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What exactly is the difference between between a Window Manager and a Desktop Environment? E.g.: sawfish vs. gnome.

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A window manager's task is to do window placement/layout (tiling, overlapping, resizing, ...), add decorations (min/max/close buttons, window menu, pretty title bar, ...), deal with input focus policies (focus follow mouse for instance), and that's about it.

When people refer to desktop environments, they usually mean a window manager plus a set of base applications (taskbar (with widgets), application launch menu, system configuration panel, text editor and basic utilities, etc...).

So a window manager is one part of a desktop environment.

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  • So theoretically if I want a pc for everyday use I just need a WM+my programs? Commented May 20, 2011 at 5:50
  • And e.g.: if I only want to use the mentioned sawfish, then do I need X? I just want to make a more secure desktop. Commented May 20, 2011 at 5:52
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    @LanceBaynes: yes, you need a display server (Xorg for instance). The window manager is in fact just another application that runs on top of the display server - it has a privileged role, but it's just a normal app. The minimal setup is X plus your app, but that's unusable. X, with a simple WM (there's tons of those to choose from) is a very workable solution if you don't want a complete desktop environment like Gnome or KDE. Commented May 20, 2011 at 5:55
  • Thanks, +1, but how do OpenBox say you can run it with Gnome or KDE or by itself? What is the default WM in Gnome and KDE? Commented Jan 15, 2013 at 5:27
  • @Mat "Unusable"? github.com/patrickhaller/no-wm Commented Sep 12, 2013 at 13:51
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A Desktop Environment provides other things like drag-and-drop, hotkeys, a clipboard and other accoutrements we normally associate with a "modern" GUI operating system.

The Window Manager is (usually) a major part of the Desktop Environment. It is responsible for the placement and appearance of windows and often for special "eye candy" effects and compositing.

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    I used to run standalone fvwm (a window manager, with no DE), and it definitely had a clipboard, dragging-and-dropping of icons (or do you mean some more advanced functionality?) and customizable keyboard shortcuts (is that what hotkeys are?). Commented May 11, 2012 at 7:58
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    These are broad classifications rather than strict rules. The domains coincide to such an extent that various features can be implemented in either one, the other, or both. Commented May 12, 2012 at 0:59
  • fvwm seems to blur the line between window manager and DE. It also has an optional taskbar. By now I'd call fvwm a minimalistic DE using the homonymous fvwm window manager. Commented Nov 23, 2015 at 7:35

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