Same as other people here. I’ve tried a number of window managers and I like the coinfigurability of fvwm, in particular the fact that you can minimise windows down to icons on your desktop Windows 3.1 style (and they do a cool cartwheel while minimising all the way there 
).
I like Fvwm-crystal too, it’s a very attractive and workable desktop.
At home I started with Windows 3.11 and Windows 95. My first contact with Linux was at University, and they had Fvwm as default there. The default Fvwm configuration wasn’t bad, but looked old-fashioned and boring, and I remember that the focus-follows-mouse stuff really annoyed me since I was so used to Windows’ click-to-focus. Beining all new to Linux and since I couldn’t find any configuration stuff in the Fvwm menus, it didn’t occur to me to look up Fvwm configuration on the internet. Even when I learned about the glory of configuration files, first to configure my beloved Emacs, I didn’t think that a window manager could be configured that way…
When I installed Suse Linux at a machine at home, I stuck with the default KDE, but that was a bit slow on my low-end machine. And although it was nice that KDE was quite configurable (compared to Windows) via a GUI, I soon ran into small but annoying issues with key shortcuts. Something about focus-follows mouse, which I have learned to appreciate, in combination with Alt-Tabbing.
So I did some research on the internet and came up with Fvwm as being both flexible and fast. Remembering Fvwm from University, I was skeptical at first, but then I saw some amazing screenshots and I decided to give it a second chance. That was about four or five years ago, and I have never changed my window manager since.
There and back again …
When I started Unix in '89, there was basicly twm installed on the Apollos. Then came Linux, SuSE to be precise, and that brought fvwm - what a difference to twm, I liked it! An intermezzo with KDE3 (don’t know why exactly, guess it was cool). Anyhow, a year ago KDE4 was forced on the users. Well, the KDE team did it’s best to drive users away. So I’m back again, since a year now. The only thing I miss is a good configurable/scriptable sessionmanager.
I’m pretty much a new fvwm user - not a computer scientist nor a programmer, I’m a bartender and the first Linux distro I tried was Kubuntu 8.10, but I like fvwm’s approach - no defaults and everything is up to user, and I can hardly imagine myself using anything else. Even with my lame coding style, fvwm meets my needs perfectly.
quite a coincidence: I saw the announcement of the new release and thought: “well, I’ve read about that before” (on the Crunchbang and Arch forum) and was interested then and went back to that info and got really so interested I decided to try it. Used the starters kit by Tartan for a first setup, but know I still have to find my own way through it.
I’m only having first impressions and kind of dazzled with all the possible options; fvwm must be the most configurable wm there is.
Anyway I have the deepest respect for the developers who are so dedicated and loyal to their project over some many years and I want to thank them for their ongoing work and contributions to the Linux community.
1999: It was the only thing installed on my Solaris dumb terminal in graduate school. I was an afterstep user at home, but eventually built a better configuration in FVWM so switched.
The fact that I was forced to edit my configuration was part of what helped make it better - I was mostly running a stock afterstep config because it was “good enough”.
I started using Linux 2nd half of 1993 and of course ran across FVWM quite early in the piece. While I have briefly played around with other window managers, eg Windowmaker these excursions have only been brief.
The main reason fo using FVWM is it is the only one that you can get to work the way I wish it to. One needs to play around with the config file a good deal but the final result is what I wish NOT what some window manger wants to push on to me.
I have briefly used Fvwm In 1999(redhat 5.2), then total newbie in a unix environment. Later briefly enlightenment, gnome 1, ran with windowmaker and xfce each for an year or so. Since around 2000 been using CDE/dtwm in solaris 8 - SXCE latest. In linux/bsd environment have settled with icewm until a little while back and running E17 in arch. Somehow each window manager lacked certain things for me driving me to find the best wm. I have liked window maker’s bookmarking with a key for switching, hiding a window from icewm etc. Tried both gnome and kde, but could never digest them for their resource usage and awful functionality.
Recently after a hectic (10+) window manager hunt tried fvwm2. Couldn’t believe how much i have missed this long. I think Fvwm is close to perfect window manager, which can be configured the way we want. Thanks to all of the wonderful developers for giving such a great software.
I’ve spent more time figuring out the answer for registering verification question than config , atlast made it to posting here.
Regards,
venkatesh
I was used to change to Linux in 2005 or so. Becaus i had a new job and we had selfmade software only running on linux. I heard a lot about linux before, but i was afraid to try it, because i had no idea how…
So i had to.
First i installed Suse 10.0. Irritated on Gnome odr KDE… wtf is this? I tried Gnome. Also no idea, how to install it right and beeing curious, i had to install it 4 times new, infected of the windows-virus - means having a problem, reboot than reinstall it…
So i found out how genius linux is. I reinstalled suse 4 times, and everytime my installed office, browser, mailclient (firefox and thunderbird) works again WITH MY CONFIGS(!!!) worked again. I was really astonished. So this lovestory - linux and me - begun.
I found out, that i also can install KDE. Beside Gnome… So i did. And then for a while, i used KDE, which i knew from the dual-boot-computers from my university.
My collegue at work had also suse (he recommendet suse for me) but with fvwm… almost standard-config. I didn’t like it very much. But it’s me… i love old things. He told me, that fvwm was standard-wm on linux many years. I tried it out. fvwm1 and fvwm2… because i didn’t understand there, what’s the difference and how to start them… :-/
My collegue gave me his config to play around.
So i played around. And I learned how the config-files are beeing programmed. More and more (i’m not finished till now…). Later (in 2007 or 8) i found Tavis config… So i changed to a new config based on Tavis config.
Found out, how to write Scripts for Fvwm.
And now - 2013 - i was in the mood to pimp my config. That’s why i had so many questions in the last few weeks…
I still love my fvwm and i love it to make my onw configuration and pimp this. I’m almost ready now. A few things are missing. Which i solve, after beginning my new job. Maybe.
