Console Window Manager
 

Are there any window managers that would basically just be console, except it could have windows open?

I'm imagining something like if the background was a console.

Under X, you could run a minimal window manager (Ratpoison, i3, dwm, etc) or dvtm if you don't want to run X at all.

There are also terminal multiplexers (like screen and tmux) that can do similar things for console applications (and they run with or without X).

You might want to look at tiling window managers. Wikipedia has a pretty good description of what they are, with pictures:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager

The Arch wiki has a good comparison of their different features:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...indow_Managers

You can read about tiling window managers and get a rough idea, but you really should try them. I switched from blackbox to i3 for some days now, and I am really excited.

Yes, tiling window managers rock (especially i3). As mentioned in one of the posts above, if you do not want to run X, dvtm is the one.