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Most window-managers copy the ideas of windows and MacOSX these days. But some have innovative ideas, that make the life much easier and the work faster done.

I used long time Fluxbox - it was the first wm I learned to know, that allow me to configure keys and have control about the sizing of applications. Putting windows in a window-group and let them share the same titlebar makes the tab-feature of some applications unneeded - tabbing in the WM is the far better solution.

Recently I dropped Fluxbox - because I tried the awesome-wm. That makes life even better with this tag-concept. I can run applications in fullscreen without borders and without title-bar, that saves much space on the screen (good for my 8-inch-netbook-screen). I can tile the windows if needed and group tags together as I wish. I don't think I even use all features of awesome yet.

I want to know, what window-managers do you know with cool innovative features, that might change the world (at least the world of superusers).

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If you like the idea of a tiling window manager you should definitely check out dwm. I found the configuration to be far less daunting than that of awesome-wm (though you do have to recompile after a reconfiguration). Here are some of my favorite features:

  • The ability to start programs with a certain tag is what really did it for me (not sure if this feature is also available in awesome).
  • Being able to pipe conky into dwm and have it displayed in the status bar is quite useful as well.
  • Being able to map hotkeys without the need for any external program running in the background.
  • Functionality can be extended through the use of patches provided by the community.
  • Dmenu means you'll never need to take your hands off the keyboard again.
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Tags, configurable hotkeys and starting applications with the keyboard are all features of awesome. I could be wrong, but wasn't awesome a fork of dwm? – Mnementh Aug 31 '09 at 19:57
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No; while they are similar dwm takes a more minimalistic approach using only a single C header file for configuration that is then compiled into the application itself instead of interpreting Lua configuration files (as in awesome). Its really just a matter of taste I suppose if you're not worried about the extra dependencies. – Richard Marquez Aug 31 '09 at 20:51
+1 for dwm. It's a bit of a pain to set up if you want to use it inside a gnome session, but still the most comfortable WM i've used. – Babu Aug 31 '09 at 21:29
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If you're looking for X window managers, this is a good place to start.

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Also check out xwinman. It's also got a nice page of historical window managers for those with more specialized tastes. – new123456 Oct 28 '11 at 11:22
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If you want heavily customized window-manager, try fvwm. You can even use perl to do scripting in the rc file.

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I agree with CyberSnoopy fvwm is by far the most customizable window manager!! – Warnaud Oct 27 '10 at 7:12
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