this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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Yes they do but that's likely a vestigial remnant of X11 naming schemes. I could point out labwc, xfwl, hyprland, dwl, etc for counter examples. Yes compositors manage windows, they are not called window managers by the spec.
From the Wayland website
Additionally, there are compositors that leave window management out of their job description, I believe there are a few but the one I remember most is kiwmi which left window management to lua scripts.
Honestly I don’t really understand what’s wrong about calling them that, I do prefer calling them compositors as well, but to the untrained eye window manager is much more clear, and it’s the existential goal of a compositor anyway (in most cases at least). Just because a spec sheet doesn’t call a game engine a 3D renderer doesn’t mean a game engine is not a 3D renderer, because unless it only renders 2D, it is also a 3D renderer, if you get what I mean.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is, a game engine contains a 3D (or 2D) renderer, but that's not its sole focus. There are other projects which are just that, a game engine is a lot of other things too, physics simulator, audio engine, UI framework, etc. A compositor is similar, it's a compositing window manager, a Wayland display server, an input handler, etc. It does far more than manage windows. When we look at X11 all a window manager does is manage windows, composition was a separate application, although sometimes the window manager would handle it, input handling was managed directly by the X server. Basically a Wayland compositor is a compositing window manager, and display server combined into one, it's like a game engine, calling one a 3D renderer is missing out on the vast array of other responsibilities.