Window Manager Recommendations

Users recommend and discuss various lightweight, simple, tiling, and non-tiling window managers like StumpWM, Ratpoison, FVWM, WindowMaker, and others, often in response to a post about minimal or alternative WMs.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Open Source
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#9758
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Keywords

IMHO rubyflow.com MailTool GP XCB WindowMaker E.g GUI KDE archive.org window window manager manager managers gnome desktop tiling terminal windows dock

Sample Comments

cup-of-tea Jun 1, 2018 View on HN

There is a window manager called stumpwm like that.

Rebelgecko Jun 11, 2025 View on HN

You already can if you're not picky about window manager features

thesuperbigfrog Nov 24, 2022 View on HN

You might find Rio interesting:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_(windowing_system)

feel-ix-343 Jun 13, 2024 View on HN

Will this one not try to be a window manager?

Fidelix Jul 9, 2025 View on HN

Try Niri or PaperWM. A scrolling window manager.

ethanpailes Jun 14, 2024 View on HN

Not trying to be a window manager is pretty much the reason it exists!

ptman Jan 14, 2019 View on HN

There are window managers like that for linux. E.g. http://notion.sourceforge.net/ or https://github.com/pekdon/pekwm or http://www.fluxbox.org/

technoir Nov 6, 2013 View on HN

Too bad they didnt switch to windowlab. Now that is a lightweight window manager. Amiga style window management!

almost Apr 28, 2009 View on HN

For those who wish their window manager was more like screen I recommend strongly recommend the ratposion WM.

gps0 Dec 18, 2022 View on HN

What are some DEs / window managers you think are quite simple and let you focus?