Window manager

Window managers operate on top of X.Org. The window manager is the system that controls the placement and appearance of application windows on the graphical display. The choice of window manager affects the look and feel of the graphical user interface. This section only showcases a few of the countless window managers available to X.Org.

Window managers
The way a window manager manages windows varies widely. The type you'll like will depend on what you will be doing, too: if you only have one window open at a time anyway, you won't get any profit from using a tiling WM. However, if you have a lot of windows at all times, a tiling WM might be able to take over a lot of work for you. If you're used to Windows and don't feel like learning a new interface, you'll be looking for a stacking WM.

A tiling window manager is a window manager with an organization of the screen into mutually non-overlapping frames, as opposed to the more popular approach of coordinate-based stacking of overlapping objects (windows) that tries to fully emulate the desktop metaphor.

Stacking window managers let you move around and resize windows freely and continuously. These are known best, particularly for their ability to make windows overlap. Usually, windows in stacking WMs can be resized and moved with the help of mouse grabs. Because the graphical metaphors provided by such window managers provide hints to the user what actions are available, they require less time to learn to use and are easier for new users.

By one definition, Dynamic window managers are those capable of both stacking mode and tiling mode. By another, they are those which attempt to automatically rearrange windows in an optimal configuration. Most of the more recent tiling window managers do both.

Compositing window managers make use of off-screen buffers to make programs output to virtual screens, and then combine the off-screen buffers into the actual interface you'll see. They often need AIGLX to run smoothly, or even run at all. Compositing WMs primarily exist for eye-candy.