Mutter (software)

Last updated
Mutter
Developer(s) GNOME Project
Initial releaseApril 2011;14 years ago (2011-04)
Stable release
47.6 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 5 March 2025;4 months ago (5 March 2025)
Preview release
48.rc [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 4 March 2025;4 months ago (4 March 2025)
Repository gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter
Written in C
Operating system Unix-like
Size 40.2 kB (amd64 .deb package) [3]
Type
License GPL-2.0-or-later [4]
Website mutter.gnome.org

Mutter is a window manager initially designed and implemented for the X Window System, but then evolved to be a display server ("Wayland compositor"). It became the default window manager in GNOME 3, replacing Metacity [5] which used GTK for rendering. "Mutter" is a combination of "Metacity" and "Clutter".

Contents

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, [6] which is an integral part of GNOME 3. Mutter is extensible with plug-ins, and supports numerous visual effects. GNOME Shell is written as a plug-in to Mutter.

Release history

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. [13]

References

  1. "47.6 · GNOME / mutter · GitLab". 5 March 2025. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  2. "48.rc · GNOME / mutter · GitLab". 4 March 2025. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  3. "Debian Mutter Package in sid". Debian Packages.
  4. "COPYING · master · GNOME / mutter". GNOME GitLab. Archived from the original on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  5. Vervloesem, Koen (2009-08-04). "Mutter: a window manager for GNOME 3". LWN.net . Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  6. Kissling, Kristian (2009-07-08). "Mutter: Window Manager in GNOME's Future". Linux Magazine . Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  7. Adel Gadllah (2014-05-03). "wayland: Add basic hidpi support" . Retrieved 2014-05-03.
  8. Florian Müllner (2014-05-27). "mutter 3.13.2". mail.gnome.org.
  9. Carlos Garnacho (2014-06-04). "wayland: Implement the server side bits of wl_touch_interface".
  10. Florian Müllner (2014-06-24). "mutter 3.13.3". ftp-release-list@gnome.org (Mailing list).
  11. "Bug 724442 – Touchscreen does not work". bugzilla.gnome.org.
  12. Florian Müllner (2014-07-23). "mutter 3.13.4". ftp-release-list@gnome.org (Mailing list).
  13. Lefebvre, Clement (23 January 2012). "Cinnamon 1.2 released". cinnamon.linuxmint.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2012.

Further reading