Michel Posted November 27, 2003 Report Share Posted November 27, 2003 (edited) Hi, I was looking around and searching info about different desktops on linux with the idea of trying out another one. I have used gnome, kde and icewm so far. Don't have used icewm so long, but seems good. But now I've stumbled upon fvwm. It's light, it's highly configurable and dynamical. Some examples....A lot of options about how everything has to look, you can even set it on a per program base..I don't know everything yet since I only used it for an hour or so :), but what I saw what other users did, I find it worthwile to try it out further, although it's not so easy to configure. You can not only configure how it looks, but how it behaves. You can specify your own menus, you own actions on events, you can add scripting to events, (?) .... Ok, I think this is not for everyone...but I like the flexibility. (And you can use kde or gnome with fvwm as windowmanager if you like.). It's sometimes easier to have a general interface(whichever computer you go on, pressing that key, does that, ..), but I just like this flexibility (again). When I have time I'm going to try it out decently. So, why do I want to use it? I can customize it heavily. This can maybe make working on the computer easier for me. It's fast, not a heavy desktop. What you can do with it!!!! (do ytou want transparency, you got it..don't like that behaviour, change it, ... somebody gave the following example: some windowmanager or so wanted to add the possibility that when you scroll you change virtual desktops or so, well she/he said that she/he messed with the fvwm-config-files some and got that behaviour. ). Well....take a look for yourself if you want. The link will take you to the links-page of their home-page. The links are interesting and give you some overview of the windowmanager: http://www.fvwm.org/links.php Edited November 27, 2003 by Michel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah31 Posted November 27, 2003 Report Share Posted November 27, 2003 Hi, I was looking around and searching info about different desktops on linux with the idea of trying out another one. I have used gnome, kde and icewm so far. Don't have used icewm so long, but seems good. But now I've stumbled upon fvwm. It's light, it's highly configurable and dynamical. Some examples....A lot of options about how everything has to look, you can even set it on a per program base..I don't know everything yet since I only used it for an hour or so :), but what I saw what other users did, I find it worthwile to try it out further, although it's not so easy to configure. You can not only configure how it looks, but how it behaves. You can specify your own menus, you own actions on events, you can add scripting to events, (?) .... Ok, I think this is not for everyone...but I like the flexibility. (And you can use kde or gnome with fvwm as windowmanager if you like.). It's sometimes easier to have a general interface(whichever computer you go on, pressing that key, does that, ..), but I just like this flexibility (again). When I have time I'm going to try it out decently. So, why do I want to use it? I can customize it heavily. This can maybe make working on the computer easier for me. It's fast, not a heavy desktop. What you can do with it!!!! (do ytou want transparency, you got it..don't like that behaviour, change it, ... somebody gave the following example: some windowmanager or so wanted to add the possibility that when you scroll you change virtual desktops or so, well she/he said that she/he messed with the fvwm-config-files some and got that behaviour. ). Well....take a look for yourself if you want. The link will take you to the links-page of their home-page. The links are interesting and give you some overview of the windowmanager: http://www.fvwm.org/links.php fvwm is okay but is ugly. not that i need eyecandy perse but looking at its theme which must have been designed by a three year old hurts my eyes. the other problem i had with it is that the diting of files is not intuative enough. personally there are lots of other wm out there that are lighter faster and as configurable (like openbox2 and i suppose three but three uses xml in alot of their config files which makes it very tedious for editing) all that being said for control freaks fvwm would definitely be a fun thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel Posted November 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2003 (edited) I'll take a look at openbox2, but about the eyecandy stuff...for me it is enough at the moment I think....for the people whio just want to have some nice screenshots (the default stuff is not pretty to my opinion and it's no point and click to change it. There is sime gui for changing some basic stuff I thought.). Some are maybe nopt so nice, but just to give a small sample of the flexibility: Edited November 27, 2003 by Michel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel Posted November 28, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 Just had a quick look. Openbox looks not bad too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah31 Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 well to be honest while i don't like fvwm myself i do have to admit that it is a hackers dream. most of the other wm do not offer as much configuration wise. there