I started with fvwm95 on the unix-aix machines at university.
I used it for almost 1 year without changing it from the default configuration.
Then I bought a notebook. Tried to use KDE on it but it was painfull (my notebook has only 64MB ram). So I switched to AfterStep, and I had fun configuring it. But after 4 months I looked for something else. Tried both Fvwm and Blackbox. I loved blackbox spartan look, but there was too little room for personalization for my tastes, so I wrote a blackbox-look theme for Fvwm and sticked with it.
Now it’s 5 years that I use Fvwm.
I started with KDE 2.2 and ended with 3.3 because it was too slow with some apps and it needs too much memory at all. The heaviest thing I have was with a java application - it needs 30 seconds to save a 800 kB file 
Therefore I searched for a faster alternative. My first try was with waimea. It’s a good and fast wm (it needs only 5 seconds to save the java document) but the documentation about configuring was very poor. Then I looked on kahakai but it has the same problem with its documentation 
and I don’t like the used programming language.
After these tries I looked into twm but it hasn’t enough possibilities to configure it onto my needs. then I found vtwm. After configuring I could said it was okay. But after looking on the screenshot page of FVWM, pems configuration suits me so well and I tried it. After changing something on his config I become more and more a fan of FVWM because of the flexibiliy to configure it. And now it’s my absolute favorite wm at all 
BTW my saving problem is now history - 4 seconds - and the memory usage is in regions I never dreamed anymore - after starting FVWM it begins with 19% (from 1GB; on 512 MB I have had 13%). If I looked on the memory usage of KDE my eyes shed tears …
Best thanks to all FVWM developers and big thanks to all helpers on the FVWM forum, too.
Best Regards,
TF
The first was KDE 3.2, and it ran on Kurumin 3.11 (distro), and, since my pc wasnt slow or anything, it ran quite well. I played around with it a little while, but the dificulty to change stuff in it along with hardware problems got me switching back to Windows.
As i saw different screenshots and new things Linux was gaining, i switched to Linux, again, and it was, once more, with KDE. But this time, on a Slackware (wich i must’ve installed 60+ times, literally). That Slack experience gave me the taste for configuring things and making them fast, small and fitting to my needs.
So, after some time with KDE, i saw some amazing screenshots of a wm called Fluxbox. I decided to try it out, and, i liked it. The concept was new to me, having a popup menu on a mouse click. After spending some time with it, i saw some other incredible screenshots of enlightenment, and ran off to install it on my box. The way menus were made and the way to edit them (as editing anything) made me dislike it, and, after installing e17 i decided i had enough of enlightenment.
So, back on my fluxbox, i was getting mad with the limits of it, and the limited amount of configurations i could come up with. Always looking for the eye-candiness, i tryed Gnome. I loved the bar and the way it could be functional. After installing it, i realized that was only the surfice, and that it was too heavy and useless to my purposes. And, after the Gnome experince, i realize that what i was looking for was more configurability, eye-candy and lightweightness.
With some more lynucs.org searching, i saw that some of the screenshots i had seen werent Gnome, but actually a strange wm i never heard of before: FVWM.
I searched more about it and found out that it was a minimalist wm with quite an ugly look (at first). I doubted it could look like the screenshots i had seen, but i decided to give it a try. After being convinced that it really could be the most eye-candy wm ever, and that it had no limits what-so-ever, i made up my mind and stick with it.
That wasnt too long ago, but i’m still with FVWM and probably ever will until a more configurable, light and eye-candy wm is created.
It still amazes me how FVWM can look and behave like any other WM or DE existing, and how many possibilities there are. How such a minimal wm, many times underrated, can incorporate the most advanced graphical features and functionabilities, and not hog RAM like crazy.
By far, FVWM is the best i’ve ever seen and tryed, and probably ever will.
I knew FVWM since 1996, but didn’t “see” it until few months ago when I made an effort in developing a ‘perfect’ Window Manager. I don’t have skill in developing from scratch nor modify an exiting WM source, so I was searching for a base. I concluded, a perfect WM is a base only, doesn’t include all type of preferences and features. For this FVWM is ideal. Exe /usr/bin/fvwm (700Kb) can stand alone and has a nice scripting language in developing configs. The supporting libraries and shares are excellent.
