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fvwm Turns Ten

Some Old Dude writes "fvwm, F* Virtual Window Manager, is celebrating its 10th birthday in a few days. This is the window manager I used when cutting my Linux teeth back in the last millennium, and the one I still use today (after trying many newer ones). If it's been a while since you've seen what fvwm can do, check out its features and screenshots."

363 comments

  1. speaking of old window managers by appleLaserWriter · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was surprised to find twm when I installed X11 on OS X.

    1. Re:speaking of old window managers by Crispy+Critters · · Score: 4, Insightful
      "I was surprised to find twm when I installed X11 on OS X."

      I have, more than once, been incredibly relieved to find twm installed as a part of X on machines (not OS 10). Because when the install fails without getting all 90 billion parts of gnome or kde installed correctly, or using an old machine that can't handle the latest and greatest, I can use twm as a marginally useful window manager to start getting things done.

      And when this happens, the one of the first things I do is download and install fvwm. Woohoo!

    2. Re:speaking of old window managers by Unregistered · · Score: 0

      i know the feeling. after i merge xfree, i fire up twm open like 100 xterms and start emerging everything else at once. I know it can be done better, but it looks really cool while it'
      s going. until 18 things try to merge gtk and it dies. not so cool

    3. Re:speaking of old window managers by LinuxInDallas · · Score: 1

      Well, I thought the purpose of twm was to provide a barebones WM that would work if X11 was installed properly. In other words, it's just for testing.

    4. Re:speaking of old window managers by javiercero · · Score: 1

      Some of us actually USE twm, it was one of the original WM, and in no way it is included "for testing" It is included because it works (tm). Think of twm as the vi of window managers... almost every X capable machine comes with it... so it is always handy to know about it.

      Plus it pretty much does everything a window manager needs to do :)

    5. Re:speaking of old window managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use twm at work and home. I think that the main reason that I use it is because I got my .twmrc the way that I like it a long time ago, and I don't want to make a new one for a new window manager. Besides, twm does everything that I need.

  2. Anniversary release by gleather · · Score: 5, Informative

    They released a new version today QUOTE: http://freshmeat.net/projects/fvwm/ The changes in this release are as follows: All single letter variables are deprecated, and multiletter variables are provided. The NoWarp menu position hint option works with root menus too. WindowListFunc is executed within a window context, so a prefix "WindowId $0" is no longer needed in its definition, and it is advised to remove it from user configs. FvwmEvent executes all window related events within a window context, so PassId is not needed anymore, and all prefixes "WindowId $0" may be removed from user event handlers.

    --
    Idiot.
    1. Re: Anniversary release by Migo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually we have released 2 versions today, 2.4.16 and 2.5.7. The changes in the beta are much more visible.

      But due to the Slashdot effect the 2.5.7 tarballs are going to wait a bit. :)

      RPMs are available for both versions right now.

  3. Choice is good... by SpaceCadetTrav · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unless all of the choices suck.

    1. Re:Choice is good... by tuffy · · Score: 1

      I feel the same way every time I walk down the Windows software aisle. *shudder*

      --

      Ita erat quando hic adveni.

    2. Re:Choice is good... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah cause you know Half-Life and Starcraft suck major ass.

      </sarcasm>

    3. Re:Choice is good... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I remember correctly, the Windows software aisle is right next to the Macintosh software rack and the Linux "games" lump.

      I accidentally wandered into that nasty Windows software aisle when I was trying to pick up some high-quality Linux games. Hoo boy.

  4. Mummy? by GauteL · · Score: 5, Funny

    What does F* stand for?

    1. Re:Mummy? by JonMartin · · Score: 2, Informative

      Fine. Flexible. Feline. Whatever the fuck (there's another one) you want. Why didn't you just check the FAQ (another one!)?

      --
      Serve Gonk.
    2. Re:Mummy? by David+Gould · · Score: 3, Funny

      What does F* stand for?

      I've always heard it explained as "Feeble".

      --
      David Gould
      main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
    3. Re:Mummy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      [From the fvwm faq:]

      1.1 What does FVWM stand for?

      A: "Fill_in_the_blank_with_whatever_f_word_you_like_a t_the_time
      Virtual Window Manager". Rob Nation (the original Author of FVWM)
      doesn't really remember what the F stood for originally, so we
      have several potential answers:

      Feeble, Fabulous, Famous, Fast, Foobar, Fantastic, Flexible,
      F!@#$%, Flashy, FVWM (the GNU recursive approach), Free, Final,
      Funky, Fred's (who the heck is Fred?), Freakin', Flawed,
      Father-of-all, Feivel (the mouse from "An American Tail"),
      Frungy (hey, where does that come from?), Floppy, Foxy,
      Frenzied, Funny, Fumbling etc.

      Just pick your Favorite (hey, there's another one!), which will of
      course change depending on your mood and whether or not you've run
      across any bugs recently. I prefer Fabulous or Fantastic myself,
      although I often use F!@#$% or Freakin' while debugging...

