The F Virtual Window Manager is a

virtual window manager Virtual may refer to: * Virtual (horse), a thoroughbred racehorse * Virtual channel, a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel (or range of frequencies) on which the signal travels * Virtual function, a programmin ...

for the

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...

. Originally a

twm twm (Tab Window Manager) is a X window manager, 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 Wi ...

derivative, FVWM has evolved into a powerful and highly configurable environment for

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

systems.

History

In 1993, during his work analyzing acoustic signatures for the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

, Robert Nation began hacking

with the intent of simultaneously reducing memory usage and adding support for virtual desktops. Already known for his

rxvt Rxvt (acronym for our extended virtual terminal) is a terminal emulator for the X Window System, and in the form of a Cygwin port, for Windows. History Rxvt was originally written by Rob Nation and later extensively modified by Mark Olesen, who ...

terminal emulator A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote term ...

, 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 a 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. , 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 further development has been conducted by a group of volunteers. Many developers have based their own projects on FVWM in order to benefit from the years of refinement and development. Many of the popular

window manager 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 conjunctio ...

s in use today are related to FVWM: Afterstep, Xfce, Enlightenment,

Metisse Metisse is a 2.5D X window manager with many features that set it apart from the traditional 3D "cube" workspace. Windows can be turned three-dimensionally in any direction, enabling the user to fit more windows onto a screen, and they can be sc ...

and many more.

Name origin

Originally, FVWM was the ''Feeble Virtual Window Manager'', which was clearly stated by Robert Nation in a 1997 Linux Journal interview with him, who also claimed the name had been chosen because original releases had almost no user selectable features, so it really was feeble. However, at some point the meaning of the ''F'' was lost. When

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

published the old news group archives acquired from

DejaNews Google Groups is a service from Google that provides Internet forum, discussion groups for people sharing common interests. The Groups service also provides a gateway to Usenet newsgroups via a shared user interface. Google Groups became operati ...

, the original meaning was re-discovered. However, when Chuck Hine was maintaining the official FVWM Frequently Asked Questions, Chuck had never agreed with the 'feeble' explanation, and added alternate possible meanings of ''F'' to the FAQ, with many entries coming from mailing list messages.

Features

This is a partial list based on the documentation distributed with FVWM. Many of these features can be disabled at runtime or compile time, or dynamically for specific windows or loaded and unloaded as modules, or many other possibilities. These are not rigid features, FVWM does not dictate how the user's desktop should work or look like but provides the mechanisms to configure the desktop to work, look and behave the way the user wants it to. * Supports any number of virtual desktops, each divided into multiple pages. * The viewport (the physical screen) can be moved smoothly (in configurable steps) in the virtual desktop area, independent of pages * The viewport can move automatically when the mouse hits the border of the screen * Full

EWMH Extended Window Manager Hints, a.k.a. NetWM, is an X Window System standard for the communication between X window manager, window managers and Application software, applications. It builds on the functionality of the Inter-Client Communication Conv ...

ICCCM In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM or I39L short for "I", 39 letters and "L")GNOME Hints support. * Full internationalisation support, including multi-byte characters and

bidirectional Bidirectional may refer to: * Bidirectional, a roadway that carries traffic moving in opposite directions * Bi-directional vehicle, a tram or train or any other vehicle that can be controlled from either end and can move forward or backward with e ...

text. * Xft2 font support with

anti-aliasing Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used be ...

, drop shadows of any size, at any offset and at any direction, text rotation. * Any behaviour, action or event is fully configurable. * Support of user defined Window Decoration Styles. * Titlebars can be disabled, or rendered on any window edge. This can be done individually for each window type. * Titlebars may have up to ten

icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most c ...

including minimize, maximize and close buttons. * Animated Window Shading in all directions. * Iconification * Full PNG Support, including

alpha blending In computer graphics, alpha compositing or alpha blending is the process of combining one image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency. It is often useful to render picture elements (pixels) in separate pas ...

. *

Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...

programming library for extending FVWM using Perl, scripting and pre-processing of configuration files. * Can be extended via scripting. Preprocessing allows dynamic configurations. * Toolkit to build dialogs, menus and applications at runtime. * Configurable desktop panels. * Mouse Gestures allow to draw shapes with the mouse, and bind them to commands. * Dynamic menus; utilities to browse the filesystem, fetch headlines from the internet from menus included.
Session management
support. *

Xinerama 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. Developed under the name ''PanoramiX'' by Madeline T. Asmus of the Digital Equipme ...

extension support to use more than one monitor. * Dynamically extensible using modules. * Supports

focus stealing In computing, focus stealing is a mode error occurring when a program not in Focus (computing), focus (e.g. minimized or operating in background) places a window in the foreground and redirects all keyboard input to that window. This is considered t ...

Derivatives

Image:fvwm_family.svg, left, 600px, FVWM family tree, displaying some of the FVWM derivatives rect 15 17 228 97

rect 15 117 228 197

FVWM The F Virtual Window Manager is a virtual window manager for the X Window System. Originally a twm derivative, FVWM has evolved into a powerful and highly configurable environment for Unix-like systems. History In 1993, during his work analyzi ...

rect 15 278 228 358

Window Maker Window Maker is a free and open-source window manager for the X Window System, allowing graphical applications to be run on Unix-like operating-systems. It is designed to emulate NeXTSTEP's GUI as an OpenStep-compatible environment. Window Maker ...

#rect 315 17 528 97 Bowman (window manager) rect 315 117 528 197

FVWM95 FVWM95 is a window manager for the X Window System based on the popular FVWM 2 window manager. It is similar to the original FVWM, but is designed to closely resemble the look of Windows 95. FVWM95 was for a while a rather popular window manager ...

rect 315 217 528 297

Amiwm In computing, the AMIga Window Manager (amiwm) is a stacking window manager for the X Window System written by Marcus Comstedt. The window manager emulates the Amiga Workbench and includes support for multiple virtual screens like the AmigaOS, bu ...

#rect 315 317 528 397 FVWM-XPM rect 315 417 528 497

LessTif LessTif is a defunct free software reimplementation or clone of the Motif computer programming toolkit. The project aimed for full source- and binary-code compatibility with Motif. While this was not achieved, many Motif applications could run w ...

rect 315 517 528 597 Macintosh-Like Virtual Window Manager rect 315 617 528 697 Scwm rect 315 717 528 797 Xfwm rect 570 17 783 117 AfterStep rect 570 317 783 397

Enlightenment (window manager) Enlightenment, also known simply as E, is a compositing window manager for the X Window System. Since version 20, Enlightenment is also a Wayland compositor. Enlightenment developers have referred to it as "the original eye-candy window manag ...

#rect 570 517 783 597

HaZe Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon in which dust, smoke, and other dry particulates suspended in air obscure visibility and the clarity of the sky. The World Meteorological Organization manual of codes includes a classificati ...

desc none

Notable users

Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...

References

External links

Official FVWM Web Site
* .

Announcement of first FVWM release from Rob Nation

#fvwm IRC Channel FAQ

FVWM community forums

FVWM community wiki

FVWM Beginners Guide
by Jaimos F Skriletz. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fvwm Free X window managers Articles containing video clips