IceWM has quietly kept X11 desktops fast and simple since 1997
IceWM is a lightweight X Window System window manager built for speed, simplicity, and staying out of your way. Created by Marko Maček in 1997 and now maintained on GitHub, it ships a taskbar with pager, global and per-window keybindings, a dynamic menu system, multiple workspaces, configurable focus models, and RandR/Xinerama multi-monitor support. Version 4.1.0 landed on August 6, 2026. It is packaged for Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE, Gentoo, Slackware, CentOS, antiX, NixOS, and most BSDs, with over 450 themes available.
The goal of IceWM is speed, simplicity, and not getting in the user's way.
- yjftsjthsd-h
I'm mildly bemused at the other comments treating this as a blast from the past. I use icewm today as a super low resource DE for a headless remote desktop system, with a major benefit being that it's all in one with no configuration needed; one unit includes panel, app menu, and window manager that work out of the box.
- inatreecrown2
I just switched to IceWM after trying so many different versions of tiling window managers. The one that worked best for me was MangoWM, but in the end it also interfered more than helped with my work.
A simple floating wm like IceWM works best for the apps I use: basic tools like terminal and Thunar, Reaper, windows apps via wine.
Really happy I found out about it. It lets me concentrate on the things that matter.
- lexwhite
IceWM is great. I think there are a lot of great deployments you could use it for. If you had old computers to give to kids and teach them linux for example, IceWM would be a really great desktop for that. I use dwm still personally but Ice is Nice, and that's for sure! ;)
- sscarduzio
I use IceWM *today* in my remote machines via RustDesk (another massive project!).
The only thing I don't understand is why minimal WMs need to (intentionally?) reject basic usability and visual design principles.
- Main menu = nested dropdown
- No padding anywhere
- Terrible box shadows
etc.
- NoboruWataya
Some of the screenshots look a lot more modern than I remember when I played around with it, but then I guess that was 20+ years ago. It was one of the first WMs I looked at when I considered moving away from KDE/GNOME. I found its minimalism and low resource usage compared to those environments exciting but never actually liked the UI, I found it too clunky. I eventually settled on AwesomeWM. It seems that for the last decade or so all of the momentum in the minimalist WM space has been with tiling WMs.
- throwaway2037
The screenshots page[1] has a nice collection of different skins. It gives Winamp skin vibes from the 1990s.
- PapyElGringo
I've been working the last 8 years making a new WM and I never heard about IceWM, sometime you don't know your classics
- micheles
I have fond memories of IceWM. Happy that it is still there.