Reviewing Window Managers

Thu Apr 5 02:18:30 UTC 2007

In 2003 I tried out a bunch of window managers because IceWM went
mildly wonky when I started using a dual-head arrangement.  I'd been
using IceWM for a couple years but it's Xinerama support was somewhat
unstable back then.  When one of my annual conferences came around I
wrote up a paper on a bunch of WMs that I'd tested - information on
style, behaviour, memory usage, how good the documentation was ...  It
was a selective list of WMs entitled "The Other Window Managers,"
because of its exclusion of KDE and Gnome.  I figure everyone knows
about those (and yes, I know they're "desktop environments," not
"window managers").  You can see the original paper on my website at
http://www.gilesorr.com/papers/otherwm2003/book1.html .

Because I'm mildly insane and definitely have too much time on my
hands, I've decided to update this paper and make it comprehensive -
all WMs available in English, excluding Gnome, KDE, and proprietary
WMs.  Right at the moment that list stretches to about 130 window
managers, not all of which are actually still available or compilable.
 I'll probably also be applying a cut-off date, probably January 2005
- nothing that hasn't been updated since then.  Older ones will be
mentioned, but not given a thorough review.  And yes, this may never
get completed.

Where I could use some help ...

- history: I was a relatively early starter with Linux (1994) but I
think there are people on this list who were using Unix 20 years prior
to that.  Feel free to take a look at
http://www.gilesorr.com/papers/otherwm2007/images/owm.png in all its
ludicrous glory and tell me what I've missed.  It's an attempt to
document influence between WMs.  It's also big and unwieldy.

- tracking down WMs I've missed: please look at the following list and
see if any WMs you know are missing.

- 3dwm (.org domain for sale)
- 5Dwm (http://5dwm.org/home.html)
+ 9wm / w9wm
+ aewm
+ AEWM++ aka Sapphire (deb+"goodies") (http://freshmeat.net/projects/sapphire/)
- ahwm (http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~ahiorean/ahwm/ latest 2002)
- amaterus (http://www.taiyaki.org/amaterus/index.en.html but source
has vanished)
- amiwm (deb)
- anarchy (http://proteus.freeshell.org/anarchy/)
- B4Step (http://b4step.free.fr/)
- BadWM (http://badwm.sourceforge.net/ "not actively maintained")
- beryl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_%28window_manager%29)
+ Blackbox
- blwm (http://directory.fsf.org/blwm.html Portugese)
- clementine (http://freshmeat.net/projects/clementine/)
- clfswm (http://freshmeat.net/projects/clfswm/)
- compiz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz)
+ CTWM
- cwm (http://monkey.org/~marius/pages/?page=cwm)
- dwm
- Eclipse (http://common-lisp.net/project/eclipse/)
- ede (http://ede.sourceforge.net/)
+ Enlightenment
- epiwm (http://www.nongnu.org/epiwm/ latest 2001)
- EvilPoison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EvilPoison)
+ EvilWM
- expocity (http://www.pycage.de/#expocity - mixed metacity+expose)
- failsafewm (http://freshmeat.net/projects/failsafewm/)
- Firebox (http://freshmeat.net/projects/firebox/)
+ Fluxbox
+ FLWM
- FOX WM (http://freshmeat.net/projects/fxwm/)
- fpcbol (http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpcbol but is it a WM?)
- Framer (needs very outdated Eiffel)
- fvwm
+ FVWM2
- fvwm95
- fvwm-crystal (http://freshmeat.net/projects/fvwm-crystal/)
+ Golem (http://freshmeat.net/projects/golem/)
- gwm
- GwML (site dead)
+ HackedBox
- HaZe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HaZe)
+ Heliwm (http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~hok/heliwm/)
+ Ice WM
- Integrity (http://integrity.sourceforge.net/)
- Interface WM (http://freshmeat.net/projects/interfacewm/)
+ Ion
- JD4X http://jdx.sourceforge.net/
- JWM (Joe's Window Manager)
- Kahakai
- Karmen (http://freshmeat.net/projects/karmen/)
- kwin (KDE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KWin)
- larswm (deb)
- lwm (deb http://freshmeat.net/projects/lwm/)
- Luminocity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminocity)
- maewm
- Manix (http://freshmeat.net/projects/manix-de/)
+ Matchbox
- mavosxwm (http://mavosxwm.sourceforge.net/ dead)
+ Metacity
- Metisse (http://insitu.lri.fr/metisse/)
- miwm (http://miwm.sourceforge.net/basic.php)
- mlvwm (http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~y-miyata/mlvwm.html Apple clone, RIP 2000)
- mosquito WM (http://freshmeat.net/projects/mosquito/)
- Multi-Cursor WM (http://freshmeat.net/projects/multicursor-wm/ WEIRD)
+ MWM
- novawm (http://novawm.sourceforge.net/ No latest 2002 alpha)
- olvwm (deb)
- olwm (deb)
- openbox
- orion (http://orion.antidesktop.net/cgi-bin/wiki)
- oroborus (http://www.oroborus.org/)
- pawm (http://www.pleyades.net/pawm/)
- pekwm
- perlwm (http://freshmeat.net/projects/perlwm/ too old but a lot of
people would be interested?)
- phluid (http://freshmeat.net/projects/phluid/ - probably dead)
- piewm
- PLWM, PointLess WM (http://plwm.sourceforge.net/)
- Puppet (WM for Escher Java lib http://escher.sourceforge.net/)
+ PWM
- pywm
- qlwm (http://qlwm.get.to/ based on Qt)
- QuarkWM (http://sourceforge.net/projects/quarkwm)
+ QVWM (http://freshmeat.net/projects/qvwm/)
+ Ratpoison
- ROX Desktop (http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/static.html)
- sapphire (see aewm++)
- sawfish
- scwm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scwm)
- sithwm
+ stumpwm
- subtle (http://freshmeat.net/projects/subtle/)
- swm (Solbourne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swm,
http://xwinman.org/archive/swm/)
- swm (http://www.small-window-manager.de/)
+ Tab Window Manager
- tinywm
- toyd (http://www.toyd.org/ pre-alpha)
- treewm
+ TrsWM (http://freshmeat.net/projects/trswm/)
- tvtwm (http://freshmeat.net/projects/tvtwm/)
- twindy (http://freshmeat.net/projects/twindy/)
- twm
- ude (http://freshmeat.net/projects/ude/ = uwm under aptitude)
- uwm ("Universal" http://xwinman.org/uwm.tar.gz)
- vtwm (deb http://freshmeat.net/projects/vtwm/)
- w9wm
- waimea
- weewm
- Whim (http://whim.linuxsys.net/site/0)
- Whimsy (http://freshmeat.net/projects/whimsy/)
- wimpwm (http://uebb.cs.tu-berlin.de/~magr/wimpwm/)
+ Windowlab
+ WindowMaker (deb)
+ WM2
- wmg (http://sourceforge.net/projects/wmg/)
- wmi (predecessor to wmii)
- wmii (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wmii)
- WMX (with WM2)
- wwm (Weird WM http://www.joerch.org/wwm/ dead)
+ xfce-wm or xfwm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfwm)
- XIGE (site dead)
- XPDE
- xswm (http://freshmeat.net/projects/xswm/ eXtreme Speed) (based on evil)
- xwem (http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/xwem emacs)
- yawm (yawm.org dead)
- yeahwm (http://freshmeat.net/projects/yeahwm/)
- Zeta desktop environment (http://freshmeat.net/projects/zde/)
- zwm (http://freshmeat.net/projects/zwm/)

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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