herbstluftwm vs XMonad
herbstluftwm
herbstluftwm.orgXMonad
xmonad.orgSide by side
| Figure | herbstluftwm | XMonad |
|---|---|---|
| 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) | 7.1 (#51) |
| Keyboard control | Tiling and floating windows can be moved, resized, and focused using only the keyboard. | Window manager features are accessible from the keyboard, and using a mouse is optional. |
| Layouts | Its tiling layout works by splitting frames into subframes that can be split again or filled with windows. | The default layouts are tall, wide, and fullscreen, and each virtual workspace retains its own layout. |
| Product | herbstluftwm is a manual tiling window manager for the X window system. | XMonad is a dynamically tiling window manager for X11, written and configured in Haskell. |
| Support | The project offers community help through IRC, Reddit, GitHub issues, and a mailing list. | The project points users to its mailing list and IRC channel for help. |
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.