Mutter (software)
GNOME window manager and display server
Mutter is a display server and window manager for the Wayland protocol ("compositor"). It is the default window manager for GNOME.
Mutter was initially a compositing window manager designed and implemented for the X Window System, but then evolved to be a Wayland compositor. It became the default window manager in GNOME 3, replacing Metacity, which used GTK for rendering. The name "Mutter" is a combination of "Metacity" and "Clutter".
01Window management
Mutter can function as a standalone window manager for GNOME-like desktops, and serves as the primary window manager for the GNOME Shell, which is an integral part of GNOME since version 3. Mutter is extensible with plug-ins, and supports numerous visual effects. GNOME Shell is written as a plug-in to Mutter.
02Release history
- Support for HiDPI was added to version 3.13 of Mutter by Adel Gadllah.
- In version 3.13.2 logind integration replaced mutter-launch.
- In version 3.13.3 (June 24, 2014) the server side bits of wl_touch_interface were implemented by Carlos Garnacho.
- Support for X11 was disabled at compile-time in GNOME 49 and officially dropped with the X11 session code removed GNOME 50, rendering Mutter exclusively a Wayland compositor. GNOME 49 and later can still run most X11 apps on the Wayland session via XWayland.
03Forks
Muffin
Muffin is a fork of Mutter by the Linux Mint team for their Cinnamon desktop environment. Cinnamon's shell, a fork of GNOME Shell, is written as a plugin for Muffin.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mutter (software)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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