Cwm (window manager)

cwm

cwm running on OpenBSD
Original author(s)	Marius Aamodt Eriksen
Developer(s)	Marius Aamodt Eriksen, Andy Adamson, Niels Provos, Martin Murray, Dimitris Economou, Antti Nykänen, Christian Neukirchen
Initial release	July 10, 2004; 12 years ago (2004-07-10)
Stable release	Within OpenBSD 6.0 / September 1, 2016; 5 months ago (2016-09-01)
Development status	Active
Written in	C
Operating system	Unix-like
Type	Window manager
License	ISC License

cwm (Calm Window Manager) is a stacking window manager for the X Window System. While it is primarily developed as a part of OpenBSD's base system, portable versions are available on other Unix-like operating systems.

Development of cwm started from patches to evilwm by Marius Aamodt Eriksen, but the evilwm's codebase "did not accomodate [sic] well for the new features added". Some of 9wm code was used for rewrite. The last release by the original author came out in August 2005.

In April 2007, the cwm was imported into OpenBSD source tree. By January 2008 substantial part of the original source code (including all of the 9wm code) was rewritten.

Currently cwm is distributed with OpenBSD since release 4.2, where it replaced wm2. Some Linux ports also exist.

cwm is a stacking window manager oriented towards heavy keyboard usage, small footprint and ease of use. While it lacks explicit virtual desktops functionality, it can be emulated by using the window groups mechanism. cwm doesn't draw window decorations except for 1 pixel border around the windows.

cwm includes several menus:

All these menus are operated in search as you type manner.

cwm allows raising, hiding switching and searching windows with no use of mouse, making it suitable to use as terminal emulator multiplexer. Furthermore, it allows manipulating pointing device with keyboard.

The additional key bindings and configuration options can be specified in configuration file ~/.cwmrc.

cwm is generally positively received in software minimalist communities.

Though not reviewed separately, cwm is noted to be used mainly due to its status of one of the default window managers in OpenBSD, though other reasons are sometimes cited, such as being out of the ordinary or allowing nice interaction with GUI. Though it often gets no explanation, several OpenBSD users prefer to use cwm under Linux, even if it requires modifying and supporting source code. cwm is also praised for its flexibility, ability to interact in a non-disruptive way and in having no dependency on using a mouse.