses OpenGL. It cannot be used outside of Cinnamon.

https://github.com/linuxmint/muffin/ || muffin

PekWM — Window manager that once upon a time was based on the aewm++ window manager, but it has evolved enough that it no longer resembles aewm++ at all. It has a much expanded feature-set, including window grouping (similar to Ion, PWM, or Fluxbox), auto-properties, Xinerama, keygrabber that supports keychains, and much more.

https://www.pekwm.org/ || pekwm

Window Maker — X11 window manager originally designed to provide integration support for the GNUstep Desktop Environment. In every way possible, it reproduces the elegant look and feel of the NEXTSTEP user interface. It is fast, feature rich, easy to configure, and easy to use. It is also free software, with contributions being made by programmers from around the world.

https://windowmaker.org/ || windowmaker^AUR

Tiling window managers

Bspwm — bspwm is a tiling window manager that represents windows as the leaves of a full binary tree. It has support for EWMH and multiple monitors, and is configured and controlled through messages.

https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm || bspwm

Notion — Tiling, tabbed window manager for the X window system that utilizes 'tiles' and 'tabbed' windows.
- Tiling: you divide the screen into non-overlapping 'tiles'. Every window occupies one tile, and is maximized to it
- Tabbing: a tile may contain multiple windows - they will be 'tabbed'.
- Static: most tiled window managers are 'dynamic', meaning they automatically resize and move around tiles as windows appear and disappear. Notion, by contrast, does not automatically change the tiling.

Notion is a fork of Ion3.

https://notionwm.net/ || notion

Dynamic window managers

dwm — Dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled, monocle and floating layouts. All of the layouts can be applied dynamically, optimising the environment for the application in use and the task performed. does not include a system tray or automatic launcher, although dmenu integrates well with it, as they are from the same author. It has no text configuration file. Configuration is done entirely by modifying the C source code, and it must be recompiled and restarted each time it is changed.

https://dwm.suckless.org/ || dwm^AUR