Desktop pets on Linux: what runs, and why Wayland makes it hard

Desktop pets on Linux go back a long way. oneko’s cat has chased pointers across X11 screens since the nineties, and xpenguins still walks penguins along the tops of your windows. Pets aren’t the hard part on Linux today. Wayland is.

Pixel art: Pebble the penguin walks along the bottom of a laptop screen full of coloured terminal lines, and Bean the frog sits on the keyboard, on a snowy evening.

Why Wayland is hard on pets

A desktop pet is a small, see-through window that moves itself around the screen, stays above your other windows, lets clicks pass through its empty parts, and knows where your pointer is. Here’s what each system lets a regular app do:

What a pet needs	X11	Wayland
Put its window anywhere on screen	Yes	No: the compositor places every window
Stay above your other windows	Yes	No
Know where your pointer is	Yes	Only over its own windows
Let clicks through its empty parts	Yes	Yes

Proposals to allow the first two were both closed: one to let apps say where they’d like to be, and one for staying on top, in 2024.

So pets on Linux get around it in one of three ways:

XWayland. The app runs as an X11 app inside your Wayland session. The compositor acts as its window manager, and “keep above” works. Most distributions install XWayland by default.
Layer shell. Sway, Hyprland, KDE’s KWin, river, labwc and niri let an app draw on an overlay layer anchored to the screen’s edges. GNOME doesn’t.
Living inside the desktop. A GNOME Shell extension or a KWin script is part of the desktop itself, so it can go anywhere.

What runs on Linux today

Pet	What it is	How it runs	Notes
oneko	A cat that chases your pointer	X11. Your distribution’s package, or Flathub	Under XWayland, it only follows the pointer over other XWayland windows
xpenguins	Penguins that walk along your windows	Forces X11. Your distribution’s package	Still updated: 3.2.4 came out in January 2026
Shijima-Qt	Runs Shimeji characters	Through XWayland, with its own KWin script or GNOME extension	Supports KDE Plasma 6 and GNOME 46. Archived and discontinued in 2026
Shimeji-Desktop	A Shimeji-ee fork	A Java jar, on X11	Only rolling pre-releases
wl_shimeji	Shimeji, native to Wayland	Layer shell	Not on GNOME. Pre-release
wayneko	A Wayland neko	Layer shell	Sits at the bottom of the screen, since it can’t see your pointer
VPet	An anime desk pet with needs and work	In beta on Linux since September 2026	Its developers say it can’t move its window on native Wayland, and clicks don’t pass through it
Gnomelets	Pixel characters that walk on title bars	A GNOME Shell extension	GNOME 45 to 50
KNeko	A oneko-style cat	A KWin script	KDE Plasma
Desktamer	Pixel pets you look after, with Codex pets and a small idle RPG	Through XWayland	AppImage, .deb or .rpm. More below

Some favourites from other systems don’t run on Linux: Shimeji-ee runs only on Windows, Desktop Goose is Windows and Mac only, and BongoCat stopped making Linux builds with version 2.0. Here’s how to get a Bongo Cat on Linux anyway.

Desktamer on Linux

Desktamer is the same app on Linux as on a Mac or Windows PC: the same pets, the same care, Quest and helpers, and one license for up to three computers in any mix.

Desktamer on Ubuntu: the Knight, the Wizard, the Fox, Luck asleep and Pebble along the bottom of the desktop, with the Pets window in the dark theme showing Luck's food, energy and fun. — The Knight, the Wizard, the Fox, Luck and Pebble along the bottom of an Ubuntu desktop, with the Pets window in the dark theme.

Packages: an AppImage, a .deb and an .rpm, for 64-bit Intel or AMD computers.
On Wayland, Desktamer runs through XWayland, for the reasons above. If your session has XWayland (almost every desktop does), there’s nothing to set up. Transparent pets need a compositing window manager, which every current desktop has.
Where pets walk: along the bottom of your screen. There’s no menu bar to walk in, like a Mac has, so that’s their floor.
The tray: Desktamer puts its paw in your system tray, with every pet and helper a click away. On GNOME, install the AppIndicator extension to see it. Without a tray, Desktamer opens its window when it starts, and the window has the same controls.
Updates: the AppImage updates itself. The .deb and .rpm ask for your password and install when you choose Restart to Update.

A few things work only on macOS and Windows, because Linux doesn’t offer a way to do them:

Keeping quiet during calls, and noticing you’ve stepped away. Do Not Disturb works everywhere.
Hiding pets while an app is full screen.
The System tab’s GPU and temperature readings.
Global keyboard shortcuts in a Wayland session.

Which one to pick

For a classic, install oneko or xpenguins from your distribution. They’re happiest in an X11 session.
For Shimeji characters, Shijima-Qt covers KDE and GNOME while it still works. On Sway or Hyprland, try wl_shimeji. Here’s what Shimeji are, and how to add characters.
For a pet that stays with you all day (one you feed, send on quests and bring along to your Mac or Windows PC), that’s what Desktamer is for. You can try a pet on this site first.

On a Mac or a Windows PC too? Here are the best desktop pets for Mac and for Windows. Worried about speed or battery? Here’s what a desktop pet costs your computer.