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	Latest Stable Release
2bwm	C		Stacking		No	Yes				Yes
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
Berry	C	MIT	Stacking	No	via CLI client	via CLI client and third party (e.g. sxhkd)	No	No	No	Yes		2018-08-24	2019-09-21
Blackbox	C++	MIT	Stacking	No	third-party	with bbkeys	through 0.65 / from 0.70[2]	Yes	No	Yes	3
bspwm	C	BSD[3]	Tiling	No	No	with sxhkd	Partial	No	No	No		2013-04-23
Compiz	C (OpenGL)	MIT	Compositing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	third-party	Yes	Yes		2006	2016-11-11
cwm	C	ISC	Stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes		No	No	Yes		2004-07-10	2019-09-17
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	2019-08[4]
evilwm	C	MIT[5]	Stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes	Partial[6]	No	No	Yes		2000	2015-07-13
EXWM	Emacs Lisp	GPL	Tiling	No	No	Yes	Partial	No	No	Yes
Fluxbox	C++	MIT	Stacking	Yes	third-party	Yes	Yes[7]	Yes	Yes	Yes	16	2001-09-12	2015-02-08
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[8]	third-party[9][10]	4	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	2020-09-17
Ion	C, Lua	LGPL with naming restrictions on modified versions	Tiling	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes		No	Yes	Yes		2000	2009-01-10
JWM	C	MIT (Formerly GPL)	Stacking	Yes	third-party	Yes	EWMH	Yes	No	Yes	3	2003
KWin (KDE)	C++ (Qt)	GPL	Compositing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	41		2019-01
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	2020-10
Mutter (GNOME/MeeGo)	C (Clutter)	GPL	Compositing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Gnome Shell	No	Yes	18.6	2011-04	2020-11
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	Dynamic	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	solid colors
steamcompmgr	C [11]	BSD-2-clause [12]	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	2017-03-11
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	1996	2019-08-12
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	Memory (MB)	Initial release	Last Stable Release

See also

• Comparison of X Window System desktop environments
• Window manager
• List of Wayland compositors

References

1. "A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops". l3net - a layer 3 networking blog. 2013-03-17. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
2. "NetWM - Blackbox". Archived from the original on 2007-10-01. Retrieved 2008-03-29. Blackbox releases up to and including version 0.65.0 follow the ICCCM standard, while 0.70 and later follow EWMH.
3. "bspwm License".
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-06-17. Retrieved 2019-09-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. README in EvilWM distribution
6. "evilwm - standards support". evilwm releases following and including version 1.1.0 follow the EWMH standard.
7. http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docs/ewmh-support.html
8. FvwmTabs Archived 2009-08-02 at the Wayback Machine
9. Fvwm Themes
10. FVWM-Crystal
11. "steamos-compositor debian source package". /steamos-compositor-1.35/src/steamcompmgr.c.
12. "steamos-compositor amd64 debian package". /usr/share/doc/steamos-compositor/copyright. License: BSD-2-clause

External links

• Comparison of extensible window managers compares window managers "extensible" by user scripts, like Sawfish, xmonad, etc.
• The Comprehensive List of Window Managers for Unix