The Difference Between DE, Shell, WM and Compositor

Linux is very modular, you can find a bunch of different distro based on GNU/Linux in distrowatch. Even Android is using Linux kernel. Although Android doesn’t utilize GNU tools.

I’m not textbook guy, I don’t know exactly what is the different and I won’t give a definition here either.

Window Manager Perspective

There is a standalone WM, and WM tighted to a DE.

If you don’t know what is DE and WM are all about, here is the abbreviations.

DE: Desktop Environment
WM: Window Manager

WM tighted to a DE

Here is a list of DE with specific WM.

GTK+3 based

gnome-shell (C, Meson) is using Mutter
Cinnamon (C) is using Muffin
Elementary’s Pantheon (Vala) is using Gala
Mate is using Marco
Unity is using Compiz

GTK based

XFCE4 (C) is using XFWM4

QT5 based

KDE Plasma5 (C++, CMake) [framework, dekstop, workspace] is using either kwin_x11 or kwin_wayland.

DE with choice of WM

LXQT (C++, CMake) can utilize openbox or xfwm4 or kwin

New Contender

Deepin (Vala, Go) is using Deepin-WM, utilizing HTML5.
Budgie (Vala, Meson) is using Window-WM, Moving from (GTK) to (QT, QML)
BlankOn’s Manokwari (Vala, Utilize Meson Soon)
Liri (C++, QML), formerly Hawaii
Orbital (Rust, Cargo)

Standalone Window Manager

There are many kind of Window Manager

Stacking WM:
- Openbox (C)
- Fluxbox (C++)
Tiling WM:
- Awesome (C), Lua Configuration
- i3 or i3-gaps (C), Text based Configuration
- XMonad (Haskell)
- HerbstluftWM (C), BASH Configuration. But any language is welcomed.
- BSPWM (C)
- DWM (C)
Dynamic WM: You can switch from tiling to floating

Note that you should read from wiki for more comprehensive knowledge.

Illustration: Window Manager Layout

Compositor

There is one more Category, The Compositor Before you ask. I will tell you that I don’t understand what it means.

KWin
Compiz

Living on the Edge

Nowadays there is a tendency to replace X Display Server with Wayland Weston.

So we have a WM made for Wayland Only

Velox, I never tried this. So I don’t know.

And sadly, some cool WMs made for X only.

Openbox

Openbox cannot be ported to Wayland because it used internal X something.

Switch between WM

Each DE can use different WMs. You can experiment replacing standard WM in a DE with this standalone WM. Prepare for weird result.

My favorite is using KWin in XFCE4 because I like to use Ghost Deco from KWin.

Let’s try in XFCE4.

 $ kwin_x11 --replace &

 $ openbox --replace &

and you can switch back to

 $ xfwm4 --replace &

How do I learn ?

For a beginner, let’s try every popular DE.

XFCE4, gnome-shell, KDE, LXQT, Cinnamon.

And later Window Manager

Awesome, because it still have menu, it is easy
i3, intimidating for n00bs. But it is still easy because it only needs a configuration file.
XMonad. This one need coding, in Haskell. But once you got it running, you’ll love it.