Update: seems like the article went popular! If you like it, please Digg 
As promised, today we’ll take a look at the various interesting window managers for the X Window System which aren’t (necessarily) a part of a certain desktop environment (that means Enlightenment DR 17 doesn’t count here people, sorry, please take a look at the desktop environment guide).
So what are window managers? Officially, a window manager in GNU/Linux is a piece of software which controls placement and appearance of windows in a graphical user interface in X. So, what you get is a module which could be used in a desktop environment, or as a desktop environment (in conjuction with other modules, such as a idesk). All the WMs listed here can easily be obtained through your distribution’s respective repositories. You can also visit the project’s website and download the WM from there.
I am a satisfied Openbox user, for instance. There are many other Window managers available for download that were created for X. I’ll try to mention as many cool Window managers out there as possible. If your window manager of choice isn’t listed and it angers you, here’s the deal: instead of swearing and telling me it isn’t fair, maybe you can put together a little description of it, post it in the comments, and I’ll put it in the article, along with a screenshot. Neat, huh? Some window managers that deserve a mention and aren’t listed in this post (because I haven’t tested them and don’t want to make them look bad) are: LarsWM (a fork of 9wm), FVWM, AmiWM, EvilWM, xwm, Enlightenment DR16 & Compiz.
Attention: www.box-look.org is a great site if you are looking for themes, add-ons and more for different window managers.
The list:
1. The *Boxes
They are called the *boxes, because the concept is extremely similar, almost to that point, that these window managers are basically clones. Of course, each has its own goals and quirks, you will see what I mean later.
1.1 Fluxbox
Probably the most well known of the three, Fluxbox is still a fairly minimalist window manager, looking from the outside. Like other *boxes (it is based on Blackbox), a right click anywhere on the desktop will open a basic menu. You can modify this menu by editing the config text file, or simply use a graphical interface for the job. Fluxbox is in my opinion the best one to start with, as it needs little configuration and is able to handle auto-starting, wallpapers and more by itself. It also comes with a lot of themes pre-installed, no wonder - it is very easy to create your own. The window tabs are one of the special add-ons. Compared to Blackbox, Fluxbox even provides a tray with a window list and icon support for applications, running in the tray (this part is called a ’slit’. Window Maker and KDE dock apps are supported as well. The coolest thing about Fluxbox to me is that it can automatically recognize applications that are able show a wallpaper on your desktop (feh, idesk etc.)
1.2 Openbox
Is another Blackbox clone, albeit completely rewritten in C since v3 - leaner, meaner, faster! When I first installed it on Debian I was like, ‘where’s everything else?’. Extensions are not necessary, but add a lot of missing functionality. PyPanel and other modules make your Openbox experience richer while maintaining a minimalist feeling. Again, installing themes is pretty easy, and so is the configuration (rc.xml and menu.xml, pretty straight-forward XML files), you can even configure key-bindings. If you’re a lazy guy like me, you’ll probably prefer a GUI. Use ObConf. A special feature of Openbox are dynamic menus. You can use them to set up menus which show your Gmail inbox and other cool things.
1.3 Blackbox
The original, written in C++, Blackbox remains a very simplistic widow manager. Like the wiki states, ‘it manages windows, period’, Openbox does not give you a tray, and does not handle the keyboard. A number of add-ons are available, though, since the developers emphasize the importance of keeping up to standards. What surprised me is that it uses the MIT license and not the GPL. In comparison to Openbox and Fluxbox, I can’t give you a real reason except plain curiosity, to try Blackbox out. Maybe someone a bit more experienced could give us a better idea?
2. IceWM
For all you Asus Eee owners, this is the program that draws the windows in the Xandros Linux distro which runs on the Eee. IceWM’s goal is to imitate the Windows 95/98 user interface (to a certain degree). It is light and has some embedded functionality (virtual desktops, GNOME/KDE menu support, tray). Spicing IceWM up with themes can give you a nice-looking desktop environment, suitable for old Windows users, but it’s also worth a try if you’re just looking for a light window manager. Don’t let the ugly default theme scare you away. IceWM is very customizable, you can edit parts of it through text files. As always, GUI configuration apps are available.
