IceWM
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 13 of 30 window managers by recommenders
Lightweight Linux window manager that people find fast, stable and easy to configure with plain text files, often as a replacement for heavier desktops like GNOME or KDE.
Lightweight Linux window manager that people find fast, stable and easy to configure with plain text files, often as a replacement for heavier desktops like GNOME or KDE.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 10 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Fast and snappy compared to GNOME/KDE
“it is so much faster than GNOME or KDE-Plasma”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma” “since it is so much faster than KDE or GNOME”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Flatpak Will Depend on Systemd” “The thing is snappy, even in the browser.”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra” Easy to configure with plain text
“before switching to IceWM because it was more fun to configure”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Emacs is my new window manager (2015)” “the config being a few plain text files”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: SteppeWM – a stacking IceWM-like Wayland compositor”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Look not liked by some users
“I don't like the look of IceWM”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone”
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 |
| IceWMThis page | 10 | 1 | 91% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
14 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Debian/Ubuntu/Arch with IceWM or Fluxbox (or the like) works great”
“The thing is snappy, even in the browser.”
“the config being a few plain text files”
“I kind of settled towards e. g. fluxbox or icewm.”
“since it is so much faster than KDE or GNOME”
“A simple "IceWM" WM (I use the tiling "Awesome WM" but that's too radical for my wife) and she loves it.”
“it is so much faster than GNOME or KDE-Plasma”
“that's good to know it works out of the box well”
“my default IceWM works better on the same monitor here than XFCE does”
“I don't like the look of IceWM”
“it's almost as lightweight and much more stable”
“yes, (recent) IceWM is good”
“before switching to IceWM because it was more fun to configure”
“I use mostly IceWM these days.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.