herbstluftwm vs Ratpoison
herbstluftwm
herbstluftwm.orgRatpoison
nongnu.orgSide by side
| Figure | herbstluftwm | Ratpoison |
|---|---|---|
| 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) | 7.3 (#40) |
| Keyboard control | Tiling and floating windows can be moved, resized, and focused using only the keyboard. | All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes, using a prefix map. |
| License | The project repository states that herbstluftwm is licensed under the Simplified BSD License. | The manual states that Ratpoison is distributed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. |
| Product | herbstluftwm is a manual tiling window manager for the X window system. | Ratpoison is a simple window manager modeled largely after GNU Screen. |
| Support | The project offers community help through IRC, Reddit, GitHub issues, and a mailing list. | The site points users to a mailing list for bugs and development, documentation, a FAQ, a wiki, and the #ratpoison IRC channel on Libera.Chat. |
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.