Desktop environments and Window managers: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:44, 17 December 2025

Alpine Linux has no official desktop although setting up a graphical environment is proposed in the post-installation guide. Alpine Linux desktops may meet the needs for general daily desktop use:-

Fewer packages still require glibc, as numerous popular applications are now available here on musl: libreoffice*, chromium*, Firefox, etc
Several Alpine Linux desktop environments have been benchmarked to be competitive for both speed and memory
Arguably, there is a reduced attack surface through the use of a comparatively lightweight musl and BusyBox system core

All window managers and desktop environments that are available in Alpine Linux are listed on this page. A quick installation using the setup-desktop script is available for several desktops.

Tip: For servers, consider using Alpine Configuration Framework (ACF) for security considerations in that use case.

Desktop environments

A desktop environment (DE) is made of a bundle of programs that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphical shell. A desktop environment typically consists of icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers and desktop widgets, and might also provide drag-and-drop functionality.

Window managers

A window manager is software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. In the case of Wayland, these are called compositors because they additionally perform the task of a compositing window manager.

Almost all components of a desktop need to be added manually by the user. Both stacking (a.k.a. floating) and tiling/dynamic layouts are commonly used for window management.

WM Name	Protocol	Style	Toolkit	Inspiration
2bwm	X11	Stacking	C/Roff	mcwm
Awesome	X11	Tiling	Lua
berry	X11	Stacking	C
bspwm	X11	Tiling	C
cage	Wayland	Kiosk	C/wlroots	ratpoison
cagebreak	Wayland	Tiling	C/wlroots	ratpoison, cage
compiz	X11	Compositing	C++/C/Python
cwm	X11	Stacking	C
dk	X11	Tiling	C	dwm, bspwm, xmonad
dwl	Wayland	Tiling	C/wlroots	dwm
dwm	X11	Tiling	C
Fluxbox	X11	Stacking	C++	blackbox
flwm	X11	Stacking	C++/FLTK	wm2
gamescope	X11/Wayland	Compositing	C++/C/Lua
goomwwm	X11	Stacking	C/Roff
herbstluftwm	X11	Tiling	C++
Hyprland	Wayland	Tiling	C++
i3	X11	Tiling	C
icewm	X11	Stacking	C++/C/M4
jwm	X11	Stacking	C
kwin	X11/Wayland	Compositing	C++
LabWC	Wayland	Stacking	C/wlroots	Openbox
marco	X11	Stacking	C	metacity
metacity	X11	Compositing	C
mutter	X11/Wayland	Compositing	C
mwm	X11	Stacking	C
niri	Wayland	Tiling	Rust/GLSL/other	PaperWM
Openbox	X11	Stacking	C
pekwm	X11	Stacking	C++/CMake/Perl/C	aewm++
Qtile	X11/Wayland	Tiling	Python
ratpoison	X11	Kiosk	C
river-classic/River	Wayland	Tiling	Zig	dwm, xmonad
spectrwm	X11	Tiling	C	xmonad, dwm
Sway	Wayland	Tiling	C/wlroots	i3
sxmo-dwm	X11	Tiling	C	dwm
twm	X11	Tiling	C
wayfire	Wayland	Stacking	C++/wlroots	compiz
Weston	Wayland	Stacking	C
windowmaker	X11	Stacking	C/Shell/M4/Perl/Makefile/Emacs Lisp/other	NeXTSTEP
xfwm4	X11	Compositing	C/Makefile/Meson/other

