Mutter
DeveloperGNOME Project
ReleasedApril 2011 (age 15)
Programming languageC
Operating systemUnix-like
Size40.2 kB (amd64 .deb package)[1]
Genre
LicenseGPL-2.0-or-later[2]
Websitemutter.gnome.org
Repogitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter

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[3] which used GTK for rendering. The name "Mutter" is a combination of "Metacity" and "Clutter".

Window management

Mutter can function as a standalone window manager for GNOME-like desktops, and serves as the primary window manager for the GNOME Shell,[4] 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.

Release history

  • Support for HiDPI was added to version 3.13 of Mutter by Adel Gadllah.[5]
  • In version 3.13.2 logind integration replaced mutter-launch.[6]
  • In version 3.13.3 (June 24, 2014) the server side bits of wl_touch_interface were implemented by Carlos Garnacho.[7][8][9][10]
  • 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.

Forks

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.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Debian Mutter Package in sid". Debian Packages
  2. ^ "COPYING · master · GNOME / mutter". GNOME GitLab. Archived from the original on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  3. ^ Vervloesem, Koen (2009-08-04). "Mutter: a window manager for GNOME 3". LWN.net. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  4. ^ Kissling, Kristian (2009-07-08). "Mutter: Window Manager in GNOME's Future". Linux Magazine. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  5. ^ Adel Gadllah (2014-05-03). "wayland: Add basic hidpi support". Retrieved 2014-05-03.
  6. ^ Florian Müllner (2014-05-27). "mutter 3.13.2". mail.gnome.org
  7. ^ Carlos Garnacho (2014-06-04). "wayland: Implement the server side bits of wl_touch_interface"
  8. ^ Florian Müllner (2014-06-24). "mutter 3.13.3"
  9. ^ "Bug 724442 – Touchscreen does not work". bugzilla.gnome.org
  10. ^ Florian Müllner (2014-07-23). "mutter 3.13.4"
  11. ^ Lefebvre, Clement (23 January 2012). "Cinnamon 1.2 released". cinnamon.linuxmint.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2012.

Further reading