3. Special Guest: Avant Window Navigator, or ‘AWN’
As far as I know, this is the only Mac OS X-like dock clone which provides the same full functionality as its Apple counterpart, which means you can use it as a window switcher. AWN has matured a lot since I first tried it, and if you like eye candy and maybe want to try a different way of working with your windows, AWN is the Linux WM for you.It is usually used in conjunction with other window manager, as it can only manage- not draw- windows. So it isn’t a full window manager, this is why the developers describe it as a Window Navigator.
4. AwesomeWM
I hear often about this one on forums. Not only does Awesome WM have an awesome name, it’s also clean and useful, although a bit different. The WMs we are normally used to, are called floating window managers. You know how it looks like, when you open a window. Now, Awesome WM opens your app (say, xterm) full screen. If you open another app, it will separate the screen to two equal spaces for both programs. You can adjust the ’tiles’ later, that’s where the name tiling window manager comes from. There is also a possibility to use it in floating mode, but the floating mode won’t give you window borders. Windows are classified by tags. AwesomeWM’s ca. 150 kB size, focus on the basic functions, and pure awesomeness, are some of the pros which you should consider. I don’t recommend AwesomeWM for people who do a lot of graphic design, though. It’s a bit weird working with it, takes some getting used to, especially with the GIMP.
They are both window managers, used in the GNOME Desktop Environment.
SawFish (previously SawMill) deserves a special mention because it was the default WM of the early versions of GNOME. It is written in a Lisp-like language, through which you can add more functionality (SawFish does not come with a panel). Many people still use SawFish (to my surprise!) and there are GUI config tools available for it.
Metacity is, quite curiously, even more basic. It requires GTK+ (it inherits the theme style) and does not work with GNOME 1.xx. Many people use Metacity but don’t know about it, because the options are shown as desktop options, not Metacity options - Metacity is heavily integrated now. It works nice and must be a very solid WM, as we can see if we analyze the percent of people who using it (basically, most GNOME users).
6. AfterStep
Making lists is always a tough job, heh… how should I introduce AfterStep? It takes some of its elements from NEXT’s NextStep OS. There’s a pager to select the current virtual desktop, a taskbar called a WinList and a module similar to a Dock, called a Wharf, which controls launching and manages different applets. AfterStep is a great WM with lots of originality and the flexibility of FVWM (the WM AS is based on) built-in. If you decide to try it out, do use a big screen for a better experience. The main AfterStep page provides pre-compiled binaries, more screenshots and lots of other goodies.
7. WindowMaker
WindowMaker may remind you a bit of AfterStep. This window manager also tries to emulate the NeXT interface. It has similar functions like Afterstep, although without the FVWM foundations, so if you put it all together, along with a Wharf with drag-and-drop support, graphical config tools and support for gradients for nicer window decoration, you get AfterStep’s older brother. WindowMaker is still an extremely popular window manager for X with both the Linux and the BSD crowd. Just take a look at how WindowMaker kicked the other WM’s asses in this poll.
8. JWM
Joe’s window manager reminds me of IceWM, but has an even lighter feel to it. Lots of light GNU/Linux distributions use JWM (DSL, Puppy, SliTaz) due to its low memory footprint. There is a number of add-ons available, SliTaz for instance provides a Panel. JWM is skinnable, but I’ve never seen a really good skin. To me, JWM would always be a second choice to IceWM (more stuff, nicer skins), but as both are very light on computer resources, I suggest you first try the latter, and then see what works best for you.
I hope you liked my little reviews! You can find out even more on this handy little website.
July 16th, 2008 at 22:33
interesting review!
i’m a puppy linux( and currently a russian version of it Puppyrus) user
i used icewm mostly but now i’m stick to jwm with two trays llike in xfce4
i think that the power of JWM is underestimated
look here( a link to a jwm themes thread)
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=23260&start=75
July 16th, 2008 at 23:56
I don’t really feel like writing a whole description here, but PekWM is pretty sweet!
July 17th, 2008 at 12:52
Good job.
You should add PekWM, ratpoison, Matchbox, etc.
