A lightweight X11 stacking manager with tabbed window groups, workspaces, configurable menus, key bindings and themes. Separate text configuration files control keys, menus, autoproperties and appearance, allowing users to build a traditional floating desktop without a bundled panel. PekWM began as aewm++ and evolved beyond its original resemblance.
Window Manager Gallery
Discover X11 window managers and Wayland compositors.
A Mir-based Wayland compositor and starter shell intended as a foundation for building desktop sessions. It provides a configurable shell and scripts for assembling components such as panels and launchers, so it serves as a desktop starting point rather than a complete, fixed desktop environment. Canonical introduced Miriway as a lightweight shell for testing Mir and composing desktop components.
A minimalist X11 stacking manager with compact title bars, menus and virtual workspaces. It keeps the basic floating-window workflow small and leaves panels, launchers and other desktop services to separate programs. WindowLab’s documentation identifies aewm as its base.
Deepin’s Wayland compositor and desktop-shell project, built with wlroots and Qt Quick to integrate window management with DDE components. Its architecture combines the compositor with declarative shell interfaces, making it a desktop platform rather than a standalone tiling manager. Deepin developed Treeland as a Wayland transition path for the DDE desktop.
An X11 stacking desktop with virtual workspaces, themes, menus and modular dock-like applications, using a visual style inspired by NeXTSTEP. Its modules can be launched and configured independently, and text-based settings let users shape both window behaviour and the surrounding desktop. AfterStep originated as a continuation of the BowMan window manager, which was based on FVWM; it later developed into a distinct NeXTSTEP-inspired desktop.
The CDE desktop’s Motif-style X11 window manager, integrated with CDE workspaces, menus, session startup and desktop tools. It manages conventional stacked windows and exposes familiar Motif decorations and workspace controls as part of the larger Common Desktop Environment. dtwm is the Motif-style window manager supplied as part of the Common Desktop Environment.
A minimal X11 floating manager with keyboard-based window movement and resizing, sparse borders and optional virtual desktops. It avoids a built-in panel and keeps configuration and interaction simple, so users can assemble a desktop from separate utilities. The project describes evilwm as originally based on aewm, before evolving into its own minimalist, keyboard-driven X11 window manager.
An embedded windowing system with its own display server, client interface and window manager, intended for systems that do not use the conventional X11 or Wayland desktop stack. Its C-based architecture targets embedded displays and applications, so the catalogue schema records its protocol as “Other.” Xynth was developed as a portable embedded windowing system with its own display server and client interface.
A twm-family X11 stacking manager that adds named virtual workspaces, workspace maps, per-workspace backgrounds and multiple screens. It retains familiar `.twmrc` configuration while extending the classic window-manager model with a visual way to move between desktops. CTWM began as an extension to twm by Claude Lecommandeur, adding multiple virtual workspaces.
A Fluxbox-inspired Wayland stacking compositor for lightweight floating desktops. It carries the familiar emphasis on themes, menus and conventional overlapping windows into a Wayland session while leaving the rest of the desktop environment modular. Fluxland takes its design inspiration from Fluxbox and adapts a lightweight, theme-oriented stacking workflow to Wayland.
A Rust compositor built on Smithay that combines Wayland tiling layouts and tags with a first-party GTK4 desktop shell. Its companion tools provide controls such as settings and application launching, so the project aims to deliver an integrated desktop stack as well as window management. Margo is a Rust and Smithay compositor drawing on dwl and mango’s Wayland tiling lineage.
An X11 stacking manager that recreates Windows 95-era desktop conventions, including a taskbar, start menu, system tray and familiar window controls. Its text configuration customises menus, appearance and key bindings, providing a retro desktop without requiring a separate full desktop environment. Qvwm’s name derives from the “95 Window Manager” concept and its Windows 95-style desktop goal.
A full-screen X11 manager that organises applications into pages and frames controlled mainly from the keyboard. Its focus is a workspace-oriented frame model rather than a conventional desktop with panels and floating title bars.
A research-oriented X11 prototype exploring three-dimensional desktop workspaces and window navigation. The surviving primary material is sparse, so its exact interaction model and configuration options cannot be described in detail. 3dwm was developed as a research and development platform for three-dimensional user interfaces.
A historical X11 window manager associated with early workstation environments; surviving primary documentation is sparse. The catalogue record identifies it as a stacking manager, but its precise configuration model and feature set could not be established confidently from the sources checked.
A historic X11 compositing manager known for OpenGL desktop effects and a separate configuration interface. Contemporary secondary accounts describe it as a Compiz fork that later merged into Compiz Fusion; detailed first-party project records are no longer readily available. Secondary-source accounts report that Beryl forked from Compiz and later merged back into the Compiz Fusion project.
