Window Maker

"WINGs" redirects here. For other uses, see wings (disambiguation).

Window Maker is a free and open-source window manager for the X Window System. It emulates NeXTSTEP's Look and feel as a GNUstep-compatible environment.^[2]

Window Maker
Window Maker's default appearance.
Developer(s)	Alfredo Kojima up to version 0.92.0, Carlos R. Mafra onwards
Initial release	1997; 28 years ago (1997)
Stable release	0.96.0[1]  / 5 August 2023
Repository	repo.or.cz/w/wmaker-crm.git
Written in	C
Operating system	Unix-like
Type	Window manager
License	GPL-2.0-or-later
Website	www.windowmaker.org

History

Window Maker was written from scratch primarily by Brazilian programmer Alfredo Kojima in 1997, originally intended to be used with the GNUstep desktop environment and as an improved take on the AfterStep window manager's design. ^[3][4]

The last release under the original developers was 0.92.0 in 2005. In 2012, Window Maker 0.95.1 was released by a new maintainer, Carlos R. Mafra, who had been maintaining a fork on Git.^[5][6]

Dockapps

Main article: Dockapps

Dockapps are small applications that run inside Window Maker's dock alongside application icons and are often used for monitoring applications, notification areas, and volume controls. Dockapps are also usable with other window managers, such as AfterStep and Blackbox.

The Window Maker developers maintain a dockapp directory^[7] and a Git repository with dockapps whose original development has been abandoned.^[8]

WINGs

WINGs (a recursive acronym for "WINGs Is Not GNUstep") is a lightweight widget toolkit designed for Window Maker to be used instead of GNUstep, as the latter was considered overkill for a window manager, but it has seen some use by developers outside the Window Maker team.^[9]