Alternatives to awesome
Build a keyboard-driven X11 desktop with a window manager configured in Lua. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
awesome
Build a keyboard-driven X11 desktop with a window manager configured in Lua.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as awesome.
i3
Arrange X11 windows in a keyboard-controlled tiling workspace.
i3 keeps a keyboard-controlled X11 tiling workflow but uses a tree-based layout and a plain configuration file instead of Lua scripting and programmable widgets.
dwm
Use a small dynamic window manager for X11 with tiling and floating layouts.
dwm offers a compact dynamic X11 window manager with tiling and floating layouts, but many customizations mean editing and recompiling its source rather than Lua configuration.
Qtile
Configure a tiling window manager using Python.
Qtile swaps Lua for Python configuration with programmable layouts and widgets, and offers both X11 and Wayland back ends under the MIT license.
bspwm
Manage X11 windows as the leaves of a binary tree.
bspwm manages X11 windows as a binary tree controlled through shell commands, and needs separate tools for key bindings and panels that awesome provides itself.
Sway
Use an i3-style tiling workflow on Wayland.
Sway moves an i3-style tiling workflow to Wayland, so some X11 applications and workflows need compatibility layers or alternatives.
Hyprland
Arrange Linux application windows with a configurable tiling Wayland compositor.
Hyprland is a Wayland tiling compositor with dynamic tiling and animations, requiring compatible Wayland graphics support and manual configuration instead of X11 and Lua.
LeftWM
Arrange Linux windows with a tiling manager written in Rust.
LeftWM is a Rust tiling manager that separates layout logic from appearance, so bars and related components need separate configuration unlike awesome's built-in widgets.
Openbox
Manage X11 windows with a configurable stacking window manager.
Openbox is a stacking rather than tiling X11 window manager with custom menus and rules, and a complete desktop needs separate panels and launchers.
Also worth comparing
These listings name awesome as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
FVWM3
A highly configurable X11 window manager, the successor to fvwm2, with multi-monitor support.
awesome is an X11 window manager configured in Lua with tiling and floating layouts, programmable widgets and window rules.
herbstluftwm
A manual tiling window manager for X11 that is configured at runtime through the herbstclient tool.
awesome supports tiling and floating layouts with programmable widgets and window rules, configured in Lua rather than at runtime through herbstclient.
spectrwm
A small dynamic tiling window manager for X11 that aims to stay out of the way.
awesome adds tiling and floating layouts with programmable widgets and window rules, configured in Lua instead of a single plain-text file.
StumpWM
A keyboard-driven tiling window manager for X11, written in and extensible with Common Lisp.
awesome is an X11 window manager configured in Lua, supporting tiling and floating layouts plus programmable widgets and window rules.
xmonad
A dynamically tiling X11 window manager that is written and configured in Haskell.
awesome is a GPL-2.0 X11 window manager with tiling and floating layouts configured in Lua, adding programmable widgets instead of Haskell configuration.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Polybar
Build a configurable status bar for an X11 desktop.
Lemonbar
Featherweight, scriptable status bar for X11 built on xcb.
Eww
Create custom desktop widgets using declarative configuration and styling.
Tint2
Lightweight panel and taskbar for Linux and BSD window managers.
rofi
A keyboard-driven window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement for Linux desktops.
xdotool
A command-line tool that simulates keyboard and mouse input and manages windows on X11.
