Openbox
5.4#53 in window management softwareLinux
VisitOpenbox vs spectrwm
What both publish
| Fact | Openbox | spectrwm |
|---|---|---|
| Compatibility | The project says Openbox works with applications following supported standards and can run under GNOME and KDE. | It supports Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH). |
| Configuration | Users can customize per-application properties such as borders, geometry, workspace presence, and window layering. | It uses a human-readable text configuration file and does not require users to learn a programming language. |
| Installation | The installation guide describes building Openbox from source and lists development dependencies including Xlib, Glib, LibXML, and Pango. | The official installation guide provides source-build instructions and package commands for Debian/Ubuntu, Arch, NixOS and NetBSD, with a separate macOS guide. |
| Purpose | It lets users run modern applications outside a full desktop environment and can also run inside GNOME or KDE. | spectrwm is a small, dynamic tiling and reparenting window manager for X11. |
| Support | The site provides documentation, FAQs, bug-report links, and community resources; bug reports should explain how to reproduce the problem. | The project directs questions and feedback to the OFTC IRC channel #spectrwm. |
Openbox plans
No prices published.
spectrwm plans
- spectrwmFree
Pick Openbox if…
You want what its maker publishes above — check its page for the details.
Pick spectrwm if…
spectrwm suits people using X11 who want configurable tiling layouts and keyboard- or mouse-based window navigation. It may also fit users who want to define workspaces, regions, and application-launch shortcuts without learning a programming language for configuration.