A comparison of four window managers
April 26, 2008
Judging from the search engine terms that show up in my WordPress dashboard, a lot of the visitors to this blog are searching for a comparison between either Fluxbox and Openbox, Openbox and Pekwm, or Pekwm and Openbox (search terms such as Pekwm vs. Openbox, or Openbox vs. Fluxbox are rather common).
To satisfy the desires of my dear readers, and to help those who want to know more about some window managers, I have therefore created the following table comparing four very popular window managers (or three very popular ones and one that I happen to like a lot :-)): Icewm, Fluxbox, Openbox and Pekwm.
Icewm, Fluxbox and Openbox have a wide user basis, and a very loyal following. Pekwm is a lesser known window manager that deserves more attention. I mainly use Openbox and Pekwm, and occasionally Icewm.
Please note that this table is not an indication of the most versatile, most developed or ‘best’ window manager. If a window manager lacks a feature, it may have some different strengths. Openbox, for example, does not support pixmap themes, but its theme options are the most complex and elaborate theme options of these four window managers (which makes creating themes for Openbox so much more fun!). Some features may also be primitively implemented: Pekwm supports dockapps, for instance, but its harbour is not very well developed. Nor does this chart provide an exhaustive list of features for these window manager. Icewm, for example, has a number of unique features that are not mentioned in this table (such as an email indicator and some system monitoring tools for the taskbar), and a lot of the basic features of window managers are left out.
I created the table so you could easily find out what each window manager can or cannot do. Choose whichever window manager you like best. Using one over the other doesn’t make you superior. 🙂
There is a reasonable possibility that this table contains some errors. If you find any, please let me know. If I can think of more categories, I’ll add those later.
| Icewm | Fluxbox | Openbox | Pekwm | |
| First release | 1997 | 2001? | 2002 | 200? |
| Last stable release | 1.2.34 (27-12-2007) |
1.0.0 (08-10-2007) |
3.4.7 (17-04-2008 ) |
0.1.6 (28-05-2007) |
| Language | C++ | C++ | C | C++ |
| Based on | — | Blackbox | originally Blackbox | originally aewm++ |
| EWMH standards | partial | partial | yes | partial |
| Panel | yes | yes | no | no |
| Support for dockapps | no | yes (slit) | yes (dock) | yes (harbour) |
| Native wallpaper support | yes | yes | no | no |
| Alt-tab dialog | yes (vertically and horizontally!) | no | yes | yes |
| Command dialog | yes (in taskbar) | yes (fbrun) | no | yes |
| Xinerama support | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Native (fake) transparency | no | yes | no | no |
| Pixmap themes | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Multiple workspaces | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Viewports | no | no | no | yes |
| Add/remove workspaces | no | no | yes | no |
| Usable screen edges | no | no | no (in git version) | yes |
| Strut support | no | no | yes | no |
| Right-click desktop menu | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Configurable client menus | no | no | no | yes |
| Keyboard shortcuts in menus | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Dynamic menus | no | yes | yes (pipe-menus) | yes |
| Additional custom menus | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Icons in menus | yes | yes | only in client-list-menus | no (only in client-list-menu of git version) |
| Grouping/Tabbing of windows | no | yes | no | yes |
| Opaque moving/resizing | yes | yes | only resizing | yes |
| Minimize window to tray | yes | no | no | no |
| Hide windows | yes | no | no | no |
| Tiling | yes (vertically and horizontally) | no | no (GrowTo… actions) | no (‘MaxFill’ actions) |
| Per-app settings | yes | only grouping | yes | yes |
| Configurable key bindings | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Chainable keygrabber | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Configurable mouse behaviour | Some in the preferences file | yes (in keys file) | yes | yes |
| Session management/ Autostarting applications |
yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Confirm logout | yes | no | yes (3.4.7) | no |
| Shutdown/reboot control | no | no | yes (3.4.7) | no |
| Graphical configuration tools | plenty | Fluxconf, Fluxmenu | Obconf, Obmenu | no |
urukrama's weblog 
At the moment I’m using Openbox. There was short moment with Pekwm, but I got irritated when tasks didn’t disappear from Pypanel. eg. I have epiphany open (so it’s in Pypanel), then I bookmark something (bookmarking thing is pypanel), I check bookmarks (bookmarks is in Pypanel). And when I close those, they’re still there until I close also Epiphany. So there was quite a hassle going in Pypanel.
Maybe I should have checked other panels, how they work with Pekwm (though Pypanel has been so far definitely best for me of those panels I tested with Openbox), or just be without it, otherwise Pekwm is very interesting wm. 🙂
I’m not sure why, but I have no problems with Openbox
And thanks for the interesting post 🙂
Thank you, Hanna.