are boundaries in other words. fvwm is not like that. yes openbox is nice i used it for almost a year before i moved over to xfce4. i will likely look at openbox, ratpoison or fvwm for my i586 development box though. so thanks for making me think about fvwm again. nice screenies and a kudos on a good plug for fvwm ---- with most of the wm attention on the *boxes it is always nice to see fvwm and other wms pushed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanackle Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 (edited) Yeap, very nice screenshots. I use fluxbox myself. blackbox's ok too, and smaller ;) took a look at openbox3. liked the general look. You can use a graphical tool called obconf to configure it, but no luck with the menus there - and xml is just chinese to me. PS: I'm an end-user. Edited November 28, 2003 by jeanackle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 Please please dont do this to me!!! IN the past ive used, KDE, E16, GNOME, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Oroborus, XFCE4 and E17 for my wm/de, ive finally settled back down to flux and i have to try this!! fvwm here i come............................ oh well, ive got all of the next 2 months to decide on what i like...school holidays...and whichever wm makes it out alive will be damn lucky! doh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah31 Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 Please please dont do this to me!!! IN the past ive used, KDE, E16, GNOME, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Oroborus, XFCE4 and E17 for my wm/de, ive finally settled back down to flux and i have to try this!! fvwm here i come............................ oh well, ive got all of the next 2 months to decide on what i like...school holidays...and whichever wm makes it out alive will be damn lucky! doh! bah just switch to xfce4 already. you know you will anyway in time so skip all the pain and effort :P :P :P :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 Wow, nice shots. I never dove to deep into fvwm because I thought it was UGLY, but now I see you can do a lot with it. Thx's for posting this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sud_crow Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Hi, Well, congrats, its much more nicer than i thought it was... specially the 3rd one. How did you made the third one? (a bit of info on the stuff used) i see some gdesklets, and Gentoo icons but i see a taskbar, i thought it was from gnome at first... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Please please dont do this to me!!! IN the past ive used, KDE, E16, GNOME, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Oroborus, XFCE4 and E17 for my wm/de, ive finally settled back down to flux and i have to try this!! fvwm here i come............................ oh well, ive got all of the next 2 months to decide on what i like...school holidays...and whichever wm makes it out alive will be damn lucky! doh! bah just switch to xfce4 already. you know you will anyway in time so skip all the pain and effort :P :P :P :D Been there! Done that! Tryin fvwm now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel Posted November 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 (edited) The above screenshots aren't mine, I got them from teh screenshotspage and fololowing the links on the fvwm-website. I don't kow if that are gdesklets you see....Can be though, I'm only startung to using it. With fvwm, you can give quite some commands to windows, .... I thought gdsklets were not more than applications that have no borders and work with scripting, but since I've not used them or so, I can be wrong. Well, for no borders you sdpecify in fvwm Style !Borders in fvwm and you have an app without borders...I have my pager this way. In the manpages on their website (in the documentation section, you'll find (all) a lot of the possible commands...fvwm is the general stuff I think, and then for teh modules. I'm changing the default .fvwmrc2-file. You'll have something like this(teh StartFunction stuff anyway): AddToFunc StartFunction + I Module FvwmAnimate #+ I Module FvwmBanner #+ I Module FvwmButtons + I Module FvwmBacker + I Module FvwmPager 0 3 -transient To give an exmaple: my pager: (Don't forget to plcae the comment-sign #before the lines on the botom of teh file (if you're using something like me) with Read ConfigXXXXX. I thin,k they'll overwrite your own stuff. #Pager Style FvwmPager Sticky, !Borders *FvwmPager: MiniIcons *FvwmPager: Fore #7d7d7d *FvwmPager: Back #0a5693 *FvwmPager: Hilight #dddddd *FvwmPager: Rows 4 #*FvwmPager: Columns 4 *FvwmPager: Balloons Pager *FvwmPager: BalloonBack #0a5693 *FvwmPager: BalloonBorderColor #7d7d7d It's a little showing of my desktop, but it's nto complete yet..just what I did yesterday: ( http://lumumba.luc.ac.be/~michel/desktop/s.../screendesk.jpg ) Edited November 29, 2003 by Michel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Umm... KDE ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel Posted November 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 I got the background-picture from the kde-website...wazs searcvhing for something neutral, not desktop-related..maybe something with tux..:D, but choose for this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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