Window Manager

From iA wiki

See also: X | Graphical User Interface | Desktop Environment

Acronym: WM (often 'wm')

Window managers are used in the UNIX world, as add-ins to an X server. They take the X graphical primitives and add window decoration such as minimize/maximize/close buttons, title bars and so on.

Windows 3.1 could easily have its window manager swapped out my editing a shell= line in a startup file. Subsequent versions of windows made this task more difficult if not impossible.

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A non-exhaustive list of X-Windows window managers follows:

• AlloyWm - Small wm.
• BlackBox - An extremely lightweight yet functional wm.
• Enlightenment - Extremely graphically oriented wm/de with artistic feel.
• FluxBox - Based on BlackBox, but with significant changes.
• FVWM - A lightweight wm.
• Kahakai - a fork of Waimea.
• Oroborus - A tiny WM which provides additional functionality through optional utilities.
• qvwm - A WM with a Windows 95/98/NT-like interface.
• Ratpoison - A simple WM with no fat library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no mouse dependence.
• Waimea
• Window Maker
• More...

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• Twin - A textmode windowing environment. Yes, you read that right.