Why should I use fvwm?

Fvwm users continue to use fvwm for many different reasons. Fvwm is a very old project and at one time was a fairly popular window manager, and is now a tiny project still used by lots of core users. What is it about fvwm that users like?

Fvwm is lightweight and fast. Fvwm is built on top of X11, and doesn't use a lot of additional libraries or widget sets, as such it has a very small foot print on top of the already running X server, making it quite sleek.

Fvwm is very stable and performs its task as a window manager very well. Fvwm rarely crashes, and its functionality has been well tested and used for over thirty years.

Fvwm is extremely configurable. You can customize almost every possible aspect of your desktop. However, this does take a lot of work to both learn how to configure fvwm and how to put your dream configuration into practice.

Fvwm features and capabilities:

Fvwm has the retro Motif look, similar to CDE. But fvwm doesn’t need to look retro, and can be configured to have modern sleek looks, to fantasy looks. Did I mention fvwm is extremely configurable?
Fvwm has a wide range of modules that can be used to improve the experience. These include a pager that shows all the virtual pages and desktops. And modules to build panels, and even interactive forums. Even more configurability.
Fvwm’s configuration file is a command syntax. Configuration commands can be sent to the running instance of fvwm at any time. This allows writing custom scripts that can interact and control fvwm by sending it the appropriate command.
Due to its configurability, fvwm has been used as the basis for multiple desktop environments throughout the years. Two examples are NsCDE which gives a good retro CDE look and feel, while using modern software, and fvwm-crystal, which gives a nice sleek look.

Fvwm is versatile, but in order to get the most out of fvwm, you need to be willing to take the time to learn its command syntax (which is just the configuration file syntax). As you learn how to tell fvwm how to handle your windows, you can tweak fvwm into your own dream window manager. Okay, there are limits as to what fvwm can do, but within its structure, there is a lot of power.

I like fvwm’s approach, no defaults and everything is up to the user. I can hardly imagine myself using anything else. Even with my lame coding style, fvwm meets my needs perfectly.

What are fvwm’s weaknesses?

If fvwm was so great, why isn’t everyone using it? And though I agree with that, the reality is fvwm requires a lot of effort to understand and use. Configuration files are rarely portable, as they are tied to peoples’ personal images, scripts, software installed on their system, and so on.

These days there are some portable configuration files that can be used as a starting point, such as the DefaultConfig. But making changes to fvwm still requires reading through the config file and understanding what to change. There are no GUI tools for this (partly because a GUI tool couldn’t reasonably hold all the options fvwm has) and learning what to change can take a little bit of trial and error.

Fvwm’s isn’t built using any modern widget set or framework, and though its modules can allow some building of interactive UI elements, they are a bit primitive and don’t contain a lot of modern features. Though you can build tools using modern frameworks that talk to fvwm.

Fvwm isn’t for everyone, but if a quick, fast, low memory use and very customizable window manager sounds good to you, give it a try. I would start by using the DefaultConfig, and then you can either try to modify it to fit your desires, or go check out all the other fvwm configurations you can find out there.