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Add to SafariWhen comparing SDDM vs ly, the Slant community recommends ly for most people. In the question“What is the best Linux Display Manager?” ly is ranked 6th while SDDM is ranked 7th.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports both X11 and Wayland
Pro SDDM can start each DE
Unlike GDM which is stubborn in many ways, SDDM can start both Wayland and X11 sessions and any matter of valid session type, even if it's something obscure like Windowmaker.
Pro Security
It doesn't support XDMCP.
Pro Recommended for Plasma 5 and LXQT
QML-based display manager. Successor to KDE4's KDM.
Pro SDDM can provide full eyecandy
SDDM themes can include animated videos/gifs, background music/sounds, and any combination of the various QML animations.
Pro Minimal
Pro Simple in use
Pro Very quick and responsive
Pro CLI Based
It's so much lightweight because CLI Based.
Pro Supports both X11 and Wayland
Pro Easy to use
Includes a shell login and Basic Wayland support.
Cons
Con It does not support some essential funtionality, like XDMCP
Con Buggy and..
- Missing suspend/hibernate/sleep shutdown buttons
- Needs to much clicks to switch user
- Missing proper keyboard control
Con Slow
Con Difficult to customize without KDE
SDDM-KCM only works for KDE.
Con Does not support expired passwords
You can not force users to change passwords on login.
Con No Bluetooth support on the Loginscreen
Con Heavy
It's not very lightweight.
Con Customizing is hard
Customizing this login manager is hard since you need to know QML very well.
Con A bit bloated
It requires Qt which is a huge dependency compared to other login managers.
Con Doesn't pickup special characters
For example ß or æ.
Con Not very customizable
Con CLI-based
Very simple and minimalistic graphical interface.
