Situatie
A window manager (WM) controls placement, appearance, and behavior of application windows within a graphical environment. It handles window decorations, focus, workspaces, tiling/floating behavior, and keyboard/mouse interactions. Window managers can be standalone (you start X/Wayland with them) or run inside a desktop environment.
Types
- Tiling WMs: automatically arrange windows in non-overlapping tiles (e.g., i3, bspwm, awesome, dwm).
- Stacking/Floating WMs: windows overlap like traditional desktops (e.g., Openbox, Fluxbox, Metacity).
- Compositing WMs / Compositors: provide effects, transparency, and smooth rendering (e.g., Mutter, KWin, picom as compositor for others).
- Desktop Environments (DEs): include a WM plus many integrated components (GNOME uses Mutter, KDE uses KWin).
Solutie
When to use one
- Replace or customize the default DE experience.
- Improve keyboard-driven workflows (tiling WMs).
- Reduce resource use on lightweight systems.
- Create a highly customized UI and shortcuts.
How to try/use a window manager
1) Install
- On Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install i3 # example tiling WM
sudo apt install openbox
- On Fedora:
sudo dnf install i3
- On Arch:
sudo pacman -S i3-wm openbox
2) Start a WM for a session
- From a display manager (GDM/SDDM/LightDM): select the WM session on login if a session file is provided.
- From a TTY using Xorg:
- Create or edit ~/.xinitrc to start the WM, for example:
exec i3
- Then run:
startx
- Create or edit ~/.xinitrc to start the WM, for example:
- On Wayland, use a compositor/WM that supports Wayland (e.g., sway for i3-like tiling):
sudo apt install sway
sway
3) Basic workflow differences
- Tiling WMs: learn keyboard shortcuts to open/close/move/resize and switch workspaces (e.g., Mod+Enter to open terminal, Mod+Arrow to move focus). Mod is often Alt or the Super (Windows) key.
- Floating WMs: manage windows with mouse and menus, but often support keyboard shortcuts too.
- Compositors: run a compositor (picom) alongside a WM for shadows/transparency:
picom &
4) Configuration
- Many WMs are configured via plain text files:
- i3: ~/.config/i3/config
- bspwm: ~/.config/bspwm/bspwmrc plus sxhkd for bindings
- Openbox: ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml (editable with obconf)
- Config files set keybindings, autostart programs, workspace names, layouts, and appearance.
- After changing config, reload the WM (often with a keybinding) or restart it.
5) Common commands/examples
- i3: open terminal (example default)
- Mod+Enter — open terminal
- Mod+d — run dmenu (application launcher)
- Mod+Shift+q — close window
- sway (Wayland i3-compatible):
swaymsg reload # reload config
- Start programs automatically (example in ~/.config/i3/config):
exec --no-startup-id nm-applet
exec --no-startup-id picom -b
6) Tips and resources
- Read the WM’s quickstart and default config to learn keybindings
- Use a virtual machine or separate user account to experiment safely
- Combine a minimal WM with a panel (polybar, tint2) and launcher (rofi, dmenu)
- For customization examples, search “i3 config”, “bspwm config”, or the WM name + dotfiles
- If you want a recommendation: for easy tiling with minimal config try i3 (X) or sway (Wayland); for lightweight floating try Openbox.
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