Its ideal for WM developers. Perfect when able to build/tailor features to once own liking. But can it be appreciated or used by common users not having sufficient skill or interest in time consuming programming. The same question can be asked about LFS (Linux From Scratch) and Gentoo Linux. Both are doing well.
The point here, when users get “tired” with ready made distros or WM/DE, the seemingly trend is to go for things they can build/configure on their own. How far they are willing to build on their own or are able to do, there the developers will meet them. For FVWM to find the meeting point is not a problem because it can be made into a KDE alike or kept as /usr/bin/fvwm alone.
The flexibility of FVWM attracted me at first place.
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When I started to study at University, all we got was CDE. Or more to the point, I didnt know that there were alternatives- after all, what alternatives were there on the mac or windows? It never occured to me that you could change the window manager.
After a few months I happened to look over at the local computer guru, and his desktop looked… well different to say the least. I moved over and asked him, and he answered: FVWM.
Or actually, FVWM95, it turned out to be. This would be sometime in late 1996. I didnt really like what I saw, but I wanted to be like this guru, so I got some help to change WMs.
What I noticed even back then was that I could change stuff I had no idea that you could change. It amazed me that someone actually put in some thought to the UNIX system, that it was all modularized. I got really into modifying the look, feel, and functionalities behind fvwm, when I realized that there were other versions of fvwm around- I tried the various types and ended up, mostly by chance, in the fvwm2 camp.
Over the years, I’ve been tempted to change WMs, and I’ve tried many others, both with and without desktop managers- KDE, gnome, enlightenment, evilwm (woo I liked that), twm, back to CDE, the blackbox derivatives (fluxbox, waimea, openbox) as well as blackbox, and always, always, found my way back to fvwm.
Now Im running gnome with fvwm as WM, and we’ll see how long I keep it this way. Im a cli person, and all this clicking is starting to irritate me.
Go fvwm go!
Hmm, I think FVWM95 was the first WM I saw when I installed redhat 5.2 for the first time, didn’t like the wannabe win95 look at all and browsed through my cd’s a little more ( no internet back then) and discoverd that even then GNOME and KDE were too much for my poor P233 so I went back to cough Windowscough until I finally got internet at home.
Still having the same P233 I found out that fluxbox ran quite ok on that machine so I used that for quite some time until I got somewhat bored because all the screenshots looked alike and somehow I missed something so I decided to give FVWM a spin again.
Been running it since then (although I have to admit I tried different WMs/DE’s along the way, but for one strange reason I always come back to my beloved fvwm <3)
Also, the community is just great, friendly and funny. Yup, getting happier and happier with my desktop every day \o/
I was on KDE / e17 since the beginning and I was searching for a WM where I can set only what I need where I need it, not where some guy find it useful.
I’ve tried tons of WM/DM they got all some good parts and bad ones (in my opinion 
) but I haven’t found any on fvwm ! Awesome is the word that match the best this incredible WM. The best way to demonstrate it’s power is by seeing all those configs around !
Thx to the dev team !
I start with linux on an old laptop with 128MB of ram so i’d installed debian etch with fluxbox and other light programs…
Now i’ve an HP laptop with 1GB of ram… and etch + gnome.
But…i like fluxbox more and so I’ve installed flux on this machine too.
A day in the net I’ve found fvwm-crystal, i’d like it but with time I realize that I should have my personal fvwm config.
I’m a little sad because i have left fluxbox alone… my flux was higly configurated also with engage!!
Now i’ve my personal config of fvwm and i’m happy, but there is a lot of work to do to finish my config…
When I first started looking at Linux, I came across Enlightenment (16). It was a major factor in getting me to try out Linux. I installed Mandrake, tried a couple of WMs, and decided I liked KDE (Enlightenment was pretty, but I just didn’t like the feel of it). It was fast enough, but it was just too Windows-y for my (now changing) tastes. At the same time, I was using IceWM on AIX at work. I decided I liked IceWM and used both at home and work. It was very easy to configure, but I found myself getting limited by it too. I was thinking about what makes a good UI, and I decided that if you didn’t have to worry about discoverability, the best UI is not one that is easy to learn, but easy to use, in the long run. I wondered if I could make such a UI. I looked for the most configurable WM and came up with FVWM. So I installed it. It was great: a blank slate that I could do anything with. I ran the autoconfig generator, and bootstrapped a config by replacing one piece of it at a time. Now I have my UI.