This pypanel issue is a known problem with Pekwm 0.1.6, which has been fixed in the git version. See here.
Thank you a lot. Maybe I’ll go back Pekwm then.
Nice article, I prefer openbox myself, I like to use fbpanel’s with openbox but now that I finally got my menu’s setup i think I’ll slim down my panel’s some. Have you seen my article about how to get fbpanel’s to look like ubuntu’s? or similar i need to edit that.
good work!
Great article indeed.
If ever anyone asks me what the main difference/advantage is between e.g. fluxbox and openbox I’ll refer them to this page 😉
chris4585: If you want to make the panel slimmer, I suggest making its width smaller. If your widthtype is percent, I suggest between 60-80 as a value for it.
I, myself, use the xdream theme on OpenBox with a nice wallpaper from socwall and a transparent fbpanel (75%) with some launchers for PCManFM, urxvt, Firefox, and Vim.It stays out of my way and works like it should. The only real changes from the default: changed the clock colour, removed the menu, and made it transparent.
Porównanie Icewm, Fluxbox, Openbox i Pekwm…
JednÄ… z podstawowych zalet Linuksa jest możliwość wyboru Å›rodowiska graficznego, menedżera okien oraz menedżera plików. Szeroki wybór pozwoli zaspokoić niemal wszystkie potrzeby i gusta, pozostaje tylko zainstalować, porównać i pozostaÄ[…..
Icewm have dymamic menu, and pipe menu too.
Fluxbox HAS the option of adding/removing workspaces. By default, it has only 4, but the default “keys” file shows that the F keys are assigned to about 12 desktops. It’s pretty easy to add/remove them, something like middle click, add workspace.
Hai Uruk!
Actually, adding new workspaces in IceWM is as easy as opening the preferences file in your /home/you/.icewm folder (which I’m assuming you have), scrolling down until you find this line
WorkspaceNames= ” 1 “, ” 2 “, ” 3 “, ” 4 ”
And then just adding the new workspaces in the same format, thus:
You can even use the same line to give your workspaces wacky names. Like this
>>Choose whichever window manager you like best. Using one over the other doesn’t make you superior.
Very true! WM geeks need to put aside their differences, and remember that all that really matters is our shared superiority to users of Gnome and KDE.
(Insert Winky face here.)
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openbox is also written in C++
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Fluxbox CAN add/remove workspaces… in the Fluxbox configuration submenu you can add, remove und rename workspaces…
Greetings,
I just wanted to correct you on something. You stated that you cannot minimize windows to tray in fluxbox. That is incorrect. There is a setting for the fluxbox tray that allows you to show only iconified windows, all windows, or no windows. Thus you can minimize windows to tray in fluxbox, I do it all the time.
Hi friend,
Please update the contents of this site. There is a lot of wrong information here. It is not your mistake. But newer version are released with newer features.
This is perhaps a silly question, but are there any utilities that can be added to IceWM that give it a ‘trashcan’ feature?
I like IceWM and Xfce. While some people have been trying to get me to use Lxde, I don’t see what the advantage is over IceWM, when there isn’t a trashcan.
It´s great to have those options, isn´t it? I love them. I have used flux, ob and ice. I just need some apps, so… why use a gnome or kde?
It´s not a question of “worst or better”, but “that fits better to you”.
Panel in ice is handy – easy access to workspaces, but… I´ve wondered I just need a menu – neither icons, nor panels.
To don´t loose a window in a black hole, in ob, we can extract minimize option of window in config file. Remember we have workspaces, if we need a clean space.
Why do we have to choose just one? Now I use ob, further I use ice.
Sam is right. Fbpanel is a good option – config it!!
You can use obconf and nitrogen in ob – it´s enough to take great looks from ob.
Nice analysis!!! Keep it updated.
I know memory usage is controversial. We are in 2010, and I believe people have powerful machines.
I try a free -k in console, without window managers, and with ice, open and fvwm. Difference between open and ice is small. They use by 18MB, but… Ice got a panel. So, I tested fbpanel – 3.6MB, and lxpanel – 2.3MB. Fvwm uses by 38MB, but… default config got background, tray…
Nothing like windows 7 that take 20% from my 4GB RAM. Yes, I can config it too, but… It´s a black box to me.
Actually you can change the number of desktops in PekWM by editing the config file.
in the articol you fail to say that although they are more light than metacity they show the child windows in the taskbar (major bugggg) . bug reproduces on openbox,fluxbox, and icewm. curious how so many are fast to ditch metacity but never say anything about the others serious bugs.
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I like to see how much memory each one uses.
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From what I’ve seen, IceWM actually does support dock apps. Maybe an earlier version of IceWM was being referenced in this article, who knows.
Very Good!