Want a Really Lightweight Desktop Linux Experience? Try a Window Manager

Summary

• Window managers manage only windows in the X Window System, providing you an alternative to Linux desktop environments.
• Tiling and stacking window managers let you use your screen space efficiently.
• Popular window managers for Linux include Openbox, Fluxbox, awesome, and Enlightenment, each offering unique features. Many more are available in your Linux package manager. Find one you like!

While there are minimalistic desktop environments, you can take it even further by just using a window manager. It manages windows and nothing else. Here’s why it’s worth a try.

What Is a Window Manager?

A window manager is a program that does just that, managing window behavior in the X Window System.

The X Window System, or X, isn’t a complete graphical user interface system in itself. It really only knows how to paint the pixels on the screen. The window decorations, such as the title bar, the window button, or the close, maximize, and minimize buttons, are created by the window manager.

It’s possible to run without a window manager, though difficult in practice. If you do, you’ll find that you can’t do much. You won’t be able to move windows without something to click on. If you manage to kill your window manager, you’ll often find yourself logged out or it might be restarted automatically.

Why Just a Window Manager?

While full-blown desktop environments, some of them aiming to be lightweight, are common on modern Linux distributions, bare window managers remain popular among Linux power users. This setup is common among people who like lightweight environments because window managers by themselves use little memory or CPU.

Developers will often just use a standalone window manager. If you’re just working in the command line most of the time, you don’t need a lot of the other tools a desktop system comes with. Others just like a minimal distraction-free environment. You can’t waste time playing a solitaire game if it doesn’t come preinstalled on your system.

What About Desktop Environments?

Window managers still have a role to play in modern Linux desktop environments. This is due to the modular nature of graphics in Linux. Desktop environments are built as collections of software tools that can be installed on their own, such as window managers, file managers, and user programs. On most distributions, you can install all of these components by themselves. You can install a window manager, and a different file manager, and a browser, all from different projects.

Many desktop environments will let you choose a different window manager than the default. This lets you customize your environment the way you want it.

Tiling vs. Stacking

One of the main distinctions among window managers is their approach to managing windows. There are two main paradigms: tiling and stacking.

Tiling Window Managers

A tiling window manager lays out windows like tiles on a wall. When you open a window, it will fill the entire screen. When you open another one, the original window will shrink and the two windows will be displayed side-by-side. When you close a window, the process is reversed. The other windows will grow to fill the screen. dwm pictured above is an example of such a window manager.

Tiling window managers are popular among Linux power users because they believe that tiling is a more efficient use of screen space. It was also the way that version 1.0 of Microsoft Windows managed windows when it launched in 1985.

Stacking Window Managers

Stacking window managers behave like more traditional window managers. It’s the most common window management paradigm. Windows can appear anywhere, and can be raised or lowered, typically when you click on them. The “stacking” part comes from how windows can overlap each other.

In practice, a lot of window managers can function as “hybrid” window managers. A tiling window manager can often allow certain windows to “float” above the other windows, known as “dynamic” window management, while you can snap windows in a stacking window manager to tile them by dragging them to the sides of the screen. This allows you to take advantage of the features of the other when you need to. Tiled windows are good for comparing documents side-by-side, but you might do this only occasionally, so a stacking window manager that can also tile windows will make a lot of sense.

Popular Window Managers

There are lots of window managers to try out. Keep in mind that these are mostly designed for power users, so they may not be as intuitive. If you get stuck, try right-clicking on the screen. This will often bring up a menu showing programs you can launch or things you can do, such as logging out. You might want to read the documentation on the project’s website before you start using it.

Most distros will have a menu that lets you select which window manager to use at login. Look for something that says something like “session” if you have trouble finding it. Here’s an example on Debian:

Openbox

Openbox is a good all-around option for a basic stacking window manager. You can launch programs from a right-click menu. Most distros will generate a menu for you automatically. It was based on an earlier window manager called Blackbox.

Fluxbox

Fluxbox, like Openbox, was inspired by the Blackbox project. As with other window managers in this style, it’s become known for its minimalism.

awesome

The awesome window manager is an exemplar of the “dynamic” approach to tiling window managers. You can have windows tiled side-by-side or with one larger than the other, or windows can float above the others. It’s more flexible than having windows tile automatically. dwm, which was already mentioned above, is also a dynamic window manager.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is one of the stalwarts of the Linux window manager world. While it had a reputation as a demanding window manager when it debuted in the ’90s. Over the years it’s turned into a lean and mean quasi-desktop. It’s as close as you can get to a desktop environment while still installing just a window manager.

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This is just scratching the surface for window managers on Linux. Your distro’s package manager will have many more than I can cover here. So if you want something new on your desktop, try one or try several.