Open Source Linux Window Managers
Sort By:
Window Managers for Linux
View 9 business solutionsBrowse free open source Window Managers and projects for Linux below. Use the toggles on the left to filter open source Window Managers by OS, license, language, programming language, and project status.
-
$300 Free Credits to Build on Google CloudPut your $300 in credit toward real workloads, then keep building with free monthly usage for 20+ products. No commitment and no charge until you upgrade.
-
Veeam Data Platform v13.1 - Get Your Free TrialTry Veeam Data Platform today. Experience the unified platform that's secure by design, portable by default, and proven to recover clean, fast, and anywhere.
-
1
Bodhi Linux
A minimalist, enlightened Linux distribution
Bodhi is a minimalistic, enlightened, Linux desktop. Bodhi Linux is extremely lightweight and highly customizable. Bodhi is suitable for both Linux newcomers and experienced users. The Ubuntu LTS assures stability for years and the Bodhi Team is very open to all suggestions and requests from users and willing to help. -
2
Archcraft
Yet another minimal Linux distribution, based on Arch Linux.
Archcraft is an arch-based rolling-release distribution aimed at users who cares more about minimalism and aesthetics of their desktop. It comes pre-configured with various lightweight applications which makes it super fast. It can run under 500Mb of memory. There's no desktop environment in (main) Archcraft, just two highly configured window managers - Openbox and Bspwm. The default username & password is 'liveuser' for live ISO. The installer can be found in the app launcher and in openbox menu under the Application > System category, namely 'Install Archcraft'. Archcraft uses two Installers, Calamares and ABIF -
3
Enlightenment is a window manager for the X11 windowing system. Its design goal is to be as configurable as possible - in look AND in feel.
-
4
Fluxbox is a X11 windowmanager build for speed and flexibility.
-
Custom VMs From 1 to 96 vCPUs With 99.95% UptimeLive migration and automatic failover keep workloads online through maintenance. One free e2-micro VM every month.
-
5
Mabox Linux
Lightweight ready to use OpenBox Desktop Rolling-release Manjaro based
Mabox is a Manjaro based, desktop Linux distribution. The project ships with Openbox as the default desktop with pinch of customistations and home-brewed tools, like improved menu, side-panels and Mabox Control Center. Works great even on weaker computers. -
6
FlickOS
FlickOS is a lightweight Linux desktop based on Debian 13 with a labwc
FlickOS 2.0 is a lightweight Linux desktop based on Debian 13 (trixie) with a labwc Wayland session. It ships as a live ISO with the Calamares installer. One hybrid ISO boots BIOS and UEFI and can be written to USB. 64-bit only. Three layouts switch live: Redmond (default, one bottom panel), Cupertino (top bar and dock), and Traditional (top panel and window list). Arc-Dark by default, with a Light desktop style. Optional tiling is off by default (Super+T). Installed systems get a graphical login; the live session logs in automatically. Includes Firefox ESR, LibreOffice, VLC, Bluetooth, printing, Flatpak, PipeWire and NetworkManager. Firewall on (incoming blocked), automatic security updates, and FlickOS desktop updates via apt. No in-place upgrade from FlickOS 1.x (Ubuntu 20.04 / LXLE). Back up and install 2.0 fresh. Source: https://github.com/dvbondoy/FlickOS Updates: https://dvbondoy.github.io/flickos-apt/ Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/flickos/ License: GPL-3.0 -
7
CDE - Common Desktop Environment
The Common Desktop Environment, the classic UNIX desktop
The Common Desktop Environment was created by a collaboration of Sun, HP, IBM, DEC, SCO, Fujitsu and Hitachi. Used on a selection of commercial UNIXs, it is now available as open-source software for the first time. For support, see: https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/wiki/Home/ -
8
Window Maker Live
Window Maker Live Linux Distribution
Window Maker Live is an installable Linux Live ISO based on the current Trixie branch of Debian. The system uses the Window Maker window manager as the default graphical user interface. Window Maker Live's components have been carefully preconfigured and the desktop environment has a consistent visual appearance. Window Maker Live integrates selected components from other desktop environments such as XFCE4, MATE, LXQT, with a particular focus on GNUstep. The main idea behind this project is to integrate the Window Maker window manager as default user interface on top of a standard Debian/Trixie base system. It also serves as an alternate installation medium for Debian/Trixie. The second main idea not directly visible on the surface level is the inclusion of many useful command line utilities and tools for system administration. This effectively turns wmlive into a UNIX administrator's workbench for rescue and repair operations. -
9
Rofi
A window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement
Rofi started as a clone of the simple switcher, written by Sean Pringle - a popup window switcher roughly based on a super switcher. Simpleswitcher laid the foundations, and therefore Sean Pringle deserves most of the credit for this tool. Rofi (renamed, as it lost the simple property) has been extended with extra features, like an application launcher and ssh-launcher, and can act as a drop-in menu replacement, making it a very versatile tool. Rofi, like dmenu, will provide the user with a textual list of options where one or more can be selected. This can either be running an application, selecting a window, or options provided by an external script. It's not an application that can support every possible use case. It tries to be generic enough to be usable by everybody. Rofi has several built-in modes implementing common use cases and can be extended by scripts (either called from Rofi or calling Rofi) or plugins. -
Build Agents and Models on One PlatformGemini Enterprise Agent Platform is Google Cloud's comprehensive platform for developers to build, scale, govern, and optimize agents and models. Choose from Google's most advanced models and third-party models like Anthropic's Claude Model Family.
