What is awesomewm.org?

awesomewm.org is the official website for awesome, a highly configurable window manager for the X Window System. The site hosts the project's documentation, concept explanations, and feature information. It is aimed at power users, developers, and anyone who wants fine-grained control over their graphical environment. The software itself is licensed under the GNU GPLv2.

What the site is for

If you are evaluating or learning awesome, the site is the canonical reference. It provides:

• Stable documentation — the excerpt references awesome 4.3 documentation (stable), plus docs for the latest git version.
• Concept explanations — pages that describe how awesome's model differs from conventional window managers.
• Feature and non-feature lists — an explicit statement of what awesome does and deliberately does not do.

The site is a documentation and project-information resource, not a download storefront or a commercial product page. The provided page evidence contains no pricing signals, so nothing here should be read as free-versus-paid guidance.

What awesome actually is

awesome is described as a "next generation framework window manager for X." The key points from the project's own description:

• Highly configurable and extensible — behavior is defined through a documented API using the Lua programming language.
• Fast and small — the project emphasizes a stable, fast, small codebase and footprint.
• Asynchronous XCB — it is described as the first window manager using the asynchronous XCB library instead of the older synchronous Xlib, which the project says makes it less subject to latency.
• Keyboard-driven — no mouse is needed; everything can be performed with the keyboard.
• Multihead support — real multihead support (XRandR) with per-screen desktops, called tags.

The design choices worth understanding

Two design decisions explain most of the difference between awesome and a typical window manager.

Tags instead of workspaces

awesome uses tags rather than workspaces. Tags allow you to place clients on several tags and display several tags at the same time. This is a different mental model from the one-workspace-at-a-time approach, and it is the main reason people describe awesome as flexible rather than merely configurable.

No floating or tiled layer

awesome does not distinguish between layers — there is no floating layer and no tiled layer. Layout behavior comes from layouts you configure, not from a fixed layer distinction. If you are coming from a window manager where "floating" and "tiled" are separate modes, this is the concept to read up on first.

Standards and extension support

The project lists implementation of several Freedesktop standards:

It also supports D-Bus, and offers a large set of Lua extensions for adding features such as dynamic tagging, widget feeding, tabs, and layouts.

Who it is for

The project states it is primarily targeted at power users, developers, and people dealing with everyday computing tasks who want fine-grained control on their graphical environment. The trade-off is explicit: you get extensibility and control, and in exchange you are expected to configure behavior through Lua and the documented API rather than through a graphical settings panel.

Where to start on the site

1. Read the Concepts section first — it explains the window manager model, tags, and the no-layer design.
2. Check the stable documentation (4.3 in the provided evidence) for the API you will actually configure against.
3. Use the latest git documentation only if you are tracking development rather than a stable release.
4. Review the features and non-features list to confirm the design matches what you want before committing to a configuration.