AwesomeWM
Hacker ApprovedRanked 5 of 30 window managers by recommenders
Keyboard-driven tiling window manager, configured in Lua, that long-time users say is hard to replace.
Keyboard-driven tiling window manager, configured in Lua, that long-time users say is hard to replace.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 26
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 93%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 12 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 26 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 13 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Highly configurable through Lua scripting
“I have used AwesomeWM for years and love its Lua configuration for providing infinite flexibility.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Hyprland 0.55 announced the switch to Lua for its config files” “minimalist, keyboard-driven and infinitely configurable through Lua scripts which I really like”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” “It's the lua scripting that really pushes it to the next level for me.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” - Comment from 23 May 2026 in “It's time to talk about my writerdeck”
- Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “The Dank Case for Scrolling Window Managers”
- Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “What if Python was natively distributable?”
- Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Hyprland 0.55 announced the switch to Lua for its config files”
Long-term loyalty from users
“Thanks for all your work on AwesomeWM - whether I keep using it or not it has been a great experience!”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Preparing for KDE Plasma's Last X11-Supported Release” “My favorite is still AwesomeWM, although I haven't used it in years.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Ghostling” “I came back to AwesomeWM for a number of years twice”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “KDE Plasma 6.7 Released” - Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Xorg-Server 26.0.99.901”
- Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Xorg-Server 26.0.99.901”
- Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)”
Hard to replace on other systems
“I can't get a good one to work on Windows or Mac OS the way I can with AwesomeWM”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” “Once you get used to it, you miss it in any window manager that doesn't have it.”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” “I somehow doubt you'll find something as good as AwesomeWM in pre-Linux WMs”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” - Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux”
Predictable tiling and window layouts
“one feature I like about it is this: combine any two or three workspaces and all the windows are shown tiled together”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” “I never felt like window sizing and positioning was random, it always opened in the logical place”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor” “found AwesomeWM to work well for me for the usecase of configurable predefined window layouts”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad”
Other window managers people recommend
The four most recommended other window managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyprland | 82 | 33 | 71% | 12 | 1 mo4 owners | Approved |
| Rectangle for macOS | 67 | 3 | 96% | 11 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| Enlightenment window manager | 51 | 19 | 73% | 8 | — | Approved |
| FVWM | 28 | 4 | 88% | 8 | 25 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| AwesomeWMThis page | 26 | 2 | 93% | 11 | 12 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
34 of the 40 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Once you get used to it, you miss it in any window manager that doesn't have it.”
“I somehow doubt you'll find something as good as AwesomeWM in pre-Linux WMs”
“I can't get a good one to work on Windows or Mac OS the way I can with AwesomeWM”
“awaits your clanked stable utopia”
“I'd rather use something like AwesomeWM.”
“I can't imagine life without AwesomeWM.”
“I've essentially fused with it. Warts and all.”
“I haven't found anything better than Awesome for crafting a bespoke desktop experience”
“I did run Awesome for awhile and I liked it”
“I have switched from FVWM to awesome because of Lua”
“I have used AwesomeWM for years and love its Lua configuration for providing infinite flexibility.”
“Some relatively lightweight custom window manager like Awesome or i3wm may also shape the environment”
“I came back to AwesomeWM for a number of years twice”
“The results were pretty good.”
“I always considered awesomewm to be the WMConstructionKit”
“Thanks for all your work on AwesomeWM - whether I keep using it or not it has been a great experience!”
“AwesomeWM had async APIs for that kind of stuff for a decade now”
“I haven’t known awesomewm. Thumb up.”
“Since I use the extremely configurable awesomewm window manager”
“I never felt like window sizing and positioning was random, it always opened in the logical place”
“My favorite is still AwesomeWM, although I haven't used it in years.”
“it's a Lua focused window manager that's quite nice”
“I'm loving the unparalleled flexibility and freedom”
“I have yet to find one on MacOS that has the features AwesomeWM have.”
“I remember it being very snappy”
“34MiB when on the desktop (clean), running X.org, AwesomeWM and xcompmgr”
“tilling-WMs like AwesomeWM and QTile”
“that has been my desktop ever since”
“I do miss having scripting built-in in AwesomeWM”
“found AwesomeWM to work well for me for the usecase of configurable predefined window layouts”
“one feature I like about it is this: combine any two or three workspaces and all the windows are shown tiled together”
“It's the lua scripting that really pushes it to the next level for me.”
“minimalist, keyboard-driven and infinitely configurable through Lua scripts which I really like”
“It was good on a 1366x768 screen to use space efficiently.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.