herbstluftwm vs Sway
herbstluftwm
herbstluftwm.org
Sway
swaywm.orgSide by side
| Figure | herbstluftwm | Sway |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Window Management Software | 8.1 (#12) | 6.4 (#57) |
| License | The project repository states that herbstluftwm is licensed under the Simplified BSD License. | The Sway repository lists the MIT license. |
| Product | herbstluftwm is a manual tiling window manager for the X window system. | Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. |
| Support | The project offers community help through IRC, Reddit, GitHub issues, and a mailing list. | The project README directs users to the #sway 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.