When I began to use linux ten years ago, there was no desktop like kde or gnome… but window managers, and fvwm was commonly the default on unix box.
So I began with fvwm, switched some months later to afterstep because it was more candy and easy to configure. One year later when afterstep began to be unstable and difficult to install on my box, I went to WindowMaker and used it one year or two, but was not completely satisfied: some features were a little bit too limited: size of window title bars, borders, of icons, double-click need on buttons, etc.
I began slowly to switch to fvwm. I learned first to swallow my beloved applets, make buttons (one click only !), menus, and after some months switched completely to fvwm. It’s a continuous work: any six months I change something. Recently, I found this forum (and also the gentoos giant threads) and began to integrate the new interesting features I read. Thanks all.
Now I can say I use fvwm all the days since seven years… When I install a new version of my distribution, I launch gnome and kde and think they are really nice now. But also too limited and too difficult to understand for me now. And I continue to use fvwm.
In fact in my opinion, fvwm is not only a windows manager. It allows the user to BUILD HIS OWN COMPLETE DESKTOP from scratch. And I like to do it.
To be continued…
I started with linux on both an Amiga 2000 and a 286. The Amiga OS was much better as linux on that machine and I almost always was with DOS on the PC because the softwares I was using (electronic simulation and CAD as microcap and orcad) was only available on DOS. It was no viable linux alternative.
But things begun to change, I buy a 486 and it was time to double-boot between win and linux. The Amiga ended as a game box and I give it away to a friend. I used most kde as wm and suse as distribution. I never found a system that is as easy to use as the Amiga OS was, even today. Linux is good, but have a huge complexity. But I understand at things have changed and at higher security risks implies more complexity to deal with those risks.
The best things with the Amiga OS (I am not a gamer and don’t give a dime about 3D functionalities, they use too much cpu for what I want to do.) was at it was only one toolkit and at it was very efficiently coupled with the hardware. And the multitasking was outstanding and fast.
In comparison, kde is a huge monster. Recent versions seam to be better, but I was always looking for a wm that give me the kind of feeling I was having with the Amiga OS. Gnome have never been in my boxes more as a few hours because of its incredibly limited way to deal with the mouse. The Amiga OS was all about the mouse. Even kde, sucks in that regards.
I also become tired of undocumented features of both kde and suse when you want to do advanced configuration or system management. I begun to try other distributions and wms. I come to the conclusion at deb was better as rpm to deal with the dependencies, but was not as good as portage, and at gentoo documentation was the best for me (debian doc is outstanding too).
It was harder for the wm. The main kde strength from an user point of vue is at you get a full functional environment from the first start. It was the same with the Amiga OS, but with the feeling.
At the end, I try fvwm, fvwm-theme and crystal, and I ended with crystal. I get almost the same feeling with it as with the Amiga OS, it is fast and fully usable from the first run. Another fvwm strength is at i will not loose my most important settings as my menu in case of upgrade (I will not name any wm here, but I get really sad and angry…). I am in the way to fully customize crystal so at it fit my needs better.
And I almost forget. It is at least 3 years ago at I stopped to double boot and at I use exclusively GNU/linux even for my electronics work.
I started out with *NIX and X11 about twelve years ago, and at the
time – as I dimly recall – FVWM was almost ubiquitous. It was the
first WM I ever used, but I had a curiosity for what others were
like, and so I switched often…I tried many – even going so far
as to use WindowMaker for almost a year – but I always felt drawn
back to FVWM.
The years passed and I found myself a bit dissatisfied with the
amount of work required to make FVWM look as slick as some of
the newer WMs, so I tried BlackBox and then FluxBox and in fact
ended up sticking with FluxBox for four or five years. I can
remember that at some point in there, I thought to myself,
“Well, I guess this is what I was looking for all along. I’ll
probably never use FVWM again.”
