Window Manager
Tiling Window Managers
These organize windows in a non-overlapping way, maximizing screen space and efficiency.
- i3 — Lightweight, highly configurable, keyboard-driven.
- bspwm — Binary space partitioning, controlled via messages.
- awesome — Highly customizable with Lua scripting.
- xmonad — Written in Haskell, very stable and extensible.
- herbstluftwm — Manual tiling, scriptable with bash.
- sway — i3-compatible but for Wayland instead of X11.
2. Stacking (Floating) Window Managers
These allow windows to overlap and be freely moved/resized.
- Openbox — Lightweight, highly customizable.
- Fluxbox — Minimalist, fast, based on Blackbox.
- Metacity — Default in older GNOME versions.
- Window Maker — Inspired by NeXTSTEP GUI.
3. Dynamic Window Managers
These combine tiling and floating modes dynamically.
- dwm — Dynamic window manager, minimal and fast.
- xmonad — Also considered dynamic with multiple layouts.
- awesome — Supports multiple layouts and modes.
4. Compositing Window Managers
These add effects like transparency, shadows, and animations.
- Compiz — Famous for 3D desktop effects.
- Mutter — GNOME’s default, supports compositing.
- KWin — KDE’s window manager with compositing.
Other Notable Mentions
- ratpoison — Keyboard-driven, no window decorations.
- wmii — Lightweight tiling with some unique features.
— Info from DuckDuckGo AI