Sway is an i3-compatible tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3’s features, plus a few extras.
Sway allows you to arrange your application windows logically, rather than spatially. Windows are arranged into a grid by default which maximizes the efficiency of your screen and can be quickly manipulated using only the keyboard.
Sway is not an X11 window manager.
Sway is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Input method editors (IME) are now supported via the input-method and text-input protocols.
- Adaptive synchronization (also known as variable refresh rate, VRR) can be enabled
to reduce stuttering in games. - Support for the wlr-foreign-toplevel-management protocol, allowing custom docks and window switchers.
- Headless outputs can be created dynamically.
- Support for VNC via wayvnc.
- Configurable input latency controls.
- Support for layer-shell popups with partial support for the MATE panel.
- swaybar includes touch support – tapping to activate hotspots and dragging across to cycle through workspaces. swaybar also supports an “overlay” mode, which shows the bar on top of other windows and doesn’t process input events.
Website: swaywm.org
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Drew DeVault
License: MIT License
Sway is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Tiling Wayland Compositors | |
|---|---|
| Sway | i3-compatible tiling Wayland compositor and a replacement for i3 |
| niri | Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor |
| Hyprland | Dynamic tiling Wayland compositor based on wlroots |
| Qtile | Full-featured, hackable tiling window manager |
| Swayfx | Sway with eye candy |
| river | Compositor with flexible runtime configuration. |
| MangoWC | Lightweight yet a good set of features |
| dwl | dwm for Wayland |
| fht-compositor | Dynamic tiling Wayland compositor |
| newm-atha | Wayland compositor written with laptops and touchpads in mind |
| Cagebreak | Seeks inspiration from Ratpoison |
| Mahogany | Modeled after StumpWM |
| Jay | Wayland compositor written in Rust |
| Vivarium | Dynamic tiling Wayland compositor using wlroots |
| polonium | Tiling window manager for KWin |
| Volare | Tabbed, tiling Wayland compositor |
| japokwm | wlroots and dwl based tiling wayland compositor |
| velox | Simple window manager based on swc |
| stagen | wlroots-based Wayland compositor |
| newm | Written with laptops and touchpads in mind |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Tiling Window Managers | |
|---|---|
| i3 | Improved tiling window manager |
| sway | i3-compatible tiling Wayland compositor and a replacement for i3 |
| StumpWM | Common Lisp window manager |
| bspwm | Based on binary space partitioning |
| EXWM | Full-featured tiling X window manager for Emacs |
| herbstluftwm | Basic tiling concept is that the layout is represented by a binary tree |
| Ratpoison | Keyboard-only window manager |
| wmderland | Offers no bloated features, an easy-to-use config, and a very small footprint |
| Notion | Originally a fork of Ion |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Compositing Window Managers | |
|---|---|
| sway | i3-compatible tiling Wayland compositor and a replacement for i3 |
| KWin | Window manager for the KDE Plasma Desktop |
| Mutter | Wayland display server and X11 window manager and compositor library |
| Moksha | Modern iteration of the Enlightenment window manager |
| xfwm | Part of the Xfce desktop environment |
| Compiz | OpenGL window and compositing manager |
| Gala | Designed by elementary for use with Pantheon |
| Enlightenment | Focuses on pushing the limits of existing technologies |
| Magpie | X11 window manager and compositor library |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |