Software Alternatives & Reviews

JWM VS i3

Compare JWM VS i3 and see what are their differences

JWM logo JWM

Also known as Joe's Window Manager. Created in 2003, one of the default window manager for Puppy Linux, and actively updated by Joe, its creator.

i3 logo i3

A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.
  • JWM Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-12-21
  • i3 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-19

JWM videos

Obscure Window Manager Project - JWM

More videos:

  • Review - Openbox, Fluxbox or JWM which one do you like?
  • Review - Review Tori Os - Debian 32 bits + JWM 2019

i3 videos

30k Miles with the BMW i3 - End of Lease Review

More videos:

  • Review - 2016 BMW i3 - Review and Road Test
  • Review - 2018 BMW i3s Range Extender (REx) Review - The Future Of Cars?
  • Demo - Gaming With Intel's Core i3 9100F - The First Turbo Boosted Desktop i3
  • Review - The best EV for the money? Used BMW i3 Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to JWM and i3)
Linux
12 12%
88% 88
Window Manager
9 9%
91% 91
Utilities
16 16%
84% 84
Open Source
14 14%
86% 86

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare JWM and i3

JWM Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
JWM (Joe’s Window Manager) is a lightweight open-source C-based window manager for the X11 Window System that is designed to run smoothly on older, less powerful computers. It simply needs the Xlib library to run, but it can also use other libraries like libXext for shape extensions, Cairo and libRSVG for icons and backdrops, libjpeg and libpng for JPEG and PNG backgrounds...
Source: www.hubtech.org
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
JWM (Joe’s Window Manager) is an open-source C-based lightweight window manager for the X11 Window System optimized to work smoothly on older, less powerful computer systems. It requires only the Xlib library to run but is capable of working with a host of other libraries including libXext for shape extension, Cairo and libRSVG for icons and backgrounds, libjpeg and libpng...
Source: www.tecmint.com

i3 Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
Sway is a tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that dynamically arranges app windows to rationally maximise desktop space. It is free, open-source, and lightweight. By default, it arranges windows in a grid and supports practically all of the i3 commands.
Source: www.hubtech.org
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
i3-wm is one of my most loved standalone window managers, qualifying it to easily fit under the desktop environment list! The configuration is just very easy, and you can change everything that you see on screen. This includes what information you see on the bottom panel, how windows behave, and keyboard shortcuts to move, align, and set up windows on the screen.
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
Sway is a free, open-source, and lightweight tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that automatically arranges app windows to logically maximize desktop space. It arranges windows into a grid by default and supports almost all the commands included in i3.
Source: www.tecmint.com
5 Great Tiling Window Managers for Linux
I begun testing i3 just this week. I was always fascinated by the Tiling WM’s as they seem really light on system resources and functional. To my surprise , although i3 is really easy to customize, and works really well (at least for my needs) , I found that it isn’t really that lightweight. I had Mate desktop environment use the same amount of RAM. Maybe I was mislead to...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, i3 seems to be a lot more popular than JWM. While we know about 89 links to i3, we've tracked only 3 mentions of JWM. 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.

JWM mentions (3)

  • Desktop Environments preferred by various distributions, over time
    More data than I expected, OpenBSD also preferred jwm for a short time. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Windows or debian for a potato laptop
    Absolutely yes - I had a very, really old toshiba satellite A50 from 2006 or so, I just can't remember the year, maybe older, but it is really old (it still is somewhere around here, although I've never used it anymore) running debian 32 bits with jwm (I prefer this over openbox or other minimalist DE - this is something where you should take some time trying, to see which it's best for you and for that machine). Source: over 2 years ago
  • debian 32bit w/openbox on a 17 yr old intel pentium 4 single core cpu....linux is amazing
    Last time I tried Debian on a computer with only 512MB, I ended up with JWM as the window manager. Source: over 2 years ago

i3 mentions (89)

  • "We understand" ;)
    This is partially why I use tools like i3 (/ sway). I like the tool; it works extremely well for me; the design has stayed the same for 20 years; there's no profit motive to come along and fuck everything up. It just works. It is boring in the best way possible. Source: 5 months ago
  • what machines have you used for development, and what do you prefer?
    I use MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid-2014) with Manjaro as OS using i3 as a window manager. It isn't perfect, but I'm thrilled with it. I have been a Mac OS user for the last 15 years and wouldn't change what I have now for a Mac OS because I don't need more than what I'm using for development. Source: 10 months ago
  • Machine for pentesting and general use?
    For daily usage I really like kubuntu with i3wm, but it takes some configuration and getting used to the shortcuts, but it's well worth it. Source: 11 months ago
  • What's the difference between Gnome and KDE? Do applications written for one work in the other?
    Some window managers are meant to be used as-is, and provide a minimalist yet functional environment that use very little resources or give power users an almost HUD-like interface. Examples of those window managers are OpenBox and i3wm for X, and Weston and Hyprland for Wayland. Source: 11 months ago
  • tiling window manager
    I did use i3 exclusively for a few years. The reasons I chose it were. Source: 11 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing JWM and i3, you can also consider the following products

Openbox - Openbox is a highly configurable, next generation window manager with extensive standards support.

dwm - dwm is a dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled, monocle and floating layouts. All of the layouts can be applied dynamically, optimising the environment for the application in use and the task performed.

IceWM - icewm home page . Bug Tracking. If you have a patch, a bug report or a feature request to submit, please do so at the icewm project page at SourceForge.

awesome - A dynamic window manager for the X Window System developed in the C and Lua programming languages.

Fluxbox - Fluxbox is a window manager for X that was based on the Blackbox 0.61.1 code.

bspwm - A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning