Desktop environments and Window managers: Difference between revisions

From Alpine Linux
(Added window managers 2bwm, compiz, flwm, gamescope, goomwwm, icewm, marco, metacity, pekwm, sxmo-dwm, windowmaker, xfwm4)
(Window managers:-)
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| {{Pkg|bspwm|arch=}} || X11 || Tiling || C ||
| {{Pkg|bspwm|arch=}} || X11 || Tiling || C ||
|-
|-
|  {{Pkg|cage |arch=}} || Wayland || Kiosk || C/wlroots || ratpoison
|  {{Pkg|cage |arch=}} || Wayland || Kiosk || C/wlroots || {{Pkg|ratpoison|arch=}}
|-
|-
| {{Pkg|cagebreak|arch=}} || Wayland || Tiling ||C/wlroots || ratpoison and cage
| {{Pkg|cagebreak|arch=}} || Wayland || Tiling ||C/wlroots || {{Pkg|ratpoison|arch=}}, {{Pkg|cage|arch=}}
|-
|-
| {{Pkg|compiz|arch=}} || X11 || Compositing || C++/C/Python ||  
| {{Pkg|compiz|arch=}} || X11 || Compositing || C++/C/Python ||  
|-
|-
| {{Pkg|cwm|arch=}} || X11 || Stacking || C ||
| {{Pkg|cwm|arch=}} || X11 || Stacking || C ||
|-
| {{Pkg|dk|arch=}} || X11 || Tiling || C || {{Pkg|dwm|arch=}}, {{Pkg|bspwm|arch=}}, [https://xmonad.org/ xmonad], [https://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/ evilwm], [https://github.com/Cloudef/monsterwm-xcb monsterwm-xcb], [https://github.com/sulami/FrankenWM frankenwm]
|-
|-
| {{Pkg|dwl|arch=}}  || Wayland || Tiling || C/wlroots||[[dwm]]
| {{Pkg|dwl|arch=}}  || Wayland || Tiling || C/wlroots||[[dwm]]
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| {{Pkg|pekwm|arch=}} || X11 || Stacking || C++/CMake/Perl/C || [http://sapphire.sourceforge.net/ aewm++]
| {{Pkg|pekwm|arch=}} || X11 || Stacking || C++/CMake/Perl/C || [http://sapphire.sourceforge.net/ aewm++]
|-
|-
| [[Qtile]] || Both || Tiling || Python ||
| [[Qtile]] || X11/Wayland || Tiling || Python ||
|-
|-
| {{Pkg|ratpoison|arch=}}  || X11 || Kiosk || C ||  
| {{Pkg|ratpoison|arch=}}  || X11 || Kiosk || C ||  
|-
|-
| [[River]] || Wayland || Tiling || Zig || [[dwm]] and xmonad
| [[River]] || Wayland || Tiling || Zig || [[dwm]], [https://xmonad.org/ xmonad]
|-
|-
| {{Pkg|spectrwm |arch=}}  || X11 || Tiling || C||xmonad and [[dwm]]
| {{Pkg|spectrwm |arch=}}  || X11 || Tiling || C|| [https://xmonad.org/ xmonad], [[dwm]]
|-
|-
| [[Sway]] || Wayland || Tiling || C/wlroots || [[I3wm|i3]]
| [[Sway]] || Wayland || Tiling || C/wlroots || [[I3wm|i3]]
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| [[twm]] || X11 || Tiling || C ||
| [[twm]] || X11 || Tiling || C ||
|-
|-
| {{Pkg|wayfire|arch=}} || Wayland || Stacking || C++/wlroots || Compiz
| {{Pkg|wayfire|arch=}} || Wayland || Stacking || C++/wlroots || {{Pkg|compiz|arch=}}
|-
|-
| [[Weston]] || Wayland || Stacking ||  C ||
| [[Weston]] || Wayland || Stacking ||  C ||

Revision as of 03:58, 3 July 2025

Alpine Linux has no official desktop and setting up a graphical environment is not even part of Installation. All window managers and desktop environments that are available in Alpine Linux are listed in this page. Quick installation using setup-desktop script is available for few desktops.

Tip: For servers consider using Alpine Configuration Framework(ACF) for security reasons.

Desktop environments

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.

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 case of Wayland, these are called compositors because they additionally perform the task of a compositing window manager.

Almost all components of a desktop needs to be added manually by the user. A stacking a.k.a. floating or tiling a.k.a. dynamic layout is 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, evilwm, monsterwm-xcb, frankenwm
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++
hikari Wayland Stacking C/wlroots/pango cwm
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 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

See also