But a couple of months ago, the FVWM bug snuck up out of nowhere
and bit me again. I found that I was tired of configuration
limitations (sure, you probably don’t need ten titlebar buttons,
but jeepers, it sure is nice to have the capability if you want it).
I see that lots has changed while I was away, and I’m looking forward
to much future experimentation.
I’ve ended to fvwm because i don’t like gnome (no real reason for that, i just find it too dumb) and kde is a bit too heavy.
I like small-and-fast things so I’ve decided to try out some new vm (as i’m a noob and i’ve tryed out only kde, gnome and xfce) and find out fvwm (thanks to almighty google) and the pem’s config on the fvwm site and i instantly fall in love.
After some month with fvwm and pem’s conf i’m starting to explore it more deeper and perhaps i’m going to setup a conf myself.
8) enoy your fvwm!
I was annoyed with bloated window managers and someone suggested fvwm. At first I almost changed my mind instantly until someone gave me a nice .fvwm2rc to play with. Then I was happy… 
lots of people ended up this way!
(me too)
From the beginning of my linux experience I never come up with Gnome/KDE…always like the smal wm (evilwm, now awesome etc.).
I knew of fvwm on july 2007 from i92guboj in a post in the gentoo forums. I was looking for a window manager that could have different application icons in different desktops (like in windowmaker, the one I was using). I was surprised that such a feature was not available in other huge and complex window managers (like KDE) unless you used some external applications. fvwm seduced me by its simplicity and powerfulness. Having very little computer and linux knowledge (I am a social psychologists with few years of linux experience), fvwm has taught me a lot, allowing me to build my own personal desktop (I even use fvwm in my xdm login screen).
Instead of asking “what can I do with this window manager”, I have learned to ask “what I would like to do with fvwm”
I am very grateful to i92guboj for introducing me to this tortuous enjoyment 
, and all the fvwm community for making this possible. As it is said in the web page: Development is active, and support is excellent.
Edit: Changed amazed by surprised.
Looks on in amazement,…
Hola!
Well, I use linux since the slackware 2.0 and have tried all window manager all around. Both because they are fun to work with and sometimes simplify a job.
I am not a “programmer”, just an experienced user.
I still remember the first sight of a .fvwmrc. Crazy! Just left as it was and used it. Then I began to take a look here, at www.www.fvwmforums.org/phpBB3/phpBB3/. After much than 6 years and I found a lot of emprovements. Actually I’m using a modified config of GreenV2 by Stonecrast, with some scripts I wrote to simplify my life. One day I’ll post it, but I feel very scary.
By the way what I like of fvwm it’s that it works, it’s not linked with any strange libraries of gnome or kde and can be heavily personalized adding what I need at the moment.
This is the real power of linux and fvwm is The Window Manager.
My first linux was RedHat3.X and I don’t remember which wm was used in it, but it was cool. No icons on desktop etc (I really don’t like them), just TaskBar and buttons (perhaps it was fvwm without proper configuration, I don’t know). I was young and linux was used by my for nice games like xevil or freeciv (I couldn’t find old version of xevil. New version is worse).
I’ve been using linux for other things since 1999, but machines which I use are much older In documentation of Zipslack (used on my older machine) I found some information about fvwm as a prefered WM for it. Some months ago I managed to install aurox on my P200 (“newer” machine) and I needed something what was ‘light’ enough for my machine. I compiled fvwm not earlier than 2 months ago, and I recognized some things from my first wm (like start->documents->rootdir… yeah that is great)
and now answer for question ‘why??’
1 Fvwm doesn’t eat so much space on disk and it is light for processor. ‘Ugly’ configuration didn’t scary me, only violet background was disgusting
2 mouse gestures - It is very nice (Stroke 456 0 R N Exec exec halt )
3 thing which I saw in older linuxes called ‘disk navigator’ (start->documents->rootdir)
Used it with Red Hat 6 when I was looking in to other window managers. Currently using Debian Lenny and Ubuntu.
Eventually, I always come back to Fvwm. This time around, I’m getting in to the configuration more (normally just tweaked the defaults a bit).