What is a window manager?
A window manager is software that is responsible for the creation and placement of windows applications. It controls how different windows stack along with each other on a single screen. It gives every application window a title bar and border by which a user can resize and reposition the window. As we have seen, it comes bundled with a desktop environment. But if it is a part of the desktop environment, how can it possibly be a replacement for the desktop environment? The thing is, you can install a window manager without a desktop environment, but then, you will have to install other essential components yourself, like a file manager, terminal emulator, menu bar, etc. Essentially you would be building up your own unique environment if you were to use a standalone window manager. If you decide to go down that road, you have a lot of options to choose from. They are categorized into two parts.
- Tiling Window manager: They tile the windows around each other on a screen, like tiles on a floor or pieces of a puzzle. Each new window that is created, gets its own rectangular share of the screen and does not overlap with other windows. Some famous tiling window managers are i3, bspwm, dwm, and awesome.
- Stacking Window manager: They allow windows to overlap. They are most commonly used and are used by all major desktop environments. They are also called floating window managers. Some famous stacking managers are Fluxbox, Openbox, and KWin.
i3 WIndow manager
dwm window manager
Difference Between Desktop Environment VS Window Manager in Linux
If you are a Linux user, you must have heard of the term Desktop Environment. It is one of the deciding factors when choosing a Linux distribution. There is something else that is comparatively less known among beginners, it is a Window manager. In this article, we will understand both of them, and see how do they compare with each other.