# EXWM 10 Hacker News commenters recommended EXWM and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free Emacs-based X window manager that lets you manage windows the same way as Emacs buffers. Critics say it is single-threaded, so window management freezes whenever Emacs does. ## Why people recommend it - Rarely causes problems in daily use (2 comments): "I don't think I've ever had a problem with the single-threaded behaviour blocking window management there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45832828)) "I didn't even notice in my daily interactions with the system." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194454)) - Devoted users refuse to switch (2 comments): "Because you can pry EXWM and StumpWM out of my cold dead hands." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45930488)) "You'll have to pry EXWM[0] from my cold, dead hands" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45825769)) ## What people warn about - Freezes when Emacs is busy (3 comments): "EXWM is single threaded, so the window management blocks when emacs does" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195566)) "what an indictment on the state of software that your whole desktop freezing once a month is considered ok" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194409)) "exwm is imho fundamentally flawed, especially when running emacs or doing emacs stuff inside it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45839708)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Hyprland](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hyprland.md): 82 recommend - [Enlightenment window manager](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enlightenment.md): 51 recommend - [FVWM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fvwm.md): 28 recommend - [dwm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dwm.md): 22 recommend - [Window Maker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windowmaker.md): 21 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "EXWM", https://hackerapproved.com/p/exwm/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).