herbstluftwm vs niri
herbstluftwm
herbstluftwm.orgniri
github.comSide by side
| Figure | herbstluftwm | niri |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Window Management Software | 8.1 (#12) | 7.4 (#35) |
| Integrations | The FAQ describes using external EWMH panels such as xfce4-panel and using dmenu for a run dialog. | Niri integrates with xwayland-satellite to run X11 applications, spawning it on demand when an X11 client connects. |
| License | The project repository states that herbstluftwm is licensed under the Simplified BSD License. | The GitHub repository identifies the project license as GPL-3.0. |
| Product | herbstluftwm is a manual tiling window manager for the X window system. | niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. |
| Support | The project offers community help through IRC, Reddit, GitHub issues, and a mailing list. | The project identifies its Matrix chat as the main communication channel for questions and also links a community Discord server. |
Plans
In their own words
herbstluftwm
herbstluftwm is a manual tiling window manager for the X window system. Each virtual desktop, called a tag, has a tiling layer and a floating layer, allowing windows to occupy split frames or be placed freely. Frames can be divided into further subframes or filled with windows, and keyboard controls move, resize, and focus tiled and floating windows. Configuration runs through herbstclient and can be changed while the manager is running without a restart. Screen space can be divided into virtual monitors that need not match physical displays; monitors share a common pool of tags. The project is licensed under the Simplified BSD License and is listed as free at free. The download page lists packages for Linux distributions and Mac OS X via MacPorts, and confirms operation on Cygwin. The project also offers released source tarballs and links to its current development version. Community help is available through IRC, Reddit, GitHub issues, and a mailing list.