dmenu vs foot
dmenu
tools.suckless.orgfoot
codeberg.orgSide by side
| Figure | dmenu | foot |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · App Launchers | 8.6 (#7) | 8.1 (#15) |
| Spec score · App launchers | 8.6 (#7) | 8.0 (#14) |
| License | dmenu uses the MIT/X Consortium License, which permits use, copying, modification, redistribution, sublicensing and sale subject to notice requirements. | The project states that foot is released under the MIT license. |
| Support | The suckless community page identifies the dev mailing list as a place for dmenu users, development discussion, bug reports, and general discussion. | The project directs bug reports to its issue tracker and invites questions in the #foot IRC channel on Libera.Chat. |
| What it does | dmenu is a dynamic menu for X that efficiently handles large sets of user-defined items. | foot is a fast, lightweight, minimalistic Wayland terminal emulator. |
Plans
In their own words
dmenu
dmenu is a free dynamic menu for X that handles large sets of user-defined menu items and can launch commands. It runs on Linux and was originally designed for the dwm window manager. Community scripts apply it to tasks such as browsing directories, managing clipboard contents, accessing passwords, and controlling music; contributed modifications are available in a patches collection. The project provides a browsable source repository and a Git clone command. Building requires Xlib header files, and the README describes building and installing with `make clean install`, with files placed in the `/usr/local` namespace by default. The listed release is dmenu 5.4, dated 2025-08-09. Its source uses the MIT/X Consortium License, which permits use, copying, modification, distribution, sublicensing, and sale of copies subject to its conditions, while disclaiming warranties. The suckless dev mailing list is identified as a venue for user questions, development discussion, bug reports, and general discussion.
foot
foot is a free Linux terminal emulator for Wayland, with native Wayland support and no dependence on a particular desktop environment. Its server mode lets multiple terminal windows share one process, fonts, and glyph cache. Display features include configurable font fallback, on-the-fly font and DPI adjustment, color emoji, true color, and Sixel images. Users can search scrollback and detect URLs with the keyboard. The feature list also includes SSH support, scripting, text input through text-input-v3, and multi-seat support. Shell integration can open new terminals in the current working directory when the shell supports OSC 7; OSC 133 enables prompt navigation. URLs open with xdg-open by default, and the command can be changed in configuration. Configuration uses a foot.ini file in the user's XDG configuration directory. Installation guidance describes building with Meson and Ninja, with Wayland protocols and ncurses among the requirements. The project says foot is MIT-licensed. Its installation guide notes that full PGO builds using the real binary must run in a Wayland session.