A Haskell and XMonad-based X11 tiler that presents dynamic layouts inside a more conventional desktop session, including panel and task-list integration. Its configuration builds on XMonad’s Haskell model, while the project’s desktop-oriented defaults make it less bare than a typical tiling manager. Bluetile began as a university project and thesis built on XMonad.
A full-screen X11 window manager written in Common Lisp, organising windows through recursively nested frames rather than conventional desktop panels. Its frame tree can be navigated and reshaped from the keyboard, and Lisp configuration allows users to extend the manager interactively. CLFSWM’s own project documentation identifies TinyWM and StumpWM among its influences; it developed these keyboard and frame-management ideas into a Common Lisp full-screen manager.
A stacking window-management client for the River Wayland compositor, with policy separated from the compositor that handles display and input. Its commands and configuration can be scripted externally, and its focus is conventional overlapping windows rather than a built-in tiling policy. CoW is a window-management client for River, reflecting River’s separation of compositor and policy.
OpenBSD’s compact, keyboard-focused X11 stacking window manager, with commands for searching and launching applications, moving windows and switching groups. A concise `~/.cwmrc` file configures bindings, menus and behaviour, while cwm deliberately leaves panels and desktop utilities to other programs. The OpenBSD manual records cwm as first appearing in OpenBSD 4.2, documenting its place in the project’s base-system history.
A small Wayland compositor inspired by suckless’s dwm, built on wlroots and configured by editing C source and rebuilding. It provides a compact tiling and floating session with tags and keyboard controls, leaving many desktop services and visual components to separate programs. The project describes itself as dwm for Wayland, aiming to carry dwm’s philosophy and core functionality to Wayland.
A deliberately small, dynamic X11 window manager offering tiled, monocle and floating arrangements plus tag-based workspaces. Users change its C source configuration and rebuild it, so customisation follows suckless’s compile-time patching model instead of a runtime settings panel.
An EFL-based window manager, compositor and desktop shell that provides panels, menus, settings and session components as well as window management. It supports X11 and has Wayland compositor work, with a broad set of built-in modules and graphical configuration for a complete, lightweight desktop. Carsten Haitzler launched Enlightenment in the 1990s as an easy-to-use X11 window manager.
An experimental Wayland compositor derived from dwl and built on wlroots, with a compact C-oriented configuration and tiling workflow. The project is small and its public documentation is limited, so this description sticks to the documented compositor base and design lineage. FjordWM began as a fork of dwl.
A lightweight X11 stacking manager from the FLTK project, designed for small systems and simple desktop sessions. It uses compact, distinctive window controls and virtual desktops, with mouse and keyboard shortcuts for moving, resizing and iconifying windows. Its author describes flwm as an attempt to combine useful ideas from several window managers in an FLTK project.
A stacking Wayland compositor for Unix-like systems, with workspaces, sheets and groups for organising windows and a keyboard-oriented control model. Its configuration is read from a text file, and its cwm influence is reflected in the emphasis on compact controls rather than a large desktop shell. Hikari’s author identifies cwm as a strong inspiration for the project.
A historic keyboard-driven X11 manager built around tiled frames and tabbed windows. Users split the screen into frames, then switch among clients within each frame; its text configuration controls bindings and session behaviour without requiring a mouse-driven desktop. Tuomo Valkonen created Ion as a keyboard-driven tiled and tabbed window manager.
KDE’s window manager and compositor: it manages X11 windows in Plasma’s X11 session and runs as a Wayland compositor in Wayland sessions. Window rules, keyboard shortcuts, effects, scripts and workspace behaviour are configurable, and KWin can also be used by desktop shells other than Plasma. KDE announced that Plasma 6.8 will remove the X11 session; X11 applications will continue to run through Xwayland.
An X11 manager that keeps a tiled primary track for the main window and a floating area for secondary clients. Its automatic arrangement offers a structured alternative to pure manual tiling, while retaining a floating region for windows that do not fit the main layout. LarsWM was derived from 9wm and developed its tiled-primary and floating-secondary model.
A minimal X11 stacking manager with bare window frames and almost no desktop chrome. It deliberately leaves menus, panels, launchers and workspace tools to other programs, making it suitable for users assembling a small custom session. The author describes lwm as drawing inspiration from Plan 9’s 8½ and 9wm, favouring a deliberately unobtrusive X11 interface.
An X11 stacking window manager designed for embedded devices, handheld computers, set-top boxes and kiosks with small screens or limited input. It provides compact window controls and focuses on integrating with a constrained device shell rather than offering a general-purpose desktop environment. Matchbox was developed as window management for constrained embedded systems rather than a full desktop.
A simple X11 stacking manager with title bars, window frames, workspace support and EWMH compatibility for interaction with desktop utilities. It keeps configuration and built-in features modest, serving as a lightweight floating manager rather than a full desktop shell.