Did you know a simple,lightweight but fancy looking panel called tint2? (http://code.google.com/p/tint2/)
It is made specially for openbox3. Goodbye pypanel!
July 17th, 2008 at 14:10
Nice read! I am surprised you left behind Kwin, the KDE window manager … any reason for this? Maybe because it doesn’t run standalone? Thanks!
July 17th, 2008 at 14:45
KWin is of course worth a mention, but I originally didn’t want to mention WMs which come with DE’s by default - Metacity is in the list just because I wanted to include SawFish and thought it wasn’t fair to Metacity.
July 17th, 2008 at 14:49
Thanks Greg, it make sense!
July 17th, 2008 at 16:10
Really nice article - it’s good to find all the main WMs listed and briefly explained in one place, making life much easier for anyone new to Linux. I’m a big fan of Fluxbox and have just started using OpenBox (combined with LXDE in Myah OS 3.0 Box edition).
July 17th, 2008 at 17:58
Some fixes for your Fluxbox description:
“You can modify this menu by editing the config text file, or simply use a graphical interface for the job.”
Please, please, please, for the love of Bob, don’t ever reference or recommend fluxconf. It’s been outdated for years and reliably trashes your config files, leaving fluxbox completely unusable.
“Compared to Blackbox, Fluxbox even provides a tray with a window list and icon support for applications, running in the tray (this part is called a ’slit’.”
No, that part is called the systemtray.
“Window Maker and KDE dock apps are supported as well.”
These go in the slit.
“The coolest thing about Fluxbox to me is that it can automatically recognize applications that are able show a wallpaper on your desktop (feh, idesk etc.)”
idesk doesn’t.
Also, your Openbox description seems to imply that keybindings can’t be configured in fluxbox. I hope this isn’t what you believe. Fluxbox has a long list of configurable key commands, and they are available to scripts as well.
July 17th, 2008 at 19:24
Mark, you seem very much into fluxbox. Do you now what happened to fluxbuntu? Their screenshots are beautiful, but the project seems stalled? I really think that it would make sense to, first, aim to make a clean fluxbuntu-desktop metapackage that can be installed in any *buntu. And then, if all goes well, shoot for an iso for the distro. But hey, I am not the one doing the work …
July 17th, 2008 at 23:35
I don’t understand how this is possible. You aren’t supposed to be able to use Windows inside of Linux. I read it at PromotingLinux.com.
July 18th, 2008 at 00:59
Dude those screen shots totally ROCK!
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
July 18th, 2008 at 03:32
Default FVWM is horrible. However, it’s likely the most customizable WM out there (huge pain to do so, though).
A really good pre-customized version is FVWM-Crystal. If your repository has it as an easy install, give it a whirl!
July 18th, 2008 at 04:44
AWN is not the only OS X dock like for Linux that mimics the functionality.
Try Cairo Dock it is the only Mac OS X-like dock clone which provides the same full functionality as its Apple counterpart.
There’s no fish animation for AWN only in cairo
July 18th, 2008 at 04:52
Do you research!
Fluxbox is also under the MIT licence, you said yourself, it’s based off of the blackbox code base.
They can’t relicense other peoples code…. BTW, you called “blackbox” openbox above, fix that.
Goof.
July 18th, 2008 at 08:16
[...] sorry, please take a look at the desktop environment guide). the x-jet pictures xmen 2 xmen unitedread more | digg [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 10:00
Ehi, where is twm? No, really, when I work on extremely low resources pc twm still makes sense, plus, I’m a bit of a nostalgic…
You also forgot enlightenment, well I know e16 is quite old (but it’s still being used) and e17 development seems to never end, but E definitely deserves a mention. It’s a wm that never shied away from adding a new feature or trying a new way to do something. I remember all the crazy features (sliding desktops? up to 10 different buttons in the window bar? reflections? total skins?) it had back in 1997
Some of those feature are everywhere now.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:05
Ooops, I forgot to compliment you for making this post. Trying to list all the existing x11 window managers is no small feat
Now that I think of it… you did non mention fvwm crystal (aka fvwm with blings), the hyper-minimalistic ratpoison and matchbox the “1 window wm” for embedded devices.
