Sway VS spectrwm

Sway

Sway is a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager, but for Wayland instead of X11.

spectrwm

spectrwm is a small dynamic tiling window manager for X11.

Landing page //
2023-03-20

Landing page //
2023-10-01

Sway beats Powerpoint for these 4 reasons (Microsoft Office 365).

spectrwm videos

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Spectrwm Is An Impressive Tiling Window Manager

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Sway and spectrwm)

spectrwm

Health And Fitness

100 100%

Health And Fitness

0% 0

Window Manager

60 60%

Window Manager

40% 40

Meditation

100 100%

Meditation

0% 0

Linux

57 57%

Linux

43% 43

User comments

Share your experience with using Sway 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 Sway and spectrwm

Sway 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

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

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, Sway should be more popular than spectrwm. It has been mentiond 52 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.

Sway mentions (52)

"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: 6 months ago
Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop
I've tested using i3 but never fully got into it. But my plan for the F13 is to try out Hyprland[0] and perhaps Sway[1]. [0] https://hyprland.org/ [1] https://swaywm.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
Rethinking Window Management in Gnome
Sway does all those things very well: https://swaywm.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
Just ran Sway on openSUSE. Complete noob. I need help.
Read the manual on https://swaywm.org/. There are tons of youtube videos showcasing basic configuration and usage. This is extremely basic stuff you need to do yourself. Source: 12 months ago
Thinking about doing distro hop after half a year any recommendations?
While both the Pop Shell and Material shell extensions offer very easy access to window tiling on GNOME, they're not as powerful as the likes of Sway or Hyprland. Source: 12 months 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 / 11 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 Sway 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.

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.

Pacifica - Stress and anxiety relief through beautiful CBT tools

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

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

bspwm - A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning