The Seelen UI Story: How a Broken App Sparked a Desktop Revolution

Chapter 1: When FancyWM Stopped Working

Picture this: You're in your flow state, windows perfectly arranged, productivity at its peak. You're using FancyWM, a beautifully simple tiling window manager that just works. No complex configurations, no command-line wizardry—just pure, efficient window management.

Then one day, it stops working. Just like that. Dead.

If you've ever lost a tool you depend on daily, you know the frustration. But sometimes, frustration is the best catalyst for innovation.

Chapter 2: Exploring the Available Alternatives

Windows users don't have the luxury of choice that Linux users enjoy when it comes to tiling window managers. My desperate search led me to two options: GlazeWM and Komorebi.

Both were technically capable, sure. But using them felt like programming a spaceship just to make toast. They demanded:

It was the typical Linux "Do It Yourself" philosophy—which is fine if you're a nerd like me who enjoys that stuff. But what about normal humans? People with actual lives? People who just want their windows to behave without earning a computer science degree?

That's when the lightbulb moment hit: Why should powerful tools be gatekept behind complexity?

Chapter 3: Building a GUI for Komorebi

My initial solution was modest: build a graphical configuration interface for Komorebi. Just a simple Electron app that would let normal people use a tiling window manager without touching a single config file.

The repository was born. The commits started flowing. Within weeks, I had a working GUI that made Komorebi actually usable for regular humans.

But then something interesting happened...

Chapter 4: Understanding User Needs

As I watched people use my tool, a pattern emerged. Those who gravitated toward tiling window managers weren't just interested in window management—they wanted to customize everything. Their taskbar. Their widgets. Their entire desktop experience.

That's when Seelen Weg was born—a complete replacement for the Windows taskbar, integrated seamlessly with the Komorebi configuration tool.

The project was no longer just a configuration GUI. It was becoming something bigger. Something that deserved a new name.

Seelen UI was born.

Chapter 5: The License Conflict

Just as Seelen UI was gaining momentum, drama struck.

After we renamed from "Komorebi UI" to "Seelen UI" and started adding innovative features, the original Komorebi creator made a shocking decision: he changed the project's license from MIT to a restrictive license that prohibited forks.

The conflict had multiple layers:

The Name Change Controversy

The Komorebi creator was particularly upset about us using a different name for the fork. To him, "Seelen UI" represented a departure from his project's identity, even though we still credited Komorebi as our foundation. He saw the rebranding as an attempt to obscure the origins and claim independent credit.

The Corporate Use Dilemma

More fundamentally, he opposed any corporate or commercial use of his work. Despite choosing the MIT license—which explicitly allows commercial use—he was philosophically against anyone profiting from his code. When Seelen UI appeared on the Microsoft Store, he saw it as the ultimate betrayal: his "pure" open-source project being distributed through a corporate channel.

The irony wasn't lost on us. If you don't want your project used commercially, why choose MIT? The MIT license literally exists to allow maximum freedom, including commercial use. It felt like giving someone a gift and then getting angry when they actually use it.

The Philosophy War: Free as in Freedom vs Free as in Beer

At its core, this was the age-old open-source debate:

He believed we were "stealing" his work to make money (even though Seelen UI was and remains free). We believed we were fulfilling open source's true mission: democratizing technology.

This wasn't just about licenses or naming—it was about fundamentally different visions of what open-source software should be.

Chapter 6: Starting From Scratch

We faced a critical decision: abandon the project, comply with restrictions that would cripple our vision, or... do something bold.

We chose bold.

The decision was made: completely remove Komorebi as a dependency and build our own Tiling Window Manager from the ground up.

This wasn't just a technical decision—it was a statement. If the open-source community wanted to gatekeep who could use their MIT-licensed code and how, then we'd build something truly open. Something that wouldn't pull the rug out from under its users based on philosophical whims.

This meant:

We rebuilt everything using Tauri and Rust. This wasn't just a technical migration—it was a declaration of independence. Seelen UI would stand on its own, beholden to no one's contradictory philosophy.

The result? A better product. Free from external dependencies, free from licensing drama, and truly free for everyone to use however they wanted.

Chapter 7: What Seelen UI Became

Today, Seelen UI isn't just a window manager. It's a complete reimagining of the Windows desktop experience:

Core Features That Users Love

The Numbers Don't Lie

Chapter 8: Our Development Philosophy

Founded in 2024 by Eythan D. Moreira, Seelen Inc embodies a simple belief: software should adapt to people, not the other way around.

Our core principles:

  1. Flexibility Over Rigidity: Every component is modular—activate, deactivate, or reconfigure anything
  2. Purposeful Aesthetics: Beauty and function in perfect harmony
  3. Evolutionary Adaptability: The software grows with you, not despite you

Chapter 9: Key Lessons Learned

The Komorebi conflict taught us invaluable lessons:

Technical Independence is Non-Negotiable

When your vision depends on someone else's code, you're always one philosophical disagreement away from disaster. Even MIT-licensed code isn't safe if the author decides to retroactively change their mind about how it should be used.

Choose Your License Wisely (And Stick To It)

If you don't want commercial use of your code, don't use MIT. If you don't want forks with different names, use a trademark. Don't release code under a permissive license and then get upset when people... use those permissions. That's not how licenses work.

Accessibility Matters More Than Ideology

What good is "free" software if it's gatekept behind complexity? True freedom means everyone can benefit, not just those who align with your particular philosophy about distribution channels.

Constraints Breed Innovation

Being forced to build our own TWM resulted in something far superior to what we could have achieved as a mere fork. Sometimes, conflict pushes you to build something better than you ever imagined.

The Best Response is Success

While others debate philosophical purity, we focused on building great software. Our 4 million downloads and 20,000 active users prove that users care more about accessible, powerful tools than ideological battles.

Open Source Means Open, Period

You can't have it both ways. Either your code is open for everyone to use as the license permits, or it isn't. Changing licenses after people build on your work isn't principled—it's pulling the ladder up behind you.

Chapter 10: Making Power Tools Accessible

Seelen UI has fundamentally changed what Windows users expect from their desktop. We've proven that:

While alternatives like FancyWM, GlazeWM, and Komorebi require deep technical knowledge and extensive manual configuration, Seelen UI brings these advanced capabilities to everyone.

Final Thoughts: Building Something Better

What started as personal frustration with a broken app transformed into something extraordinary. The irony is delicious: a project born to make Komorebi easier to use became something far greater—and did it without Komorebi at all.

The conflict over naming, commercial distribution, and who gets to "profit" from open source (even when the software remains free) revealed a fundamental contradiction in some corners of the open-source community. You can't release code under MIT—which explicitly permits commercial use and modification—and then cry foul when someone exercises those rights.

The Komorebi creator's retroactive attempt to restrict how his MIT-licensed code could be used wasn't just legally questionable; it betrayed the very users who had built on his work in good faith. This kind of bait-and-switch damages the entire open-source ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Seelen UI took a different path. We believe that:

The conflict that could have killed the project instead freed us to build something uncompromised. Today, with millions of downloads and tens of thousands of daily users, Seelen UI stands as proof that making powerful tools accessible isn't a betrayal of open-source principles—it's their ultimate fulfillment.

After all, what's more liberating than software that anyone can use to transform their digital workspace into exactly what they need?

"Software should adapt to people, not the other way around."

This philosophy continues to guide every line of code we write, every feature we design, and every decision we make. Because at the end of the day, technology should empower everyone—not just those who can decode its mysteries.

Welcome to Seelen UI. Your desktop, your rules.

  • By: eythaann
  • Published at: Sat Nov 29 2025
  • Last revision: Sat Nov 29 2025