What is the difference between a windowing system (for example X11, Wayland) and a window manager (Awesome, Compiz, OpenBox)?
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Maybe this help: i.stack.imgur.com/EuUbu.png– Yousha AleayoubAug 21, 2021 at 6:48
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1 Answer
What you refer to as a windowing system is more commonly referred to as a display server.
The differences between display servers are well documented. But, the difference between a display server and a window manager is in the job that they perform. A display server handles displaying graphical applications and relaying input and output from graphical applications to the rest of the system and vice versa.
On the other hand, a window manager's job is to manage how (or more often, where) the display server displays its client windows.
As a result, almost no one uses a display server without using a window manager of some kind (though it is possible). You can more simply think of this relationship like so: The display server displays everything graphpical, and the window manager organizes the client windows for display by the display server.
answered Jul 10, 2014 at 17:36
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According to wikipedia, a windowing system and a display server are to different things. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_manager, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowing_system Jul 10, 2014 at 20:16
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1No, those articles show that a window manager and a windowing system are different; but a windowing system is synonymous with a display server (with, perhaps, one technicality being that a window system is the whole framework, and the display server is what actually displays things). Jul 10, 2014 at 20:20
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Sorry, I meant en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowing_system, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_server Jul 10, 2014 at 20:30
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1No worries. But that article still supports what I said. The Window System (which includes the display server) manages graphical displays. The window manager organizes graphical clients for display by the display server. Jul 10, 2014 at 20:41