Open-source alternatives to Polybar

tmux-powerline is a shell-based status generator and plugin for the tmux terminal multiplexer. It provides a visually segmented status line that displays real-time system metrics, session information, and version control status. The project allows for high extensibility through a modular segment architecture, enabling users to define custom information blocks via shell scripts. Visual arrangements and color schemes are managed through external theme files and environment variables. The system monitors a broad range of hardware and network metrics, including CPU load, memory usage, battery le

This project is a keyboard-driven menu framework and application launcher for X11 and Wayland desktop environments. It serves as a customizable system control interface for building themed popup menus and applets. The framework allows for extensive visual style customization and the creation of themed launchers through configuration files and style presets. It enables the construction of personalized Linux desktop interfaces by separating functional applets into a modular script architecture. The system covers broad management capabilities, including hardware control for audio and brightness

YASB is a customizable status bar framework and desktop shell component for Windows. It provides a toolkit for building personalized information bars using a modular class-based widget architecture and CSS-based styling. The framework distinguishes itself through deep integration with Windows tiling window managers, allowing users to display active workspaces, tiling layouts, and window focus states. It also features automated visual consistency by generating system color schemes based on the current desktop wallpaper. The project covers a wide range of capabilities, including real-time syst

i3 is an X11 tiling window manager for Linux that organizes application windows into a non-overlapping grid to maximize screen space. It functions as a configurable window layout engine and a desktop environment component that interfaces with the X Window System to handle window placement and input events. The manager specifically provides the ability to add configurable visual spacing and gaps between windows and screen edges. It determines window borders and spacing by parsing a text configuration file at startup or during runtime. The system covers workspace layout optimization and interf

i3 is a configurable tiling window manager for the X11 window system. It organizes application windows into non-overlapping tiles to maximize screen real estate, utilizing a dynamic layout engine that removes the need for manual positioning or resizing. The system is designed for keyboard-driven desktop workflows, where window organization and behavior are defined through a plain text configuration file. It enables X11 desktop customization by allowing users to programmatically define layouts and keybindings. The manager provides inter-process communication via a Unix domain socket, allowing

boring.notch is a macOS notch interface extension that provides a customizable software overlay for the hardware notch area. It functions as a productivity widget hub and a custom system HUD overlay, allowing users to replace standard system heads-up displays for volume and brightness with custom visual indicators. The project includes an interface gesture controller to map touch and mouse interactions to specific system actions and application controls. It also features a temporary file shelf that serves as a workspace for staging files intended for quick transfer via wireless sharing protoc

Glazewm is a tiling window manager and desktop automation framework designed to organize application windows into non-overlapping layouts. It functions as a keyboard-driven controller, allowing users to manage window focus, workspace navigation, and layout configurations entirely through custom keybindings. By intercepting system-level events, the software overrides default window placement and behavior to maximize screen space and maintain a structured workspace. The project distinguishes itself through a highly configurable environment that supports complex multi-monitor setups and dynamic

This project is a QML desktop shell designed for desktop environment orchestration and interface customization. It functions as a system status dashboard and a declarative user interface for managing system hardware, window metadata, and user sessions. The shell features a dynamic theme generator that extracts dominant colors from wallpapers to automatically synchronize the global visual color palette. It utilizes an inter-process communication system to orchestrate shell functions and a hierarchical JSON configuration framework to manage global and per-monitor interface layouts. The system

Open-Shell-Menu is a Windows shell extension and UI restorer designed to replace modern system interfaces with traditional styles. It functions as a start menu replacement and a customization tool for the Windows file manager and other system applications. The project restores legacy hierarchical navigation to the start menu and reinstates classic visual elements, such as traditional title bars and copy dialogs. It specifically targets the restoration of legacy toolbars and status bars within the file manager and introduces traditional interface elements to web browser windows.

Seelen-UI is a graphical shell and window management utility for Windows that provides a modular, keyboard-driven desktop environment. It enables users to organize application windows through automated tiling, stacking, and floating layouts, while offering a framework for creating interactive desktop widgets using web technologies. The project distinguishes itself by integrating a web-based rendering engine that bridges system-state data to HTML and CSS interfaces, allowing for highly customizable widgets and dynamic visual themes. It features real-time wallpaper analysis to automatically syn

SwiftBar is a macOS menu bar customizer and plugin-based status monitor that displays the output of executable scripts and shell commands directly in the system menu bar. It functions as a shell script dashboard, rendering real-time data and script results as interactive menu items and dropdowns. The project distinguishes itself by acting as an automation interface that integrates with system shortcuts and external URL schemes to trigger actions and update status indicators. It supports the installation of community-made scripts and the packaging of complex plugin assets into local directorie

Oils is a Unix shell interpreter and scripting language runtime that combines a modern shell language with POSIX and Bash compatibility. It functions as a structured data shell, integrating JSON and J8 formats to manage complex data without relying on string parsing. The system is distinguished by a C++ transpiled interpreter that converts a subset of Python source code into strongly typed C++ for high-performance execution. It features a garbage-collected typed runtime that supports prototype-based polymorphism, lexical closures, and reference-based variable mutation. To decouple shell logic

Bitbar is a host application and script runner for macOS that displays the output of shell scripts and programs directly in the system menu bar. It functions as a status monitor, turning dynamic data from periodic script execution into persistent visual widgets. The tool enables the integration of custom scripts to monitor system health, external API updates, and other real-time data without requiring a terminal. It also supports the installation and management of community-created plugins to extend its monitoring capabilities.

