Ratpoison VS spectrwm

Ratpoison

Ratpoison is a simple window manager with no fat library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window...

spectrwm

spectrwm is a small dynamic tiling window manager for X11.

Landing page //
2018-12-30

Landing page //
2023-10-01

Windows 10... or ratpoison?

spectrwm videos

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Spectrwm Is An Impressive Tiling Window Manager

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Ratpoison and spectrwm)

spectrwm

Window Manager

41 41%

Window Manager

59% 59

Linux

41 41%

Linux

59% 59

Utilities

45 45%

Utilities

55% 55

Qt

100 100%

Qt

0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Ratpoison and spectrwm. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Reviews

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

Ratpoison Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022

Ratpoison is a lightweight Window Manager that is free of elaborate visuals, window decorations, and dependencies on other programmes. It is based on the GNU Screen, which is widely used among virtual terminal users.

Source: www.hubtech.org

13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux

Ratpoison is a lightweight Window Manager designed to be simple and without fancy graphics, window decorations, or dependence on any other projects. It is modeled after the GNU Screen which is very popular in the virtual terminal community.

Source: www.tecmint.com

5 Great Tiling Window Managers for Linux

Ratpoison is a simple window manager that has “no fat library dependencies”. The developers boast that it has no “fancy graphics” or “decorations” of any kind, just a straight-up tiling window setup. Ratpoison is easy to get around in. All of the interactions with your windows are done with keyboard shortcuts.

Source: www.maketecheasier.com

spectrwm Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022

spectrwm has a plain text configuration file, defaults that are identical to xmonad and dwm, and built-in keyboard shortcuts. Other features include colour and border width customization, drag-to-float, quick launch menu customization, adjustable status bar, dynamic RandR compatibility, and more.

Source: www.hubtech.org

13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux

spectrwm uses a plain text configuration file, boasts defaults similar to those in xmonad and dwm, and features built-in keyboard shortcuts. Its other features include customizable colors and border width, drag-to-float, quick launch menu, customizable status bar, dynamic RandR support, etc.

Source: www.tecmint.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, spectrwm should be more popular than Ratpoison. It has been mentiond 10 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.

Ratpoison mentions (3)

FancyZones fork which maximizes windows properly
- AquaSnap (paid) - https://www.nurgo-software.com/products/aquasnap As a ratpoison [https://ratpoison.nongnu.org/] user, a decade ago, returning to the rigid window management of i3-based window managers, no longer appealed to me. MaxTo provided much of the experience I was looking for, but random crashes when using multiple desktops and my inability to get custom recipes triggering correctly had me look... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
It do be like that tho
Or, the alternative is, use a completely command line operating system. No mouse required, ever. Easy peasy! Or, you could just use ratpoison. Source: over 2 years ago
Any tips for my first set up?
I actually use an UI that has no taskbar, buttons, icons, etc. It's called ratpoison. I definitely don't think so, but hey, maybe thats what we are seeing here! Source: over 2 years ago

spectrwm mentions (10)

Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?
I use the tiling WM spectrwm. It lets me pull windows out of tiling mode and into window mode. I think a common operation on most tiling window managers. Most of the time I don't want overlapping windows(thus the tiling WM) but every once in a while I do, so the best of both worlds. It is a bit obscure but I quite like spectrwm, it fills this sweet spot where it is much simpler than I3 but much more feature... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
Easy window manager?
Spectrwm is by far the easiest WM I've tested. Also Fluxbox is pretty much straightforward. Source: over 2 years ago
Which WM should I use ?
Spectrwm is by far the most beginner-friendly WM I've ever tested. Im now running EXWM the buffers management is something else. Source: over 2 years ago
How can I undo mod+v?
I'm a recent convert to i3/sway, after a solid decade using spectrwm (which has not been ported to Wayland, I'm afraid). Source: over 2 years ago
About to declare emacs bankruptcy before I lose my job
Me I like the default Emacs buffer management. C-x 1, C-x 2 and C-x 3 with winner-mode is enough for me. Actually that's what made me switch from Spectrwm to EXWM. Source: over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Ratpoison and spectrwm, you can also consider the following products

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

bspwm - A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning

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.

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

Xmonad - xmonad is a dynamically tiling X11 window manager that is written and configured in Haskell.

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