The project Labwc 0.8.3 (Lab Wayland Compositor) has been recently published by the team at LabWC. This composite server for Wayland aims to offer capabilities similar to the window manager openbox, presenting an alternative option for Wayland users. LabWC boasts features such as minimalism, compact implementation, extensive settings, and high performance. However, it does not support animated effects, gradients, or pictograms, except for window buttons. The project’s code is written in SI and distributed under the gplv2 license.
LabWC utilizes the wlroots library as its foundation, catering to developers interested in creating user environments and basic functions for a composite manager based on Wayland. Additional add-ons can be connected to enable functions like creating screenshots, displaying desktop wallpaper, and customizing panels and menus. To run X11 applications on Wayland, LabWC employs the xwayland DDX component. Design themes, menus, and hotkeys can be adjusted via XML format configuration files. Moreover, the compositor provides built-in support for high pixel density screens (hidpi).
For enhanced customization options, users can incorporate third-party application menus like bemenu, fuzzel, and wofi. Various panels such as waybar, sfwbar, yambar, and lavalauncher can be used, along with tools like wlr-randr and kanshi to manage monitors and their settings. The screen lock feature is handled by swaylock within LabWC.
In the latest version of LabWC, several new features have been introduced. These include support for the ext-workspace Wayland protocol for virtual desktop implementation, improved menu functionality with icon placement options, and enhancements aimed at boosting performance and user convenience. New settings have been added to the configuration file, along with the addition of the Alt-Shift-Tab keyboard shortcut to switch to the last window.