-
10
LeftWM
A tiling window manager for Adventurers
Left is a tiling window manager written in rust for stability and performance. The core of left is designed to do one thing and one thing well. Be a window manager. Because you probably want more than just a black screen LeftWM is built around the concept of theming. With themes, you can choose between different bars/compositors/backgrounds/colors, whatever makes you happy. LeftWM has been built from the very beginning to support multiple screens and has been built around ultrawide monitors. You will see this with the default key bindings. -
11
river
A dynamic tiling Wayland compositor
River is a dynamic tiling Wayland compositor with a flexible runtime configuration. River can either be run nested in an X11/Wayland session or directly from a tty using KMS/DRM. Simply run the river command. Usually this executable is a shell script invoking riverctl(1) to create mappings, start programs such as a layout generator or status bar, and perform other configuration. -
12
Awesome
Awesome window manager
awesome is a highly configurable, next-generation framework window manager for X. It is very fast, extensible and licensed under the GNU GPLv2 license. It is primarily targeted at power users, developers and any people dealing with everyday computing tasks and who want to have fine-grained control on their graphical environment. A window manager is probably one of the most used software applications in your day-to-day tasks, along with your web browser, mail reader and text editor. Power users and programmers have a big range of choices between several tools for these day-to-day tasks. Some are heavily extensible and configurable. awesome tries to complete these tools with what we miss, an extensible, highly configurable window manager. To achieve this goal, awesome has been designed as a framework window manager. It's extremely fast, small, dynamic and heavily extensible using the Lua programming language. -
13
Mac OS X Transformation Pack. Macbuntu is an open-source program, designed to transform Linux’s appearance and layout into a Mac OS X environment. Although Macbuntu is dedicated to Ubuntu Linux OS, it could be used in other OS based on Debian/GTK
-
14
A circular, oval, and spiral dock for Windows implemented in .Net using C#. It is based on the idea of pie menus but in a dock form. Official Hompage: http://circledock.wikidot.com
-
15
TaskbarX
TaskbarX: Customize taskbar icons with animations for a sleek Windows.
TaskbarX offers precise control over taskbar icon placement, providing a Windows dock-like ambiance. Enjoy customizable animations, speeds, and positioning options. Easily tailor your taskbar to your preferences, with support for vertical taskbars and multiple instances. Developed since May 6, 2018, under the aliases FalconX and Falcon10, TaskbarX ensures a seamless user experience. -
16
LinuxMint 22.3 XFCE RU/EN
Linux Mint 22.3 "Zara" XFCE (RU/EN) by KDE_MintyFlow
A custom build of Linux Mint 22.3 "Zara" featuring lightweight XFCE desktop environments. Optimized for performance and stability. Includes Russian and English languages ​​out of the box. Pre-installed essential software and codecs. Perfect for low-end hardware and older PCs. Fast, clean, and ready to use. A custom build of Linux Mint 22.3 "Zara" with lightweight XFCE desktop environments. Optimized for speed and stability. Full support for Russian and English languages. Pre-installed essential software and codecs. Ideal for low-end hardware and older computers. Fast, clean, and ready to use immediately after installation. Tested on an Acer Extensa 5630EZ (2Ghz 2RAM) The "Windows App Support" build differs only in that it includes additional scripts to support Windows applications on Linux, which ensures a smoother transition for Windows users to Linux. Everything works out of the box. Just install, click, and go! -
17
SWM
Simple stacking window manager for X11
SWM is a simple stacking window manager for X. SWM is meant to be controlled using X events and swmctl, its custom command-sending tool. X events could be sent using utilities like xdotool or wmctrl. Their commands, as well as swmctl ones could be mapped to keyboard shortcuts using a utility like sxhkd. You can find an example sxhkd config in the examples. -
18
icewm is a window manager for the X Window System. The features of icewm are speed, simplicity, and not getting in the user's way.
-
19
Rectangle
Move and resize windows on macOS with keyboard shortcuts
Rectangle is a window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift. -
20
GTK2/enlightenment file-manager. Browser-view a la NeXT/Step, Icon-/thumbnails-view a la efm. Fully themable. Microshell. Themes, thumbnailers and metadata providers (MP3/ID3, Ogg, EXIF, ...) are plugins -- you don't load what you don't need, no bloat.
-
21
Wind
A window manager for X
Wind is a window manager for the X Window System. It supports virtual desktops, optional Xft font rendering, and is fairly standards compliant. -
22
Bismuth
KDE Plasma add-on, that tiles your windows automatically
KDE Plasma add-on, that tiles your windows automatically and lets you manage them via keyboard, similarly to i3, Sway or dwm. Arrange your windows in different grids to minimize mouse usage. Save your time by automatically managing windows on your screen. Power up your workflow using native Plasma features - Virtual Desktops and Activities. -
23
LeftWM Layouts
Library providing fixed but parameterized window layout calculations
This library encapsulates layout calculations from external dependencies and displays servers, so that it can be used by window managers for X.Org, Wayland, or whatever else. It's all about splitting up rectangles, the library has no concept of "windows". Some default layouts are provided, but custom layouts can be defined. Custom layout definitions allow some flexibility but are still fairly limited by design, as the target audience of this library is list-based / dynamic-tiling window managers (the likes of leftwm, dwm, ...) as opposed to manual tilers like i3. -
24
Menu Maker is 100% Python heuristics-driven menu generator for a number of X Window Managers and desktop environments. It features large knowledge base of known programs, powerful and flexible search algorithms, persistence of menus across several WMs
-
25
Translation team with the primary objective to translate and maintain the translations of some useful SourceForge.net Projects. GUI and CLI applications, PHP, Java and Documentation for Linux, Apple MAC & BSD and Windows. More info on our homepage.
