Actual Window Manager Jun 2026

Your text editor draws to a hidden buffer. Your browser draws to another. The compositor steals both, layers them, and presents a photograph of windows to the display. When you drag a window, you are not moving the window—you are moving the photograph of a window, then asking the application to redraw its hidden canvas, then taking a new photograph.

If we dig deeper than the compositor, past the input router, beyond the policy engine, we find the and the display server . actual window manager

Perhaps the most philosophical duty of the window manager is . Your text editor draws to a hidden buffer

Now move the mouse to a text field in your browser. Click again. This time, the browser receives the click, moves its own cursor, and starts blinking. When you drag a window, you are not

On a "click-to-focus" system, the window under your mouse receives keyboard input. On a "focus-follows-mouse" system, moving the mouse into a window brings it forward and grants it input. On a "sloppy focus" system, focus moves with the mouse but does not raise the window. On a tiling window manager, focus is often bound to the currently selected container.