Sawfish Alternatives
Sawfish is described as 'extensible window manager using a Lisp-based scripting language. Its policy is very minimal compared to most window managers. Its aim is simply to manage windows in the most flexible and attractive manner possible' and is a Window Manager in the OS & Utilities category. There are more than 25 alternatives to Sawfish for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD and Windows Explorer. The best alternative is Dexpot. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Openbox or awesome. Other great apps like Sawfish are Xmonad (Free, Open Source), Preme for Windows (Free), Mission Control (Paid) and Bluetile (Free, Open Source).
- Dexpot turns your monitor into up to 20. It creates and manages virtual desktops and enables you to work far more efficiently and comfortably with many simultaneously opened windows on Windows 95/98/ME and NT4/2000/XP/2003/Vista (incl. x64).
Discontinued
Dead app. 3 years since the last update. Not compatible with current version of Windows. See changelog: http://www.dexpot.de/?id=changelog
- Openbox is a highly configurable, next generation window manager with extensive standards support.
Discontinued
No actively developed anymore. Last commit was in 2015.
- awesome is a highly configurable, next generation framework window manager for X. It is very fast, extensible and licensed under the GNU GPLv2 license.
- xmonad is a dynamically tiling X11 window manager that is written and configured in Haskell. In a normal WM, you spend half your time aligning and searching for windows. xmonad makes work easier, by automating this. IRC channel: #xmonad@irc.libera.chat
- Preme is a free software for Windows which lets you add cool desktop features and enhances the desktop functionality.
- Mission Control, formerly Exposé, is a feature of the OS X operating system.
- Paid • Proprietary
- Mac
- Bluetile is a tiling window manager for Linux, designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop environment. It provides both a traditional, stacking layout mode as well as tiling layouts where windows are arranged to use the entire screen without overlapping.
Discontinued
The last commit on this software is ten years ago and the GNOME desktop has moved on. Notably, it is now difficult to replace the default window manager in GNOME.
- KWin is a window manager for the X Window System, and is in the process of becoming a Wayland compositor. It is an integral part, and the default window manager of the Plasma Workspaces, but it can also be used on its own or with other desktop environments.
- Ratpoison is a simple window manager with no fat library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no rodent dependence. The screen can be split into non-overlapping frames.
- wmii is a small, dynamic window manager for X11. It is scriptable, has a 9p filesystem interface and supports classic and tiling (acme-like) window management. It aims to maintain a small and clean (read hackable and beautiful) codebase.