Software Alternatives & Reviews

JWM VS Xmonad

Compare JWM VS Xmonad 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.

Xmonad logo Xmonad

xmonad is a dynamically tiling X11 window manager that is written and configured in Haskell.
  • JWM Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-12-21
  • Xmonad Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-01

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

Xmonad videos

Xmonad Review

More videos:

  • Review - Hacking on Xmonad - GridSelect, ToggleStruts, ToggleBorders
  • Review - Obscure Window Manager Project - Xmonad

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to JWM and Xmonad)
Linux
26 26%
74% 74
Window Manager
21 21%
79% 79
Utilities
24 24%
76% 76
Open Source
100 100%
0% 0

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 Xmonad

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

Xmonad Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
XMonad is a dynamic tiling X11 window manager that allows you to automate window finding and alignment. It may be customised with its own extension library, which includes choices for status bars and window decorations. It’s also simple to set up, stable, and minimal.
Source: www.hubtech.org
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
spectrwm is a small, dynamic, xmonad, and dwm-inspired reparenting and tiling window manager built for X11 to be fast, compact, and concise. It was created with the aim of solving the issues of xmonad and dwm face.
Source: www.tecmint.com
5 Great Tiling Window Managers for Linux
Xmonad is a tiling window manager written in Haskell. Like most (if not all) window managers, it comes with no frills or window decorations. The keyboard shortcuts are top notch. It works out-of-the-box and is very user friendly. On top of all that, Xmonad sports a fairly big extension library (which can add on even more functionality).

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Xmonad should be more popular than JWM. It has been mentiond 14 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.

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

Xmonad mentions (14)

  • [Media] shrs: a shell that is configurable and extensible in rust
    Hey everyone 👋 ! I'm currently working on a rust library for building and configuring your own shell! It's inspired by projects like xmonad and penrose where the configuration of the program is done in code. This means that for example, instead of using Bash's arcane syntax for configuring the prompt, it can be configured instead using a rust builder pattern! The project itself is still at a very young stage, so... Source: 12 months ago
  • What LaTeX setup do you use?
    There are a few other things I could mention, but there are more like side issues, and not relevant to my actual LaTeX setup. First and foremost—and thus perhaps noteworthy after all—is bibliography management with arxiv-citation (see here for more words). This is integrated very well with the XMonad window manager, which makes it even more of a joy to use. Source: about 1 year ago
  • How to map arrows keys to CapsLock+(h,i,j,k) shortcuts in i3
    Another way to do it (and works on Linux and other platforms) is with XMonad, defining Caps Lock as a layer key. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Can ISTP like abstract things and theories?
    I tried it once, it was alright. https://xmonad.org/ But I prefer to build my own. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What exactly is a tiling window manager?
    Here is another tiling wm with screenshots: Https://xmonad.org/. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

i3 - A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.

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.