xmonad

Xmonad is a tiling window manager for the X Window System. It is written in Haskell and is designed to be compact, fast, and highly extensible. Tiling window managers arrange windows in non-overlapping tiles, maximizing screen real estate and enabling keyboard-driven workflow.

Configuration is done by writing Haskell code, typically in ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs. This enables users to customize keybindings, layouts, window management rules, and startup actions. The project provides an extension library called xmonad-contrib that adds dozens of layouts, hooks, and utilities.

By default, Xmonad offers several tiling layouts such as Tall (master pane with secondary windows stacked), Mirror Tall, and Full. Additional layouts like Grid and Fibonacci variants are available via xmonad-contrib. Layouts can be combined and switched on the fly; windows can be moved or resized with keyboard shortcuts.

Xmonad emphasizes keyboard control, minimalism, and stability. It runs on systems with the X11 server and supports multi-monitor setups. It is widely used in the Linux ecosystem and in other UNIX-like environments that provide X11.

History and licensing: Xmonad was created as an extensible, configurable alternative to existing window managers and is maintained by an active community of contributors.