CWM window manager
Shares rank 24 of 30 window managers by recommenders
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.
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.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Minimal, no decoration or animations
“I use cwm which doesn't supply titlebars, and I use Meta+click to move windows. That's great...On OpenBSD.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes” “it's so nice when everything is not trying to be cute with shadows, animations and round corners”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “macOS Needs Its Grid Back” “Very light and good for tiny screens (little decoration).”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Reviving a 15-year-old netbook with Arch Linux” - Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “XFCE Is Great”
Light, suits tiny screens
“Very light and good for tiny screens (little decoration).”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Reviving a 15-year-old netbook with Arch Linux” “CWM or any light WM could perfectly fit.”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Using e-ink tablet as monitor for Linux” Pleasant once you learn it
“the default window manager cwm is surprisingly nice once you get to know it”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “OpenBSD 7.9 Released” “cwm which I find very nice”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “OpenBSD 7.9 Released”
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 |
| CWM window managerThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Some tools might crash X under CWM for OpenBSD”
“Very light and good for tiny screens (little decoration).”
“it's so nice when everything is not trying to be cute with shadows, animations and round corners”
“cwm which I find very nice”
“the default window manager cwm is surprisingly nice once you get to know it”
“I use cwm which doesn't supply titlebars, and I use Meta+click to move windows. That's great...On OpenBSD.”
“mpx/mux heritage is the one I like. 9wm, cwm or dwm.”
“I'm a CWM (calm window manager) guy”
“the Zukitre themes blend really well with minimal window managers as CWM, i3, DWM and the like”
“no-bullshit, floating-no tiling madness window manager”
“CWM or any light WM could perfectly fit.”
“it has tags, (virtual desktops), and it can be fully keyboard managed”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.