This is a desktop application for managing connected Android and iOS devices. It serves as a cross-platform tool for sideloading application packages, capturing device screens, collecting system diagnostic bug reports, and executing shell scripts. The project distinguishes itself by providing a unified interface for both mobile operating systems. It enables the simultaneous recording of video and taking of screenshots from multiple devices to local storage, and allows for the execution of custom bash scripts across one or many connected hardware targets. The software covers several operation

Niri is a Wayland compositor and tiling window manager designed for Linux systems. It functions as a display server that organizes application windows into a scrollable, column-based layout, providing a structured environment for managing graphical sessions, input routing, and hardware output. The project distinguishes itself through a declarative configuration engine that enables live-reloading of settings, allowing users to modify window rules, input bindings, and visual appearance without restarting the session. It features a physics-based animation system that uses spring-based curves to

Niri is a Wayland compositor that provides a desktop environment for Linux. Its primary purpose is to implement a scrollable tiling window management system, which organizes application windows in a non-overlapping layout that allows horizontal scrolling to access content beyond the screen edge. The compositor features multi-monitor workspace coordination, managing window arrangements and fractional scaling across displays with different resolutions and pixel densities. It supports a dynamic workspace organization model where independent vertical workspace stacks are maintained per monitor.

Awesome is a programmable tiling window manager for the X11 Window System. It functions as a dynamic window manager that automatically arranges application windows into non-overlapping tiles based on predefined layout rules to maximize screen space. The project provides a scriptable desktop environment where system behaviors and layouts are defined through an embedded Lua interpreter. This allows for the creation of a personalized interface and a keyboard-driven workflow for managing application windows. The system covers dynamic window layout management and the configuration of system behav

lf is a terminal-based file manager and TUI file explorer that provides keyboard-driven navigation for browsing and organizing files and directories. It operates as a shell-integrated tool that synchronizes the current working directory with the calling shell and supports vi-style keybindings for filesystem operations. The project distinguishes itself through its ability to render images directly in the terminal via the SIXEL graphics protocol and its shell-driven execution model, which allows users to extend functionality using external shell scripts and commands. It also implements a server

Sway is a Wayland compositor and tiling window manager for Linux. It functions as a display server that manages window placement and input handling, organizing application windows into logical grids to maximize screen space. The project is designed for a keyboard-driven workflow, allowing users to manage workspaces and window geometry without relying on a mouse. It provides a modular environment for desktop customization and includes translation layers to support legacy applications, facilitating the replacement of older window management systems. The compositor utilizes hardware-accelerated

This project is a Chromium-based mobile browser and rendering engine designed for mobile platforms. It functions as a web extension host, allowing the execution of browser extensions within a mobile environment to provide custom functionality. The project distinguishes itself through custom user interface modifications, such as the implementation of a specialized night mode and the relocation of the address bar for improved ergonomics. It also includes a remote debugging interface and protocol that allow an external developer console to connect to a live browser instance for inspecting and tr

chadwm is a tiling window manager for X11 written in C. It organizes application windows using dynamic tiling layouts and automated arrangement patterns to manage screen real estate. The project utilizes a patch-based extension system to integrate specific behaviors, such as Fibonacci tiling and vanity gaps. It employs a tagging system for workspace organization, allowing windows to be segmented into virtual desktops. The environment includes a modular widget framework for monitoring system metrics and hardware controls, alongside centralized configuration files for managing visual themes an

Eww is a declarative framework for creating custom graphical desktop widgets and status bars on Linux. It functions as a desktop widget toolkit that operates independently of the window manager, allowing users to define interface elements through a dedicated configuration language and style them using a cascading stylesheet system. The project utilizes a client-server daemon architecture to manage the lifecycle of these components, ensuring that state is maintained across the desktop environment. By leveraging a reactive state binding system, the interface updates automatically in response to

Zellij is a terminal multiplexer and workspace manager designed to organize command-line sessions into persistent, reconfigurable layouts. It functions as a terminal plugin framework, allowing users to extend their environment with modular, event-driven components that interact with the host through a structured message-passing protocol. The project distinguishes itself through a layout-engine-based architecture that decouples visual pane arrangements from process execution, enabling automated and repeatable terminal workflows. It includes integrated support for web-based remote access, facil

This project is a modular, terminal-based dashboard framework designed to aggregate and display real-time information within a grid-aligned interface. It functions as a centralized monitoring tool that translates data from local system resources, infrastructure services, and external web APIs into a unified, text-based display. The dashboard is distinguished by its plugin-based architecture, which allows users to encapsulate distinct data sources and display logic into isolated, independently managed modules. Users define their workspace through declarative configuration files or an interacti

Cerebro is a cross-platform productivity tool and keyboard-driven command palette. It serves as a central search interface and desktop application launcher for finding and initiating the execution of local files, installed software, and web services. The application is an extensible search tool that supports a plugin system, allowing third-party modules to register custom search providers and new functional capabilities. The software covers several capability areas, including local file system navigation and preview, integrated web search, and productivity utilities for natural language mat

vue-fabric-editor is a web-based graphic design tool and vector graphics editor built with Vue and Fabric.js. It provides a canvas manipulation framework for creating visual compositions, layouts, and custom vector illustrations. The project features a template-based design system for creating reusable layouts and a bulk image generator that automatically produces multiple image files using data tables or external network interfaces. It also includes a modular plugin system for extending tools and keyboard shortcuts. The editor covers a broad range of capabilities including digital asset man

This project is a configuration suite for the Hyprland Wayland compositor, providing a set of automated scripts and files to deploy a consistent desktop environment across Linux distributions. It functions as an automation tool that synchronizes system settings, software packages, and interface themes to ensure a uniform workspace state. The environment distinguishes itself through deep integration with language models, allowing users to access local or cloud-based AI assistants directly from the desktop interface for tasks such as text translation and content generation. Visual consistency i