 | This article contains promotional content .(April 2024) |
 Customized FVWM desktop | |
| Developer(s) | Robert Nation |
|---|---|
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C, Perl, Unix Shell |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Type | Window manager |
| License | GNU GPL v2, FVWM included in OpenBSD: BSD License [2] |
| Website | www |
The F Virtual Window Manager (FVWM) is a virtual window manager for the X Window System. Originally a twm derivative, FVWM is now a window manager for Unix-like systems.
In 1993, during his work analyzing acoustic signatures for the United States Department of Defense, Robert Nation began hacking twm with the intent of simultaneously reducing memory usage and adding support for virtual desktops. [3]
Already known for his rxvt terminal emulator, Nation worked on reducing the memory consumption of his new window manager. Deciding to test FVWM's reception, on June 1, 1993, he bundled it with an rxvt release.
In 1994, Rob Nation stopped developing FVWM and made Charles Hines the maintainer. Rob Nation's last release of FVWM was fvwm-1.24r. The post-Rob Nation version of FVWM uses a different configuration file format and has a significantly different architecture. Many Linux distributions, as a result, distributed both fvwm-1.24r and later releases of FVWM as separate programs. As of 2009 [update] , fvwm-1.24r still compiles and runs on a modern Linux system without any problems. A small number of users continue to use the older FVWM release. In late 1998 the office of FVWM maintainer was abolished and a group of volunteers conducted further development.
Many window managers in use today have been influenced by FVWM, notably Afterstep, Xfce, Enlightenment, and Metisse.
Originally, FVWM was named the Feeble Virtual Window Manager, as stated by Robert Nation in a 1997 Linux Journal interview with, who claimed the name had been chosen because original releases had almost no user-selectable features. [3] When Google published the old newsgroup archives acquired from DejaNews, the original origin of the name was re-discovered. However, when Chuck Hine was answering questions for the official FVWM Frequently Asked Questions, Chuck had never agreed with the 'feeble' explanation and added alternate possible meanings of F (as in the name of the window manager) to the FAQ, with many entries coming from mailing list messages. [4]
Many of these features can be disabled at runtime or compile time, or dynamically for specific windows, among many other options. FVWM provides the ability to configure the desktop to work, look, and behave the way the user wants it to.
In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphical shell. The desktop environment was seen mostly on personal computers until the rise of mobile computing. Desktop GUIs help the user to easily access and edit files, while they usually do not provide access to all of the features found in the underlying operating system. Instead, the traditional command-line interface (CLI) is still used when full control over the operating system is required.
An X window manager is a window manager that runs on top of the X Window System, a windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems.
IceWM is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, originally written by Marko Maček. It was written from scratch in C++ and is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. It is customizable, relatively lightweight in terms of memory and CPU usage, and comes with themes that allow it to imitate the GUI of Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 7, OS/2, Motif, and other graphical user interfaces.
Fluxbox is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, which started as a fork of Blackbox 0.61.1 in 2001, with the same aim to be lightweight. Its user interface has only a taskbar, a pop-up menu accessible by right-clicking on the desktop, and minimal support for graphical icons. All basic configurations are controlled by text files, including the construction of menus and the mapping of key-bindings. Fluxbox has high compliance to the Extended Window Manager Hints specification.
Openbox is a free, stacking window manager for the X Window System, licensed under the GNU General Public License. Originally derived from Blackbox 0.65.0, Openbox has been completely re-written in the C programming language and since version 3.0 is no longer based upon any code from Blackbox. Since at least 2010, it has been considered feature complete, bug free and a completed project. Occasional maintenance is done to keep it working, but only if needed.
twm is a window manager for the X Window System. Started in 1987 by Tom LaStrange, it has been the standard window manager for the X Window System since version X11R4. The name originally stood for Tom's Window Manager, but the software was renamed Tab Window Manager by the X Consortium when they adopted it in 1989. twm is a stacking window manager that provides title bars, shaped windows and icon management. It is highly configurable and extensible.
AfterStep is a stacking window manager for the X Window System. The goal of AfterStep's development is to provide for flexibility of desktop configuration, improved aesthetics and efficient use of system resources, and was used in such distributions as MachTen. AfterStep originally was a variant of FVWM modified to resemble NeXTSTEP, but as the development cycle progressed, it diverged from its FVWM roots. In 2000, Linux website TuxRadar selected AfterStep as one of the year's best window managers, praising it as "fast and reliable, with a huge range of configuration options and the ability to create some spectacular themes".
A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunction with the underlying graphical system that provides required functionality—support for graphics hardware, pointing devices, and a keyboard—and are often written and created using a widget toolkit.
Xinerama is an extension to the X Window System that enables X applications and window managers to use two or more physical displays as one large virtual display.
In computing, a virtual desktop is a term used with respect to user interfaces, usually within the WIMP paradigm, to describe ways in which the virtual space of a computer's desktop environment is expanded beyond the physical limits of the screen's display area through the use of software. This compensates limits of the desktop area and is helpful in reducing clutter of running graphical applications.
In computing, a tiling window manager is a window manager with the organization of the screen often dependant on mathematical formulas to organise the windows into a non-overlapping frame. This is opposed to the more common approach used by stacking window managers, which allow the user to drag windows around, instead of windows snapping into a position. This allows for a different style of organization, although it departs from the traditional desktop metaphor.
wm2 is a minimalist reparenting window manager for the X Window System written by Chris Cannam.
tvtwm is an X window manager derived from twm to which it adds the virtual desktop feature from swm. All of these window managers were originally written by Tom LaStrange. The current maintainer of tvtwm is Chris Ross. James Tanis believes he may be the only remaining user of tvtwm, and placed a notice on his web site seeking other users who would like a bug fix release.
In computing, the Motif Window Manager (MWM) is an X window manager based on the Motif toolkit.
A desktop environment is a collection of software designed to give functionality and a certain look and feel to an operating system.
dwm is a minimalist dynamic window manager for the X Window System developed by Suckless that has influenced the development of several other X window managers, including xmonad and awesome. It is externally similar to wmii, but internally much simpler. dwm is written purely in C for performance and lacks any configuration interface besides editing the source code. One of the project's guidelines is that the source code is intended never to exceed 2000 SLOC, and options meant to be user-configurable are all contained in a single header file.
Vtwm is an X window manager that was developed from the twm codebase. The first release was in 1990, and it is very much an "old school" window manager, lacking desktop environment features. It added features like xpm icons, autoraising of windows, and a virtual desktop; the latter feature is from where the program takes its name. Later additions include playing sounds in response to window manager events, and Motif-style window decorations in place of the "flat," 2D titlebars commonly associated with twm.
This article compares variety of different X window managers. For an introduction to the topic, see X Window System.
awesome is a dynamic window manager for the X Window System developed in the C and Lua programming languages. Lua is also used for configuring and extending the window manager. Its development began as a fork of dwm, though has differed considerably since. It aims to be extremely small and fast, yet extensively customizable. It makes it possible for the user to manage windows with the use of keyboard.
SpaceFM was a desktop-independent, multi-panel, tabbed file manager for Linux. SpaceFM is built using the GTK+ toolkit. Available under the terms of the GNU General Public License, SpaceFM is free software.
