Mutter (software)


Mutter is a window manager initially 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 which used GTK+ for rendering.

Window management

Mutter uses a graphics library called Clutter giving it OpenGL capability. Mutter is a portmanteau of Metacity and Clutter. Mutter can function as a standalone window manager for GNOME-like desktops, and serves as the primary window manager for the GNOME Shell, 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

Support for HiDPI was added to version 3.13 of Mutter by Adel Gadllah.
In version 3.13.2 logind integration replaced mutter-launch.
In version 3.13.3 the server side bits of wl_touch_interface were implemented by Carlos Garnacho.