Tanner Babcock

  1. Linux
  2. GNU/Linux Software

GNU/Linux Software Guide

Distributions

Desktop Environments

Any of these desktop environments can be installed on any of the above distributions.

Name Toolkit File Browser Text Editor
KDE Plasma Qt Dolphin Kate
GNOME GTK Nautilus Gedit
XFCE GTK Thunar Mousepad
LXDE GTK PCManFM Leafpad
LXQt Qt PCManFM Featherpad
Cinnamon GTK Nemo Xed
MATE GTK Caja Pluma

Programming Languages

Name Compiler/Interpreter Package Manager Year
C GCC None 1974
PHP PHP Composer, search Packagist 1995
Python Python 3 Pip 1991
Rust Rustc Cargo, search Crates.io 2010
Go Go pkg.go.dev 2009

Window Managers

These are window managers for the X11 display server.

Name Type Config Info
Awesome window manager Tiling window manager Lua (rc.lua) Create widgets and bars, as well as menus. Window decorations
Openbox Floating window manager XML (rc.xml) Can create menus
DWM Tiling window manager C (config.h) Configure by editing source code, must be patched, uses slstatus to feed status bar
Xmonad Tiling window manager Haskell (xmonad.hs) Config written in Haskell, uses xmobar as status bar
bspwm Tiling window manager Shell script (bspwmrc) Uses sxhkd for key bindings, Bash script config. Does not have a default bar or menu
i3 Tiling window manager i3 config Has its own status bar, simple config file, window decorations
spectrwm Tiling window manager Spectrwm config (spectrwm.conf) Has its own status bar, simple config file
Herbstluftwm Tiling window manager Shell script (autostart) Does not have its own bar

Wayland Compositors

In X11, the window manager you use connects to the X11 display server. In Wayland, the Wayland compositor serves as display server, window manager, and window compositor, as well as manager of hardware inputs and outputs.

Name Type Config Info
Sway Tiling Wayland compositor Fully compatible with i3 config The best, most fully-featured, and most reliable standalone compositor. Includes stock i3 status bar
River Tiling Wayland compositor Shell script (riverctl) Written in Zig, similar to DWM and BSPWM on X11, configured and controlled with Riverctl. Does not include bar
Wayfire Floating Wayland compositor INI config (wayfire.ini) Lots of eye candy, animations, and effects, provided by extensible plug-ins - fun, but resource-heavy, includes bar
LabWC Floating Wayland compositor XML (rc.xml) Based on Openbox, compatible with OpenBox config, no workspaces
Hyprland Tiling Wayland compositor HyprLang config (hyprland.conf) Very popular, lots of eye candy, slightly resource-heavy, has its own package manager, scripting language, etc. Does not include bar
DWL Tiling Wayland compositor C (config.h) Based on Suckless DWM, configure by editing source code, similarly must be patched