What is this?
niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor for Linux, written in Rust on top of Smithay. Its signature idea: windows sit in columns on an infinite strip that scrolls to the right.
niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor for Linux, written in Rust on top of Smithay. Its signature idea: windows sit in columns on an infinite strip that scrolls to the right.How is scrollable tiling different from a regular tiling compositor?Opening a new window never resizes the existing ones — it just adds a column to the endless strip. Every monitor has its own separate strip, so windows never overflow onto a neighbor, and workspaces are dynamic and stacked vertically.
Opening a new window never resizes the existing ones — it just adds a column to the endless strip. Every monitor has its own separate strip, so windows never overflow onto a neighbor, and workspaces are dynamic and stacked vertically.How do I get it running?The README points to the Getting Started page for install instructions. niri is a compositor, so it replaces your desktop session on Linux rather than installing as an app inside one.
The README points to the Getting Started page for install instructions. niri is a compositor, so it replaces your desktop session on Linux rather than installing as an app inside one.Do I need anything else on top of it?Yes — niri by itself is not a complete desktop environment. The README suggests grabbing a desktop shell like DankMaterialShell or Noctalia, or building a more traditional setup yourself.
Yes — niri by itself is not a complete desktop environment. The README suggests grabbing a desktop shell like DankMaterialShell or Noctalia, or building a more traditional setup yourself.Is it stable enough to daily-drive?The README says niri is stable for day-to-day use and many people already daily-drive it. Rough edges are small: there are touchpad gestures but no touchscreen gestures yet.
The README says niri is stable for day-to-day use and many people already daily-drive it. Rough edges are small: there are touchpad gestures but no touchscreen gestures yet.Will it run on my hardware, like an NVIDIA card?NVIDIA reportedly works fine, multi-monitor with mixed DPI and fractional scaling are first-class, and it is light on resources — someone runs it on an Eee PC 900 from 2008.
NVIDIA reportedly works fine, multi-monitor with mixed DPI and fractional scaling are first-class, and it is light on resources — someone runs it on an Eee PC 900 from 2008.What does it ship with out of the box?An Overview that zooms out your workspaces, a built-in screenshot UI, screencasting where you can hide sensitive windows, tabbed windows, background blur, animations with custom shaders, and a live-reloading config.
An Overview that zooms out your workspaces, a built-in screenshot UI, screencasting where you can hide sensitive windows, tabbed windows, background blur, animations with custom shaders, and a live-reloading config.Why build a whole new compositor instead of using PaperWM?niri is heavily inspired by PaperWM, but PaperWM is a GNOME Shell extension that has to fight Shell's global window coordinate space to keep windows from overflowing. Writing his own compositor let the author separate monitors properly from the start.
niri is heavily inspired by PaperWM, but PaperWM is a GNOME Shell extension that has to fight Shell's global window coordinate space to keep windows from overflowing. Writing his own compositor let the author separate monitors properly from the start.What about floating windows?Supported — floating windows have been available since niri 25.01, alongside the scrollable columns.
Supported — floating windows have been available since niri 25.01, alongside the scrollable columns.Does it support drawing tablets?Yes — niri supports tablets, touchpads, and touchscreens. You can map a tablet to a specific monitor or use OpenTabletDriver.
Yes — niri supports tablets, touchpads, and touchscreens. You can map a tablet to a specific monitor or use OpenTabletDriver.What are similar projects?omarchy-workspace-layout, juhradial-mx, komorebi, omacosy, gyotaku, AgentOS, glazewm, Waybar
omarchy-workspace-layout, juhradial-mx, komorebi, omacosy, gyotaku, AgentOS, glazewm, WaybarWhich topics is it in?multi-monitor, animations, gesture-control, screen-recording, tiling-window-manager, window-management, linux-desktop, x11, wayland, screenshot, configuration, accessibility
multi-monitor, animations, gesture-control, screen-recording, tiling-window-manager, window-management, linux-desktop, x11, wayland, screenshot, configuration, accessibility