- As founder and main developer of wmii I came to the conclusion that
- wmii is too clunky for my needs. I don't need so many funky features
- and all this hype about remote control through a 9P service, I only
- want to manage my windows in a simple, but dynamic way. wmii never got
- finished because I listened to users, who proposed arbitrary ideas I
- considered useful. This resulted in an extreme CADT development model,
- which was a mistake. Thus the philosophy of dwm is simply to fit my
- needs (maybe yours as well). That's it.
-
-
Differences to ion, larswm, and wmii
-
- In contrast to ion, larswm, and wmii, dwm is much smaller, faster and simpler.
-
-
-
- dwm has no Lua integration, no 9P support, no editable
- tagbars, no shell-based configuration, no remote control, and comes
- without any additional tools like printing the selection or warping
- the mouse.
-
-
- dwm is only a single binary, it's source code is intended to never
- exceed 2000 SLOC.
-
-
- dwm is based on tagging and dynamic window management (however
- simpler than ion, wmii or larswm). It manages windows in
- tiling and floating modes. Either mode can be applied dynamically,
- depending on the application in use and the task performed.
-
-
- dwm doesn't distinguishes between layers, there is no floating or
- tiled layer. Wether the clients of currently selected tag are in
- tiled mode or not, you can re-arrange all clients on the fly.
- Popup- and fixed-size windows are treated floating, however.
-
-
- dwm is customized through editing its source code, that makes it
- extremely fast and secure - it does not process any input data
- which hasn't been known at compile time, except window title names
- and status text read from standard input. You don't have to learn
- Lua/sh/ruby or some weird configuration file format (like X
- resource files), beside C to customize it for your needs,
- you only have to learn C (at least editing header files).
-
-
- Because dwm is customized through editing its source code, it's
- pointless to make binary packages of it. This keeps its userbase
- small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions.
-
-
- dwm uses 1-pixel borders to provide the maximum of screen real
- estate to clients. Small titlebars are only drawn in front of
- unfocused clients.
-
-
- dwm reads from standard input to print arbitrary status text (like
- the date, load, battery charge). That's much simpler than
- larsremote, wmiir and what not...
-
-
- It can be downloaded and distributed under the conditions
- of the MIT/X Consortium license.
-
-
- Optionally you can install dmenu to extend dwm with a wmii-alike menu.
-
