This is a list of display servers based on X11, Wayland, Linux framebuffer and other systems.
X11
Wayland Name Type Language Initial release Latest release License Libraries Active Operating systems Shell type Remarks Version Date Protocol Other Linux BSDs Other COSMIC Dynamic Rust 2024 Epoch 1.0.12 2026-05-05 GPL-3.0-only Smithay Iced Separate Designed for Pop!_OS dwl Dynamic (dwm-like) C 2020 0.7 2024-11-15 GPL-3.0-only wlroots libinput Separate dwm-like tiling Enlightenment Compositing C 2012 0.26.0 2023-12-23 BSD-2-Clause libwayland-server EFL Built-in Default for the Enlightenment desktop environment Hikari Floating C — — 2022 MIT wlroots libinput Until 2022 Separate Targets primarily FreeBSD; inspired by CalmWM Hyprland Dynamic/Tiling C++ 2022 0.55 2026-05-09 BSD-3-Clause aquamarine libinput Separate Smooth animations, rounded corners and blur KWin (KDE) Compositing/Stacking C++ (Qt) 2011 6.2.5 2024-12-31 GPL-2.0-or-later Qt Wayland Qt Built-in Default for KDE Labwc Stacking C 2021 0.8.2 2024-11-20 GPL-2.0-only wlroots libinput Separate Inspired by Openbox, used by Raspberry Pi OS Lipstick Mobile UI manager C++ — — — LGPL-2.1 libwayland-server Qt 5 Built-in Based on QML, intended for Sailfish OS Mazecompositor Toy / Demo C++ — — — MIT libwayland-server Qt 5 No shell Compositor presented as a 3D game-like maze Mir Kiosk/embedded C++ — — — GPL libwayland-server Qt 5, GTK Plugin Canonical's embedded-targeting compositor Muffin Floating C — — — GPL libwayland-server libinput Built-in Default for Cinnamon Mutter (GNOME) Compositing/Stacking C 2013 47.3 2025-01-08 GPL-2.0-or-later libwayland libinput Built-in Default for GNOME niri Scrolling/Tiling Rust 2023 25.11 2025-11-29 GPL-3.0-or-later Smithay — Separate Scrollable, tiling compositor orbment Tiling C — — — GPL-3+ libwayland-server wlc, libinput No shell No code contribution since 2016 River Dynamic Zig 2020 0.3.5 2024-10-18 GPL-3.0-only wlroots libinput Separate Generic compositor; uses separate WM Sway Tiling (i3-like) C 2015-09-23 1.11 2025-06-08 MIT wlroots libinput Separate i3 replication Way Cooler Tiling Rust — — — MIT libwayland-server wlc, libinput Separate Designed to replace AwesomeWM; unmaintained Wayfire Compositing C++ 2018 0.10.0 2025-08-27 MIT wlroots libinput Separate 3D compositor; Compiz-inspired Weston Stacking C 2012 14.0.0 2024-09-04 MIT libweston libwayland, libinput Built-in Reference Implementation
Linux framebuffer DirectFB DirectFB2 DirectFBGL
Other Quartz Compositor SPICE SurfaceFlinger
See also X Window System Display server Windowing system
References