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 -->
-'''Alpine Linux''' has no official desktop although setting up a graphical environment is proposed in the [[Installation#Post-Installation|post-installation]] guide.  Alpine Linux desktops may meet the needs for ''general'' daily desktop use, as lesser use cases now require [https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/ glibc], several Alpine Linux desktop environments have been benchmarked to be competitive for both [https://everybytecounts.org/#desktop-environment-comparison speed and memory], and arguably, there is a reduced attack surface through the use of [https://musl.libc.org/ musl] and [[BusyBox]].
+'''Alpine Linux''' has no official desktop although setting up a graphical environment is proposed in the [[Installation#Post-Installation|post-installation]] guide.  Alpine Linux desktops may meet the needs for ''general'' daily desktop use:-
+* Fewer packages still require [https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/ glibc], as numerous popular applications are now available here on [https://musl.libc.org/ musl]:  {{Pkg|libreoffice*}}, {{Pkg|chromium*}}, [[Firefox]], etc
+* Several Alpine Linux desktop environments have been benchmarked to be competitive for both [https://everybytecounts.org/#desktop-environment-comparison speed and memory]
+* Arguably, there is a reduced attack surface through the use of a comparatively lightweight '''musl''' and [[BusyBox]] system core
-All window managers and desktop environments that are available in Alpine Linux are listed in this page. A quick installation using the [[Alpine_setup_scripts#setup-desktop|setup-desktop]] script is available for several [[Setup-desktop|desktops]].
+All window managers and desktop environments that are available in Alpine Linux are listed on this page. A quick installation using the [[Alpine_setup_scripts#setup-desktop|setup-desktop]] script is available for several [[Setup-desktop|desktops]].
-{{Tip|For servers, consider using [[Alpine_Configuration_Framework_Design|Alpine Configuration Framework (ACF)]] for security reasons.}}
+{{Tip|For servers, consider using [[Alpine_Configuration_Framework_Design|Alpine Configuration Framework (ACF)]] for security considerations in that use case.}}
 == Desktop environments ==
-A desktop environment (DE) is made of a bundle of programs that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphical shell. A desktop environment typically consists of icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers desktop widgets and might also provide drag and drop.
+A ''desktop environment'' (DE) is made of a bundle of programs that share a common ''graphical user interface'' (GUI), sometimes described as a ''graphical shell''. A desktop environment typically consists of icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers and desktop widgets, and might also provide drag-and-drop functionality.
 * [[Xfce]]
 * [[LXQt]]
@@ Line 21: / Line 24: @@
 * [[GNOME]]
 * [[MATE]]
-* [[Cosmic|COSMIC]]
+* [[COSMIC]]
 * {{Pkg|lomiri|arch=}}
 * {{Pkg|lumina-desktop*|arch=}}
@@ Line 28: / Line 31: @@
 == Window managers ==
-A window manager is software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. In the case of [[Wayland]], these are called  compositors because they additionally perform the task of a compositing window manager.
+A ''window manager'' is software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. In the case of [[Wayland]], these are called ''compositors'' because they additionally perform the task of a ''compositing window manager''.
-Almost all components of a desktop need to be added manually by the user. A [[Alpine_Linux:Glossary#S|stacking]] (a.k.a. ''floating'') or [[Alpine_Linux:Glossary#T|tiling]]/''dynamic'' layout is commonly used for window management.
+Almost all components of a desktop need to be added manually by the user.  Both [[Alpine_Linux:Glossary#S|stacking]] (a.k.a. ''floating'') and [[Alpine_Linux:Glossary#T|tiling]]/''dynamic'' layouts are commonly used for window management.
 {|class="wikitable sortable" align="center" style="width:100%; border:1px #0771a6 solid; background:#f9f9f9; text-align:left; border-collapse:collapse;"
@@ Line 100: / Line 103: @@
 | {{Pkg|ratpoison|arch=}}  || X11 || Kiosk || C ||
 |-
-| [[River]] || Wayland || Tiling || Zig || [[dwm]], [https://xmonad.org/ xmonad]
+| [[River|river-classic/River]] || Wayland || Tiling || Zig || [[dwm]], [https://xmonad.org/ xmonad]
 |-
 | {{Pkg|spectrwm |arch=}}  || X11 || Tiling || C||  [https://xmonad.org/ xmonad], [[dwm]]

Latest revision as of 18:44, 17 December 2025

Desktop environments

Window managers

See also