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FVWM-95 (2001)

fvwm95.sourceforge.net

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Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#61

Post by LocalH »

ajross wrote: post #46
LocalH wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early GEM allowed arbitrary window sizing and positioning at least within the file manager, and Apple thus sued them, because they felt they had exclusive rights to ideas that they stole from Xerox Also, the Amiga had the window management you refer to in its earliest versions, in 1984. Amigas cost a hell of a lot less than $15,000, even packed to the brim with expansions. I grew up with the Amiga, so your assertion…

[flagged]

I didn't flame at all in my comment. I just recounted the history, as it's known to have happened.

Windows 95 didn't bring that much to the table over Windows 3.1, in terms of basic window management. The taskbar is really about it.

GEM died when DRI lost their stalwart status, as well as when Apple sued them. Amiga died when Commodore refused to innovate in the hardware space, but the engineers always had top-notch innovative OS ideas.

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#62

Post by asveikau »

iku wrote: post #39

I have used a version of this called Qvwm, and even had branched it off at some point to fix some bugs... https://ahinea.com/en/tech/qvwm/ (I don't think github existed at the time or maybe I didn't know about it.) P.S. Oh, there is the official Qvwm page: https://sourceforge.net/projects/qvwm/files/qvwm/

About 5 years ago I got qvwm working on a modern system and put it on github: https://github.com/asveikau/qvwm

I don't recall what was broken, but it was a few random things. I also added xrender image scaling on the window decorations, because they were hardcoded to a size that was tiny on modern DPI.

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#63

Post by pjmlp »

sombragris wrote: post #50
pjmlp wrote: post #37

The original fvwm was my first window manager in Linux back in 1995, I was not a fan of the evolution into fvwm-95, though. By then I was already into other window managers.

IIRC fvwm95 was not meant as a next-gen fvwm, but as a customization of the existing fvwm desktop.

Nevertheless, I never got the point to use another platform to look just like Windows 95, Mac, Amiga or whatever.

While you may get the Look, you will never get the Feel.

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#64

Post by michaelcampbell »

anthk wrote: post #25

Xaw95 https://sourceforge.net/projects/sf-xpaint/files/sf-xpaint/x... You don't need to install it globally, an LD_PRELOAD env var pointing to ./libXaw95.so.8.0 will do the trick. Usage: xmkmf -a make Test: export LD_PRELOAD=./libXaw95.so.8.0 xcalc

For anyone following this thread, that link goes to a download itself rather than a page where you choose whether or not to download.

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#65

Post by alan-crowe »

I'm still using fvwm2

    $ pkg info fvwm
    fvwm-2.6.9_4
    Name           : fvwm
    Version        : 2.6.9_4
    Installed on   : Mon Dec  8 02:01:51 2025 GMT
    Origin         : x11-wm/fvwm2
    Architecture   : FreeBSD:15:amd64
Very happy with it :-)

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#66

Post by ptx »

trinix912 wrote: post #7
ajross wrote: post #6

This was a kludgey hack that never managed to land upstream, yet utterly dominated (for a brief moment) the headspace of the early linux desktop. It's funny how quickly things were moving at the time. In the mid 90's, GUI design elements were still in their infancy. Even basic stuff like "what do windows do?" was in flux. Traditional X window managers hadn't settled on anything like a regular usage model: twm was sti…

It was actually NeXTSTEP that introduced the familiar "Windows 9x" 3D control appearance and close buttons on the top right. The first versions were released around '88.

And the Windows 1.0 UI [1] looks really similar to Mac OS (especially dialogs and buttons), so apparently Microsoft pilfered their UI design from Steve Jobs's companies not only once but twice.

[1] https://www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/sys/windows/1.00/

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#67

Post by anthk »

jandrese wrote: post #42
BastienSANTE wrote: post #23

Insane homepage pull vro It's incredible how much charm there was in these interfaces, specifically in the bitmap fonts. Were GUI applications more or less graphically diverse than now ?

The fact that almost anybody could make a Window Manager on X lead to a tremendous amount of experimentation and variety. Almost all of them were half baked and faded to obscurity, but it was a lot of fun to try them out. Also, if your bar is "better than TWM" then it's a pretty easy target to hit. These days the level of effort to even get to the baseline is way higher, one dude in a weekend can't try out some crazy…

A big list, in Spanish: http://galeriawm.hol.es

You don't need to know Spanish, the screenshots speak from thelselves.

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#69

Post by anthk »

ajross wrote: post #46
LocalH wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early GEM allowed arbitrary window sizing and positioning at least within the file manager, and Apple thus sued them, because they felt they had exclusive rights to ideas that they stole from Xerox Also, the Amiga had the window management you refer to in its earliest versions, in 1984. Amigas cost a hell of a lot less than $15,000, even packed to the brim with expansions. I grew up with the Amiga, so your assertion…

[flagged]

Nope, Linux users in mid 90's where about FVWM until they got IceWM; but tons of people didn't care about Windows 95 like setups at all.

Re: FVWM-95 (2001)

#70

Post by anthk »

ajross wrote: post #21
jeroenhd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The close button has always been there, you double clicked the top left menu button. That worked all the way until Microsoft started redoing window decorations in desktop mode with Windows 8.1, and even for a short period after. This was also copied into other X window control styles. Even today, a Motif replicates the Windows 1.0-3.11 top-left menu+close button.

And that answer is precisely why (1) Windows 95 was such a revelation to the market and (2) nerds like us remain oblivious to that[1] even three decades on. Yeah, yeah, I know CUA allows for a window close. No one knew. I worked IT at the time (as did lots of us here in our youth I'm sure) and was constantly teaching and re-teaching this trick to the poor people trapped with their CUA environments. But suddenly with…

FVWM users with virtual desktops disagree. Windows 95 was a step back compared to the FVWM configurability. Deskbars? Why when you can have 3x3 desktops by default, and people even had a 16 (4x4) pane based environments?

You didn't switch between tasks, you switched between full opened desktops with Windows inside, one or two, the rest was somewhere else.

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