GNOME’s traditional X11 stacking window manager, now also used by GNOME Flashback sessions. It focuses on window placement, focus, keyboard navigation and themed decorations rather than providing a complete desktop; GSettings controls many preferences and themes supply the frame appearance. Havoc Pennington designed and implemented Metacity as GNOME’s window manager.
An X11 virtual-desktop manager that recreates elements of classic Macintosh System 7, including its menu bar, window controls and desktop conventions. Text configuration describes menus and application behaviour, while virtual desktops and collapsible windows extend the retro presentation. Takashi Hasegawa created MLVWM to reproduce Macintosh System 7 desktop conventions on X11.
A manual X11 tiler in which users create, split and arrange frames directly instead of relying on an automatic layout algorithm. Its keyboard commands and text configuration provide a compact session for users who want explicit control over every window’s position. Secondary-source manual documentation lists Ratpoison and dwm among the influences on Musca’s frame-management features.
GNOME’s window manager and compositor library: it manages windows and display composition in X11 sessions and serves as the Wayland compositor for GNOME Shell. It handles focus, workspaces, outputs, input and effects, while the shell supplies the surrounding desktop interface. Mutter’s window-management logic was inherited from Metacity and was developed to serve as the display core for GNOME Shell.
The Motif Window Manager, an X11 stacking manager that supplies Motif-style decorations, menus and workspace controls for Motif and CDE sessions. Resource settings and `.mwmrc` configure appearance, bindings and behaviour, and the manager remains part of the historical Motif toolkit family. The Motif Window Manager was developed as the window manager for the Motif toolkit.
A standards-oriented X11 stacking window manager for floating desktops, designed to work with desktop environments or as a small standalone session. XML files define window behaviour, menus, keyboard bindings and startup actions, while themes style decorations; it does not require its own panel or application suite. Openbox began as a Blackbox fork; version 3 was rewritten from scratch and became a distinct window manager.
A wlroots-based Wayland compositor developed for the Phosh mobile shell, with support for phone-oriented display and interaction patterns. Phoc handles compositor and window management, while Phosh provides the shell; it can also be run without Phosh for testing or specialised sessions. Phoc was developed as the Wayland compositor for the Phosh mobile shell.
A keyboard-driven X11 tiling manager that replaces overlapping desktop windows, title bars and pointer-centric controls with maximised frames that can be split into panes. Commands and bindings are configured in a text file, and its deliberately minimal interface suits users who want to manage windows without a mouse. Ratpoison is a keyboard-driven X11 manager whose command-oriented interaction is modeled on GNU Screen.
A Scheme-configurable X11 manager based on the FVWM2 window-manager framework. Users can write Scheme procedures for menus, bindings and window behaviour, making it a programmable environment for customising a conventional stacking desktop. SCWM was built on the FVWM2 framework and added Scheme as its configuration and extension language, combining an existing X11 manager with programmable policy.
A historic, minimalist X11 stacking window manager. The sources checked provide little first-party documentation about its configuration or distinctive features, so this description is intentionally limited to its documented role and protocol.
An experimental X11 manager that models desktops and windows as a hierarchy, allowing desktops to contain further desktops instead of limiting users to a flat workspace list. Its command interface and configuration operate on this tree, making the project’s organisational model its defining feature. TreeWM was conceived around hierarchical desktops, where desktops can contain further desktops.
The classic X11 stacking window manager distributed with X.Org, providing title bars, menus, icon management and keyboard or pointer bindings. Its `.twmrc` text file describes decorations, functions and menus, and its simple architecture has served as a base for several later window managers. Secondary sources credit Tom LaStrange and report that the X Consortium later adopted twm.
An early X11 window manager associated with Ultrix and historic X distributions. Early X11 materials document uwm in the Ultrix and X window-system era.
A twm-derived X11 stacking manager that adds virtual desktops larger than the physical screen, with a map for navigating the expanded workspace. It retains twm-style text configuration for menus, bindings and decorations while extending the classic floating desktop model. VTWM extends twm with virtual desktops while retaining its configuration lineage.
A historic X11 stacking manager for floating desktops, with themeable window decorations and workspace support. It was designed as a configurable alternative to other lightweight managers, though current primary documentation and maintenance information are limited. Openbox project credits identify Waimea among the Blackbox-derived window-manager family.
The reference Wayland compositor maintained by the Wayland project, used to test protocol implementations and demonstrate compositor behaviour. It can also provide practical sessions through separate desktop, kiosk, IVI and headless shells, with configuration chosen for the shell and backend in use. Weston is the Wayland project’s compositor implementation and testbed, supporting both basic desktop use and specialised shells.