X11 and Window Manager Confusion

Posted by ell on Super User See other posts from Super User or by ell
Published on 2011-01-12T17:11:08Z Indexed on 2011/01/12 17:55 UTC
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Filed under:

x11

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xorg

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window-manager

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metacity

What roles do the Xorg server and a window manager, for example, metacity, play in displaying windows? Does the window manager communicate with the OS or Xorg? Does Xorg then use OpenGl to display things? Can someone explain what exactly the Xorg server does, and what exactly the window manager does, and the differences between the two. Also, if you could show me the Windows equivalent, that would be helpful. Thanks in advance, ell.

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