Cheers,
Emme
July 18th, 2008 at 12:08
Great list. I almost forgot those window managers. I tried almost all of them in the past and some others you didn’t mention. Thanks for remembering that these projects still exist and are still evolving. From time to time we need to re-discover them and sometimes we have good surprises.
July 18th, 2008 at 12:12
all good ones missing..
what about: fvwm, wmii, dwm, xmonad, pekwm etc.?
July 18th, 2008 at 12:23
For those who want to have a look and contribute to a new model of interaction with the PC, behind the classic window manager, check out the Lobotomy Project: http://lobotomy.sf.net . Actually no working stuffs are in field, but some descriptive documents about ideas and basic concepts
July 18th, 2008 at 12:37
[...] The Big X Window Manager Guide (with Screenshots) A comprehensive look at window managers for X, with added screenshot goodness. [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 13:07
Greg, how about an article about panels and docks?
(Gnome-panel, Kicker, pypanel, lxpanel, AWN, tint2, KoolDock , fspanel…)
July 18th, 2008 at 14:09
The Big X Window Manager Guide [window manager screens] | nerdd.net…
\r\nAs promised, today well take a look at the various interesting window managers for the X Window…
July 18th, 2008 at 14:21
Raden, I’m planning a few interesting posts for next week. Stay tuned, subscribe to the feed and you’ll get it delivered instantly
July 18th, 2008 at 14:59
Thanks.
anyway, anyone got the latest Etoile (http://etoileos.com/) running?
I have no idea how to get it up running on Debian/Ubuntu.
Had dependencies and ran the install script. but got some error on GNUStep folder heirarchy stuff.
July 18th, 2008 at 15:00
Very informative article and comments. I never even knew that there were so many window managers.
July 18th, 2008 at 15:29
[...] de ventanas hoy en día, o al menos, cuáles son los más destacados por su popularidad. Un artículo publicado en Internetling y que ya está en varios portales y blogs linuxeros está causando sensación porque realmente es [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 17:46
It should be mentioned that blackbox can run on winXp and Vista, so that when us *nix users have to use that other OS (at work, at school, wherever) we can feel much more comfortable.
July 18th, 2008 at 18:01
Great article. I had forgotten about some of those WMs.
I used to use Blackbox and later Flux. They are both rock solid WMs. In my opinion, it’s on the opposite scale of a MS Windows kind of WM in that it doesn’t go out of it’s way to provide you with bells and whistles from the start. Bells and whistles equals to bloat. If you want a bell or whistle, you can configure it yourself. I like Blackbox a little better because it uses very little resources compared to other WMs, including Fluxbox. Fluxbox adds a little more functionality, my favorite being tabbed windows. As a programmer, both are real handy because of the lack of bloat. For heavier projects, I will still login to my Flux environment instead of my KDE 3 session. I use KDE currently for the menu system. I prefer it at the moment and i’m just too lazy lately to dive into config files.
Emme: Did you actually take time to RTFA?
July 18th, 2008 at 18:12
I thought I’d pipe in with a what about OLVWM! I loved that green WM.
July 18th, 2008 at 18:35
Another one to consider would be CTWM, it’s based on TWM so it uses very little resources, but it has virtual desktops, a work space manager (shows all your open applications in a small window that you can manipulate in place, done a DECADE before Apple ripped them off and took the credit for it).
July 18th, 2008 at 20:16
As others have pointed out, you left a major family of wms, of course the best is vtwm http://www.vtwm.org/ baby!
July 19th, 2008 at 12:42
Too poor the images cannot be displayed anymore (traffic limit exceeded). Any chance of getting them up again?
July 19th, 2008 at 16:54
Now, the best and the most useful is gnome. But I like Afterstep. I used to use it ten years ago…
July 19th, 2008 at 17:19
Hi else,
there is a blog reaction to this post with maybe even better screenshots for each WM
http://www.muylinux.com/2008/07/18/gestores-de-ventanas-al-poder/
I’ll try to solve the bandwidth problem, thanks for pointing it out.