I don’t need gnome or kde. Only a few programms from them. And i have no issues using gnome3 or kde4… Fvwm is a proved and very good WM. I like ist really.
So i prepare my own live-distribution based on debian. Surely a minimal-installation for office- and music-use. The WM is: tataaaa surely Fvwm. Because you never get a live-distro with this genius WM. And i don’t understand why… So i prepare my own. A snapshot is on an USB-Stick for mobile use. It’s great, beeing in an office and having your own linux with you.
Thanks to Thomas and all the other developers on FVWM!!!
scientific
I started with linux using RedHat 7.2 and alternating between gnome and kde. I had some performance difficulty with my poor old P266 machine, and seeing everything I can find about optimising my setup, stumbled on afterstep. installed several themes, played about until I stumbled upon a setup I liked and all sorts of was well while using the world.
Move on a coupe of years: I’m running Gentoo by using an upto date box. My taskbar keeps crashing, the modern afterstep release just gone rc1 and I do not like it.
Next , i came across taviso and the mammoth FVWM thread about the gentoo fora. I’d looked at it briefly before and decided it turned out excessive like work. But I didn’t such as direction afterstep seemed to be going into, or perhaps the speed from which it absolutely was getting there. It may not be their fault - they only have one developer - and FVWM remains (still, in the end now!) in active development knowning that was another powerful convincer.
Therefore i swtiched, and hang about re-creating my old AS setup using FVWM. I’ve tried enlightenment and wasn’t much impressed. Gnome and KDE use a great number of helpful my liking, and I’ve not been grabbed because of the *boxes or XFCE. It looks like I’m to put stretch of time.
It is really an interesting time for FVWM, I do think. KDE and Gnome are suffering a bit from your MS problem of running perfectly on next year’s machine, but never around the one on my desk. I’m sure we could be due to get a resurgence appealing in lightweight WMs normally. Having its immense flexibility, and given some of the mad cool configurations individuals have been desiging recently, FVWM could be smart beyond that.
And before I drift too much off topic…
I suppose this is as good a place as any to introduce myself to the forum.
I started using Linux with RH5.2. So I was using Fvwm, though I didn’t know it right off. So I guess 1998? I wasn’t happy with AnotherLevel, but with some digging, discovered it was just an overlay on Fvwm, so I ditched all that and wrote my own .fvwmrc.
Over time, I tried a few others, here and there, most notably Sawmill and WM2, but kept coming back to Fvwm, though I did like Kwin and used it for a time. But when KDE4 landed with a mighty thud, I went back to Fvwm.
What I really appreciated, back then, was that after running the 2.2 -> 2.4 conversion script, and with very little tweaking, my Fvwm config worked just as it used to. And, again, same thing with 2.4 -> 2.6. Amid a whole lot of fiddly-diddly changes happening in the Linux desktop space, it’s nice that my Fvwm config just keeps working the way it always has, without my having to make a ton of adjustments. And that, really, is likely to keep me running Fvwm going forward. Or at least, I sincerely hope that it continues to be the case.
I started with KDE1 and I loved it! I still miss it. I went to AfterStep in RedHat 5.x. Its been FVWM ever since.
As far as I can remember, I think I saw a friend of mine using it and I just wanted to try it out initially.
Hello I am Ayesha and I am new here!
I missed this thread … but it is never too late, except that I did not recall exactly what I did, but luckily I wrote it up in http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/WWW/Opinions/window.html. In a nutshell, I moved to fvwm nearly soon when I moved to Linux from previous Unices.
I settled on fvwm because it’s light. Portable, it runs very well on just about anything. I can configure it to behave however I’d like, adaptable to look like numerous toolkits. Extensive documentation with actually a fairly intuitive configuration once the logistics are established. Stable solid foundation, no need to worry about bleeding edge support. Pretty fantastic.
Until 5 years ago, I used XFCE, which was nice enough. But over time, I started using devilspie, wmctrl and xdotool to place/style windows more precisely. Even though that approach worked, it felt hacky, and I wanted to find a better way.
About then, I noticed a series of FVWM screenshots by UnixMafia on unixporn. Which lead me to reading more about FVWM’s features, and to get started on my own config. And I have remained with FVWM ever since…
Sorry for bumping an old topic, but this topic is interesting seeing that the forum was quite active 5 years ago. Everyone has a good reason why ending up with Fvwm. Personally, I don’t see any reason why not more are using Fvwm.
On www.slant.co I was reading the Top Con that Fvwm is: Old and complex, Tricky to configure with quite a learning curve, and Hard to be tamed. Maybe before, but today there are plenty of ready-made small scripts of functions and modules to get started.
Compared to other WMs that I have been looking at, they have nothing to offer to make them useful. Conky is a system monitor and beautiful wallpapers are for the eyes. If anything is missing in Fvwm, just make it. There is always someone to help. For example, it was great seeing how the Window Focus function was recently developed. This is why I end up with Fvwm. 
Hello, I jump from WM to WM that load minimal and is practical. Open Box is great but does same as 10 years ago. Not much can be added. Few months ago found Fvwm. Interesting but configs are strange, hobby experiments. Almost gave up and found kise on Pling. Got hooked on the first sight.
I ended up with FVWM because I was on the search for a great setup that I liked, with minimal RAM usage. Fluxbox I had to ditch because there was something lighter, Openbox. Then I found IceWM. After that I stumbled upon FVWM, which worked and did everything I wanted. Although the config is an absolute nightmare, you can always achieve what you want. I’ve been doing all of it on a VM, and have plans to switch to it soon from XFCE on my main system which runs Arch.
Here’s my current setup, I have plans to add JGmenu to it too
