Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

herbstluftwm VS Mir

Compare herbstluftwm VS Mir and see what are their differences

herbstluftwm logo herbstluftwm

herbstluftwm is a manual tiling window manager for X11 using Xlib and Glib.

Mir logo Mir

The purpose of Mir is to enable the development of user interfaces shells.
  • herbstluftwm Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-11
Not present

herbstluftwm features and specs

  • Tiling Window Management
    Herbstluftwm is a dynamic tiling window manager, allowing users to efficiently organize open windows without overlapping, thereby optimizing screen real estate.
  • Scriptability
    The window manager is highly scriptable, providing users the ability to extend and customize its functionality using shell scripts.
  • Lightweight
    Herbstluftwm is lightweight and consumes minimal system resources, making it an excellent choice for older hardware or systems with limited resources.
  • Simple Configuration
    Configuration is straightforward and done through a simple text file, allowing users to easily adjust settings to meet their preferences.
  • EWMH and ICCCM Compliance
    It adheres to EWMH and ICCCM standards, ensuring better compatibility with various desktop environments and applications.
  • Community Support
    Herbstluftwm has an active community that provides support, documentation, and shared configurations, aiding new users and fostering improvements.

Possible disadvantages of herbstluftwm

  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Users coming from traditional desktop environments might find the tiling system and keyboard-driven interface challenging to learn initially.
  • Limited Graphical Configuration Tools
    Unlike some other window managers, herbstluftwm lacks extensive graphical tools for configuration, requiring users to edit configuration files manually.
  • Dependencies
    While lightweight, certain features or functionalities might require additional dependencies such as scripting or external programs.
  • Not as Feature-Rich as Some Alternatives
    Herbstluftwm focuses on simplicity and efficiency, which might not offer as many features or eye-candy as some other window managers.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    Despite EWMH and ICCCM compliance, some applications, especially older or proprietary ones, might not behave as expected.

Mir features and specs

  • Performance Optimization
    Mir is designed to provide high performance and efficiency for graphical operations, which can lead to smoother and faster UI experiences on supported hardware.
  • Touch Interface Support
    Mir was developed with a focus on supporting touch-based interfaces, making it suitable for modern touch-enabled devices.
  • Security Features
    Improved security features compared to older systems, including better isolation of graphical processes, reducing the risk of exploitation.
  • Unity UI Integration
    Mir is tailored to work with the Unity user interface, offering potentially better integration and performance when used with Ubuntu's Unity desktop environment.

Possible disadvantages of Mir

  • Limited Adoption
    As of the last update, Mir did not see widespread adoption beyond Ubuntu, which may lead to limited community support and fewer resources.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Applications and games optimized for X server might face compatibility issues when running on Mir, requiring adaptations or alternative solutions.
  • Development Shifts
    The focus of Ubuntu has shifted away from the Unity desktop and Mir, choosing GNOME and Wayland, potentially affecting future support and development.
  • Resource Investment
    Developers and organizations need to allocate resources to adopt Mir, which can be a drawback compared to using already widely adopted alternatives like Wayland or X11.

herbstluftwm videos

Window Manager Hopping: Herbstluftwm

More videos:

  • Review - Herbstluftwm overview
  • Review - Obscure Window Manager Project - Herbstluftwm

Mir videos

MIR 4 HONEST REVIEW | HOW MUCH CAN YOU REALLY EARN PER DAY

More videos:

  • Review - Super Simple Fixes: Product review of the Mir Pro weight vest
  • Review - ALL WEIGHTED VEST EXERCISES I DO | MIR Weighted Vest Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to herbstluftwm and Mir)
Window Manager
54 54%
46% 46
Linux
45 45%
55% 55
Utilities
100 100%
0% 0
OS & Utilities
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using herbstluftwm and Mir. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare herbstluftwm and Mir

herbstluftwm Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
Tags (workspaces or virtual desktops), a startup setup script, exactly one tag per monitor, and other features are among herbstluftwm’s highlights. Learn more about herbstluftwm in our article.
Source: www.hubtech.org
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
herbstluftwm’s main features include tags (i.e. workspaces or virtual desktops), a configuration script which runs at startup, exactly one tag per monitor, etc. Learn more from our article on herbstluftwm here.
Source: www.tecmint.com

Mir Reviews

We have no reviews of Mir yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, herbstluftwm seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 9 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

herbstluftwm mentions (9)

  • The Future Is Niri
    It's X11 but whenever (tiling) window managers are mentioned, I feel a strong urge to mention Herbstluftwm [0]. It's more manual than the automatic splitting most tiling WMs do but I really enjoy how easy it is to split/tab using the keyboard in Herbstluftwm. [0] https://herbstluftwm.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
    It's exactly how it works but only if you have mutliple screens. My comment was that, for this reason, 2 or 3 smaller (ish- ~27") 16:9 4k screens [1] (previously, 4–6 even smaller 4:3 screens) works much better for me because I can switch the spaces on my Macbook and i3/Sway virtual desktops on my Linux machine individually for each screen. If we're talking about having a smaller number of giant screens it would... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What softwares do you recommend to a daily use BSD system?
    The nicities that I pull would be the file browser from ROX, and a tiling window manager such as herbstluftwm. I could do everything I do today without these, such as with a terminal or OpenBSD's 'cwm', but I really enjoy using them! Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Berry is a healthy, byte-sized window manager written in C for Unix systems
    While people are discussing window managers, one of the most overlooked window manager is: hersbtluftwm.[0] If you even work with multiple monitors, give it a try. It uses the monitor swapping feature from xmonad but comes with simplicity of editing the config (one doesn't need to learn new programming language to edit config). It's a pretty cool window manager! [0]: https://herbstluftwm.org/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Looking for a FancyZones-like tiling manager for Linux
    Herbstluftwm (https://herbstluftwm.org/) has two ways to achieve what you want. And it plays nice with XFCE (and probably KDE) so you don't have to give up a traditional DE to use it. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Mir mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Mir yet. Tracking of Mir recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing herbstluftwm and Mir, you can also consider the following products

qtile - Qtile is a full-featured, hackable tiling window manager written in Python.

Wayland - Wayland is intended as a simpler replacement for X, easier to develop and maintain.

bspwm - A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

Y Window System - Y Window System is a platform that allows you to improve the speed, working, and efficiency of the application in your operating system and helps you to increase the responsiveness of applications similar to any locally based app.

pekwm - pekwm is a window manager that once up on a time was based on the aewm++ window manager, but it has...

XQuartz - The XQuartz project is an open-source effort to develop a version of the X.