Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Chapter 17. An Alternative Window Manager: fvwm2

Among the more appealing characteristics of a Linux system are its flexibility, its independence from industry-dominating standards, and the degree of control a user has over his own working environment. Most flavors of Linux come with a default desktop environment replete with handy tools and menus and a consistent look and feel. The most widely used of these desktop environments are GNOME and KDE, the customization of which are detailed in Chapter 15, and Chapter 16, respectively.

Both of these environments put a PC-like wrapper around what is basically a no-frills Unix-based system suitable for personal computers. For some people this is a good thing. But if you don’t want a lot of dialog boxes cluttering up the screen, and you’re comfortable editing configuration files to customize your environment, you might instead try the fvwm2 window manager.

fvwm2 is the latest generation of a window manager called fvwm, but in neither case has it been entirely clear what fv stands for. Virtual seems a reasonable guess for the v. fvwm predates both GNOME and KDE as a program that can provide multiple virtual screens to expand your desktop real estate. But the meaning of the f in fvwm has led to much speculation. In fact, among the latest group of the program’s developers are a number of cat lovers who claim the f stands for feline.

The first important concept you should understand in order to work with fvwm is that your desktop can be ...