July 19th, 2008 at 18:32
[...] working my butt off on the WM and DE guides, I’m back for some more distro [...]
July 19th, 2008 at 21:16
Thanks Greg! Keep up the great work.
July 20th, 2008 at 01:42
I know this shouldn’t go here, but does anyone know why Kde-look, gnome-look, and box-look website aren’t working for me. I live in US. Is it because some mo-fo ISP is blocking it?
July 20th, 2008 at 20:42
Reupload pics, please.
July 20th, 2008 at 21:58
You need upgrade to pro account on Photobucket firstly lolz
July 21st, 2008 at 05:12
I was able to see some pics by appending “.nyud.net”. Too bad appending it on the article’s URL itself doesn’t work.
You can try:
http://img.photobucket.com.nyud.net/albums/v242/gregor3000/fluxbox-1.png
etc…
July 21st, 2008 at 11:33
I know a bigger X Window Manager Guid (although a bit outdated):
http://xwinman.org/others.php
July 23rd, 2008 at 02:42
[...] The Big X Window Manager guide. Oh man, I can really just feel my colon overflowing with choice. But wait, you forgot like 100 other window managers! [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 20:43
Hey - all those window managers look just like a big Photobucket icon!
July 28th, 2008 at 20:49
I use e16, you can count it too
July 30th, 2008 at 13:27
Sorry, bandwidth problem because of Digg. The screenshots will be back on aug 1st. Google for screenshots if you want to see them.
August 9th, 2008 at 03:36
Blackbox takes care of my wife?
The original, written in C++, Blackbox remains a very simplistic _widow manager_.
August 9th, 2008 at 20:07
Along with Awesome there are other tiled window managers. Xmonad, dwm, ion3 wmii. My personal favorite is ION3. I have tried the others but keep coming back to ION3. Maybe because it strikes a nice balance between keyboard use and mouse use and doesn’t force you to use on over the other.
I know the author of ION3 does not have a good reputation but he does have good ideas
August 26th, 2008 at 12:34
[...] http://www.internetling.com/2008/07/16/the-big-x-window-manager-guide-with-screenshots/ [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 20:29
[...] http://www.internetling.com/2008/07/16/the-big-x-window-manager-guide-with-screenshots/ [...]
October 14th, 2008 at 05:07
I was using GNOME for a long time with an old computer. GNOME is barely tolerable on an old computer. Until a few months ago I didn’t realize how easy it is to use icewm instead. If you can read and write bash scripts, customizing icewm is actually much easier than messing around with GNOME’s databases and complexity. For instance, with GNOME if you want things to happen automatically when you log in there’s a gnome-sessions GUI widget you have to mess with. With icewm there’s one file called ~/.icewm/startup and for instance mine looks like this:
#!/bin/sh
xrandr –size 1024×768
nautilus –no-default-window &
pidgin &
and voila nautilus is running your desktop background and icons, which it’s good at, and GNOME is NOT running your taskbar, and metacity is NOT running your windowframes, and your whole computer is running a LOT faster.
icewm’s menu support is excellent. Any crazy thing I install with aptitude ends up somewhere sensible in the programs menu, even obscure things I would expect to have to add by hand somehow. Maybe it’s all just built into Debian, who knows. Anyway, when it comes to low-profile desktops, install GNOME for the applications but let icewm run the desktop, there’s just no reason not to.
October 18th, 2008 at 22:17
[...] been talking a lot about window managers and desktop environments. Nowadays most major distros simply go for KDE or GNOME, but it is not [...]
November 6th, 2008 at 22:50
“# BSDz0r Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 04:52
Do your research
Fluxbox is also under the MIT licence, you said yourself, it’s based off of the blackbox code base.
They can’t relicense other peoples code…[...]”
Do yours, BSDz0r…
Cause yes, they can… Since MIT licence is a permissive one, the can relicence a MIT software as GPL, and even as proprietary copyrighted and closed source one if they want… even though there is no point in doing such a thing as the original source still remains free…
The only thing you can’t do with such a licence is to patent the code with an even more permissive licence, and it doesn’t exist, or it’s named “public domain”