Window manager

The window manager X11.]]

Each X server installation should usually have a window manager. If a desktop environment is used, a window manager will generally be provided.

Classification
Windows managers can generally be dynamic, stacking, or tiling in their behavior.


 * Stacking (or floating) window managers have windows analogous to pieces of paper on a physical desktop, which can be stacked each on top of the others, with the one with which the user interacts on top of the stack, and totally visible.
 * Tiling window managers represent windows as tiles, or split views, with windows displayed next to one another, but with none of the windows overlapping.
 * Dynamic window managers can dynamically switch between the other two paradigms.

Windows managers can integrate a compositor, for buffering graphics before showing them, allowing visual effects, anti-flicker and other facilities.

Available software
Here are some window manager packages available in Gentoo:

feh and imv can be used for setting the desktop background for tiling window managers like i3.

See a full and current list of window managers by issuing (requires ):

External resources

 * Comparison of X window managers (Wikipedia)