The window manager works with the X Window System or the newer Wayland to perform these tasks. The function of a window manager is to manage the creation, movement, and destruction of windows on a GUI desktop. Any display manager can be used, regardless of which window manager and desktop is used. If you want to change the display manager, you must do it yourself from the command line. Regardless of which display manager is configured as the default at installation time, later installation of additional desktops does not automatically change the display manager used. If you use KDE as your desktop, the new SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager) will be the display manager.

If the desktop selected during installation does not have a default display manager, then GDM is installed and used. If GNOME is not installed, then the display manager for the installed desktop is the default. For Fedora, this is usually GDM, which is the display manager for GNOME. The display manager for the first desktop (i.e., GNOME, KDE, etc.) installed is the default one. Table 1: A short list of display managers. Simple Desktop Display Manager (Fedora 21 and above) KDE Display Manager (up through Fedora 20) The typical desktops and display managers are shown in the table below: Desktop Such is the flexibility of Linux and well-written, modular code. And not all desktops have their own display managers. Any of the display managers can be used for your login screen regardless of which desktop you are using.

Note that some display managers are not directly associated with a specific desktop.

There are several display managers-some are provided with their respective desktops. When you log out of the desktop, the display manager is given control again to display the login screen and wait for another login. After you log in to a GUI desktop, the display manager turns control over to the window manager. The display manager is a bit of code that provides the GUI login screen for your Linux desktop.

These two programs, regardless of which ones you use on your Linux GUI desktop system, always work closely together to make your GUI experience smooth and seamless before you even get to your desktop. So let's welcome our Best Couple of 2016: Put your hands together for the display manager ( dm) and the window manager ( wm). Free online course: RHEL Technical Overview.

Best window manager for linux