Alternatives to LeftWM
Arrange Linux windows with a tiling manager written in Rust. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
LeftWM
Arrange Linux windows with a tiling manager written in Rust.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as LeftWM.
i3
Arrange X11 windows in a keyboard-controlled tiling workspace.
i3 is an X11 tiling manager with a tree-based layout, workspaces and configurable key bindings, but it runs on X11 rather than Wayland.
bspwm
Manage X11 windows as the leaves of a binary tree.
bspwm arranges X11 windows in a binary tree controlled by shell commands, and like LeftWM needs separate tools for key bindings and panels.
awesome
Build a keyboard-driven X11 desktop with a window manager configured in Lua.
awesome is configured in Lua, supports tiling and floating layouts, and includes programmable widgets instead of relying on a separate bar.
dwm
Use a small dynamic window manager for X11 with tiling and floating layouts.
dwm is a small X11 dynamic window manager customized by editing and recompiling its source rather than through configuration files.
Qtile
Configure a tiling window manager using Python.
Qtile is configured in Python with programmable layouts and widgets, and offers X11 and Wayland back ends.
Sway
Use an i3-style tiling workflow on Wayland.
Sway provides an i3-style tiling workflow on Wayland, supporting much of the i3 configuration format, with some X11 applications needing compatibility layers.
Hyprland
Arrange Linux application windows with a configurable tiling Wayland compositor.
Hyprland is a BSD-3-Clause Wayland compositor with dynamic tiling and animations, requiring compatible Wayland graphics support and manual configuration.
xmonad
A dynamically tiling X11 window manager that is written and configured in Haskell.
xmonad provides automatic tiling layouts on X11 with configuration written as a full Haskell program and a large extension set in xmonad-contrib.
Also worth comparing
These listings name LeftWM as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
herbstluftwm
A manual tiling window manager for X11 that is configured at runtime through the herbstclient tool.
LeftWM is a tiling manager written in Rust that separates layout logic from appearance, with bars needing separate configuration.
Openbox
Manage X11 windows with a configurable stacking window manager.
LeftWM is an MIT-licensed tiling window manager written in Rust that separates layout logic from appearance, and like Openbox it needs bars configured separately.
spectrwm
A small dynamic tiling window manager for X11 that aims to stay out of the way.
LeftWM is a Rust tiling manager that separates layout logic from appearance, with bars configured as separate components.
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.
