# CWM window manager

7 Hacker News commenters recommended CWM window manager and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A light, minimal window manager for X on OpenBSD that skips titlebars, shadows and animations. People find it nice to use once learned. Some tools may crash under it.

## Why people recommend it

- Minimal, no decoration or animations (4 comments): "I use cwm which doesn't supply titlebars, and I use Meta+click to move windows. That's great...On OpenBSD." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48109017)) "it's so nice when everything is not trying to be cute with shadows, animations and round corners" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48365892)) "Very light and good for tiny screens (little decoration)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48960771))
- Light, suits tiny screens (2 comments): "Very light and good for tiny screens (little decoration)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48960771)) "CWM or any light WM could perfectly fit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46262018))
- Pleasant once you learn it (2 comments): "the default window manager cwm is surprisingly nice once you get to know it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193900)) "cwm which I find very nice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48194492))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [AwesomeWM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/awesomewm.md): 26 recommend
- [Openbox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openbox.md): 15 recommend
- [KWin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kwin.md): 11 recommend
- [Blackbox window manager](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blackbox-window-manager.md): 9 recommend
- [Cage Wayland compositor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cage.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "CWM window manager", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cwm/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).