As a beginner I mainly focused on Cinnamon, XFCE and GNOME but want to try out a windowing DE on a VM to get a feel for things.
What window manager DE would you recommend to a first timer that doesn’t use tiling DEs?
There seems to be pretty popular ones like i3 and hyprland.
I was also hoping if some wm’s still have a task bar as I am comfortable using that to keep a traditional style as I come from a long line use of Windows as well (starting from the XP era)
Thank you if you have any recommendations, it is good to branch your horizons a bit!
An actual WM is not a DE, and if you use something like i3 (sway is the Wayland version) all it does is manage your windows. A DE includes a WM; GNOME’s is called gdm Mutter. If you install a WM yourself, that’s all you get. Docks, bars, etc. might have suggested or sibling implementations for a given WM, but you’ll be setting them up yourself and you can easily swap in other options, or just not have them. There’s also no included software suite with things like a file manager. You’re expected to pick and use whatever tools you like, which is exactly the appeal but can be intimidating if you’re used to a full fledged DE.
Tiling is just a way of organizing your windows, as opposed to the more common “floating” scheme that all the major desktop UIs use. You can totally use tiling in a DE, you just need an extension for it. I know they exist for GNOME and I’m sure there’s a way to do it on kde too. Even Windows has tiling modes available.
So you can probably just enable tiling on your current setup to try it out (or install GNOME on your VM --i know that PopOS! used to have a built in tiling mode, but it’s been years since I tried that so ymmv). Moving to a WM instead of a DE is a very different and more involved process that’s mostly for people who want a totally custom setup with no extraneous features that they don’t explicitly set up. It’s basically the UI side of doing an LFS or classic Arch install where you pick which system components to use by hand.
*gdm is Gnomes display manager, which is the confusing Linux name for a login screen. Gnomes window manager is called Mutter.
Do you want a window manager or a desktop environment? They’re different things. A WM is a component of a DE but the latter also comes with a full set of applications along with it.
as others have mentioned, a window manager is one component of a desktop environment – under ideal conditions, a desktop environment collects and integrates a whole set of packages (both primary and supporting), unifying functional aspects as well as look-and-feel – whereas people starting with a window manager add in tools where working for them takes priority over working with other tools
- minimizing your desktop environment
- Gnome and KDE
- Xfce
- LXDE and LXQt
- tiling extensions to existing desktops
- Pop Shell, Tiling Shell, PaperWM for Gnome
- (I know KDE has an equivalent, don’t know what it’s called)
- can get simple half- and quarter-tiling in Xfce just through hotkeys
- switching out window managers in existing desktop environments
- LXDE typically used Openbox
- LXQt is pretty much window manager agnostic – distros commonly add Openbox, KWin or Xfwm – Tsujan seems favorable towards LabWC
- Regolith packages a Gnome desktop with either i3 (Xorg) or Sway (Wayland) as the window manager
- starting with a window manager
- can either start straight from tty or rely on a desktop manager
- supporting apps usually handled by whatever autostart feature the window manager provides
- stacking/floating – most traditional choice is often Openbox (Xorg) but looks like LabWC (Wayland) is continuing its legacy
- tiling
- tiling window managers tend to rely a LOT more on keyboard hotkeys and less on mouse usage
- Xorg – HUGE selection, all down to how much work you want to put in and how large a community there is to help you out
- Wayland – currently at the top are Sway (continuing i3’s tradition) and River (trying to grab the Awesome fans)
- getting a window manager up and running is only one part of the equation
- obvious next steps include choosing a file manager, an image viewer, a document reader, a video player, a web browser
- less obvious is the behind-the-scenes apps – seat management, policy kit, clipboard handling, notifications, app launchers, desktop manager
- can either start straight from tty or rely on a desktop manager
Do you know what your problem is?
I’m not asking in a rhetorical way, I actually mean: what is the problem you are trying to solve?
If any DE you’ve tried works just fine, then just stay with it. There is no point in trying to get in with a specific clique here. Just use whatever works for you. If you find a specific need for something, THEN start looking around.
