Window Manager
People frequently ask about the relationship between the GNOME Project
and window managers. GNOME does not specify a particular window
manager. It is intended that any window manager can be used. The
reason for this decision is that many people are attached to their
particular window manager; forcing them to switch just to use GNOME
would be counterproductive.
However, to work well with GNOME, a window manager must provide
certain features which currently are not implemented in all window
A GNOME-compliant window manager should implement the MWM extended
window manager hints. Some GNOME applications will use these hints to
increase usability. Here is a
proposal showing how to implement these hints.
In addition, there has taken place a harmonious effort between KDE and GNOME
which resulted in a Window Manager Specification that can be found on
freedesktop.org. It describes some extended window manager hints all Window
Managers ought to support. GNOME-compliant window managers should implement
them, too.
Last, a GNOME window manager should also be a client of the session
manager, following the X
Session Manager Protocol. This is a requirement for a window
manager to be considered even minimally GNOME-compliant.
It's possible that these hints are insufficient or incorrect in some
way. If you are a window manager author and would like to join the
discussion of the extensions and additions, please join the wm-spec-list@gnome.org.
At the moment there are a few GTK+-based window managers available implementing those specs. Here are two of them:
As of version 2.0, Metacity is the default GNOME window manager. It is
well-integrated into GNOME and features decent implemented basic window manager
capabilities defined by the specs mentioned above. If you're an average user,
this is definitly your choice.
In former times Sawfish was GNOME's default window nanager. It has been
dropped for complexity reasons. For it's manifold features, like it's
extensibility through a Lisp-based scripting language, it may be what high-end
users are looking for.
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