KWin

This article is about the window manager. For the radio station, see KWIN.
KWin

KWin 4.4 with Cube effect.
Developer(s) KDE (Martin Gräßlin, et al.)
Stable release 5.8.0 (4 October 2016 (2016-10-04)) [±][1]
Preview release 5.8 Beta (15 September 2016 (2016-09-15)) [±][2]
Written in C++ (Qt)
Operating system Linux, BSD, other Unix-like
Type
License GNU General Public License
Website projects.kde.org/projects/frameworks/kwindowsystem/repository

KWin is a window manager for the X Window System and is currently in the process of becoming a Wayland compositor.[3] It is released as part of KDE Plasma 5 for which it is the default window manager. KWin can also be used on its own or with other desktop environments.

KWin 5.x depends on KDE Frameworks 5. KWin 4.x depended on KDE Platform 4, which was a monolithic library. KWin 3.x and earlier depended on KDELibs.

KWin can be configured by scripting using QML or QtScript, both of which are based on ECMAScript.[4]

History

Name Version Details
KWM 1.0
KWin 2.0 Extended support for themes and window effects.
3.0 Improved support for the extended ICCCM standards from freedesktop.org.
4.0 Compositing support and Compiz-like effects.
4.4 (02/2010) Maximizing and tiling by snapping to the screen-edges, grouping and tabbing.[5]
4.5 Tiling.[6] (removed in version 4.10)
4.9 Incompatible API change.[7]
4.11 Last release based on KDE Platform 4. Experimental Wayland support.[8]
5.0 First release based on KDE Frameworks 5 and Qt 5.[9]

Look and feel

There are many window decorations for KWin, including the current default Breeze (shown below), the previous default Oxygen, Microsoft Windows-like Redmond, and Keramik.

Compositing

Currently available compositing backends include XRender, OpenGL 1.2, OpenGL 2.0, OpenGL 3.1[10] and OpenGL ES 2.0.[11]

Included effects

Screenshot showing the cover switch effect in KWin for KDE 4.1.

As of KDE 4.3 the following effects are built-in:

Accessibility

Name Description
Invert Inverts the color of the desktop and windows
Looking glass A screen magnifier that looks like a fish eye lens
Magnifier Magnify the section of the screen that is near the mouse cursor
Sharpen Makes the entire desktop look sharper
Snap Helper Helps locate the centre of the screen when moving a window
Track mouse Display a mouse cursor locating effect when activated
Zoom Magnify the entire desktop

Appearance

Name Description
Explosion Make windows explode when they are closed
Fade Make windows smoothly fade in and out when they are shown or hidden
Fade Desktop Fade between virtual desktops when switching between them
Fall apart Close windows fall into pieces
Highlight Windows Highlight the appropriate window when hovering over taskbar entries
Login Smoothly fade to the desktop when logging in
Logout Desaturate the desktop when displaying the logout dialog
Magic Lamp Simulate a magic lamp when minimizing windows
Minimize animation Animate the minimizing of windows
Mouse mark Allows you to draw lines over your desktop
Scale In Animate the appearance of windows
Sheet Make modal dialogues smoothly fly in and out when shown or hidden
Slide Slide windows across the screen when switching virtual desktops
Sliding popups Sliding animation for Plasma Popups
Taskbar Thumbnails Display window thumbnails when hovering over taskbar entries
Thumbnail aside Display window thumbnails on the edge of the screen
Translucency Make windows translucent under different conditions
Wobbly windows Deform windows while they are moving

Candy

Name Description
Snow Simulate snow falling on the desktop

Focus

Name Description
Dialog parent Darkens the parent windows of the currently active dialogue
Dim Inactive Darken inactive windows
Dim screen for administrator mode Darkens the entire screen when requesting root privileges
Slide Back Slide back windows losing focus

Tools

Name Description
Show FPS Show kwins performance in the corner of the screen
Show Paint Highlight areas of the desktop that have been recently updated

Window management

Name Description
Box switch Display thumbnails of windows in the alt+tab window switcher
Cover switch Apply a Cover Flow-like effect to the alt+tab window switcher
Desktop cube Present each desktop as the facet of a cube
Desktop Cube Animation Animate desktop switching with a cube
Desktop grid Zoom out so all desktops are displayed side-by-side in a grid
Flip switch Flip through windows that are in a stack for the alt+tab window switcher
Present windows Zoom out until open windows can be displayed side by side
Resize Window Effect to outline geometry while resizing a window

See also

References

  1. ↑ "KDE Plasma 5.8.0 Release". KDE.
  2. ↑ "KDE at 20: Plasma 5.8 LTS Beta. Here for the Long Term.". KDE.
  3. ↑ "KDE Ships Plasma 5.5 Release". KDE. 2015-12-08.
  4. ↑ "Development/Tutorials/KWin/Scripting". Retrieved June 19, 2013.
  5. ↑ "KDE SC 4.4.0 Caikaku Release Announcement". Retrieved June 13, 2010.
  6. ↑ "KDE Software Compilation 4.5 Beta2 Release Announcement". Retrieved June 13, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Scripting Update Notes". March 6, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Plasma Workspaces 4.11 Continues to Refine User Experience". August 14, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  9. ↑ "New Plasma brings a cleaner interface on top of a new graphics stack". July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  10. ↑ Martin Gräßlin (June 18, 2013). "What we did in KWin 4.11".
  11. ↑ Martin Gräßlin (February 18, 2011). "KWin Embraces New Platforms with OpenGL ES 2.0 Support". KDE. KDE.NEWS. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
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