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Category: Desktop

Sticky Notes

14 Best Free and Open Source Sticky Note Applications

June 21, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop, Productivity, Roundup, Utilities

A sticky note (often known as a Post-it Note) is a small piece of paper with a strip of glue on its back. Here’s our verdict.

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Compositing Window Managers

9 Best Free and Open Source Compositing Window Managers

June 15, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop, Roundup, Utilities

A compositing window manager, or compositor, is a window manager that provides applications with an off-screen buffer for each window.

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Desktop-TUI – desktop environment without graphics

June 7, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop, TUI

Desktop-TUI works in a tmux-like way, letting users launch and display terminal applications or commands in movable and resizable windows.

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Compositing Window Managers

Otto – stacking window manager

March 16, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Otto is a visually focused desktop system and Wayland compositor designed around smooth animations, gestures, and spatial interaction.

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monitui – TUI for wrangling your hyprland monitors

March 14, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop, TUI

monitui is a terminal UI that makes Hyprland monitor configuration actually pleasant.

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Color My Desktop – personalize your Linux desktop with custom generated themes

March 10, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop, GUI

Color My Desktop is an easy to use tool for creating, managing, and applying custom color palettes to custom generated themes.

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Application Launchers

MRunner – fast, keyboard-first application runner for Linux

March 8, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop, GUI

MRunner is a lightweight command runner that provides a simple way to execute and manage frequently used commands.

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Application Launchers

Vanta – application launcher for Wayland

February 24, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop, GUI

Vanta is a scriptable application launcher and command palette for Wayland.

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Desktop Environments

Avant Window Navigator – dock-like bar

February 24, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Avant Window Navigator (Awn) is a free and open source Mac OS X like panel for the GNOME Desktop written in C.

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Desktop Environments

Docky – full fledged dock application

February 24, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Docky is a fully fledged dock application that makes opening common applications and managing windows easier and quicker.

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Desktop Environments

Cairo-Dock – desktop interface

February 24, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Cairo-Dock is an attractive, lightweight eye-candy dock. It has a family-likeness with the OS X dock, but with more options.

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Desktop Environments

Simdock – small dock with pseudo-transparency and good window handling

February 24, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Simdock is a dockbar that features a zoom effect (like the OS X dock) and customized launchers. Free and open source software.

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Desktop Environments

Plank – simple, fast and beautiful dock

February 24, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Plank is meant to be the simplest dock on the planet. The goal is to provide just what a dock needs and absolutely nothing more.

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Screen Capture

wayscrollshot – scrolling screenshot tool for Wayland

February 16, 2026 Steve Emms CLI, Desktop, GUI

wayscrollshot is a scrolling screenshot tool for Wayland that captures and stitches images in real-time as you scroll.

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Application Launchers

Raffi – application launcher

February 14, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Raffi is an application launcher designed to sit on top of Fuzzel, or, if preferred, operate using its own built‑in interface.

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Application Launchers

Hamr – desktop launcher

February 4, 2026 Steve Emms CLI, Desktop, GUI

Hamr learns from your usage patterns to surface what you need, when you need it. Type a few characters to launch apps, calculate math…

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Application Launchers

Kickoff – Minimalistic program launcher

February 4, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Kickoff is a minimalistic program launcher that is heavily inspired by rofi.

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Compositing Window Managers

Volare – Wayland compositor

January 20, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Volare is a tabbed, tiling Wayland compositor written in the C language

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Application Launchers

Proslenkey – application launcher

January 19, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

Proslenkey is a lightweight GTK4 application launcher for Wayland.

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Application Launchers

zlaunch – application launcher and window switcher

January 18, 2026 Steve Emms Desktop

zlaunch is a fast application launcher and window switcher for Linux Wayland, built with GPUI.

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