      Recently 'Feline' is becoming popular. Perhaps this has something
      to do with the discovery that four of the six core developers have
      cats (averaging 1.17 cats)? Miaow.

      Know what? I found another one while stroking my cats: FEEDING :-)

      Check this link:
      fvwm-cats

    4. Re:Mummy? by Newtonian_p · · Score: 2, Informative
      Its stands for Featherweight as I have indicated in my other post.

      The author forgot but some people still remember.

      --

      There are 2 kinds of people in this world: Those who write in decimal and those who don't

    5. Re:Mummy? by krumms · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mummy what does F* stand for?

      It stands for 'fuck' - what do they teach you in school these days?

    6. Re:Mummy? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Stroking your cats is sick and illegal in most states... watch out.

    7. Re:Mummy? by fussman · · Score: 1

      Fuck! I can't believe I missed that!

      --
      Support Israeli punk bands. Man Alive.
    8. Re:Mummy? by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      This is Linux, and we are all 1337, F* stands for fsck!!!

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    9. Re:Mummy? by kl76 · · Score: 1

      My theory is that it originally stood for "frugal" - fvwm 1.x at least had a pretty low memory footprint and had configuration options to reduce it further...

    10. Re:Mummy? by Jellybob · · Score: 1

      If it's anything like other *nix programs, it stands for FVWM (ahhh... recursive acronyms. The creator should be shot)

    11. Re:Mummy? by DarkSarin · · Score: 1
      Actually it would 4 cats among six owners, or 0.66667 cats per developer. What then do you do with 2/3 of a cat?

      For the answer you need this book, 101 uses for a dead cat...

      Enjoy.
      --
      "We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
    12. Re:Mummy? by be-fan · · Score: 1

      fugly?

      Hey! Get away from that moderate button! It's a joke!

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    13. Re:Mummy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No... it stands for:

      ""

      "F"

      "FF"

      "FFF"

      "FFFF"...

      Damn noobs... can't even recognize a regexp staring them in the face...

    14. Re:Mummy? by J.+J.+Ramsey · · Score: 1

      "Actually it would 4 cats among six owners . . . "

      No, no, no. Four out of the six developers has at least one cat. Most of the cat-owning developers, though, own more than one cat.

  5. Happy Birthday! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    10 years old and faster than lightening. Gotta love it.

  6. Even THAT deserves a mention in slashdot? by mnmn · · Score: 2, Funny


    Nostalgically twm would be more cool. fvwm, fvwm2, fvwm95, icewm, sawfish are the 'other' window managers. The big ones are kde and gnome and friends.

    So tonight I will celebrate by switching from icewm to fvwm for a day.

    --
    "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
    1. Re:Even THAT deserves a mention in slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Gnome (and probably KDE) isn't a window manager, it's a desktop environment. You use something like icewm, sawfish or metacity as the window manager.

    2. Re:Even THAT deserves a mention in slashdot? by eschasi · · Score: 1

      Correct on both counts -- KDE and GNOME are desktop environments which include window managers as part of the package.

    3. Re:Even THAT deserves a mention in slashdot? by drauh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I found fvwm2 to be the most "productive" window manager that I have ever used, by which I mean I didn't feel crippled or second-guessed by it, and it left out poky special features. twm was just a little too barebones for my liking. motif sucked. The most useful (for me) feature of fvwm2 was their pager.

      I use KDE2 on Linux (yeah, I know it's old), and I've played a bit with the others. For me, they aren't as "facilitative" as fvwm2. Actually, even Aqua (I do most of my stuff on a Mac, now) doesn't cut it. The old Mac OS 9 GUI was better in that I could modify it without too much effort to suit the way I worked.

      --
      This is a tautology.
    4. Re:Even THAT deserves a mention in slashdot? by Enahs · · Score: 1
      You can use Metacity with KDE if you'd like; I prefer to use the official WM, Kwin.



      Yes, KDE has its own windowmanager.

      --
      Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
  7. Oh man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I forgot to buy it a gift. I'm so screwed.

    1. Re:Oh man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you forgot the gift, so you're not getting screwed. You're getting the cold shoulder.

    2. Re:Oh man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and the couch

  8. Cool screenshots... by Stalemate · · Score: 4, Funny

    and a catchy name too. It really rolls right off of your tongue about like a sawblade. ;)

  9. Re:Why bother by zakezuke · · Score: 1

    Ummmm, by creating a product that doesn't crash at a drop of a hat?

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  10. tried and true by SonicTooth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    fvwm and tvwm are two great window managers espiecally when you're cutting edge gnome/kde/fluxbox/etc... refuses to work, and you just have to get something done graphicly. I know i've fallen back on them more then once. That coupled with the fact that they're so damn small, keeps them on my my small hard drive.

    1. Re:tried and true by eschasi · · Score: 1

      And both were so damned simple to use and to customize your menus. Looking at the screenshots of the new release makes me wonder if they're chasing KDE/GNOME for complexity.

    2. Re:tried and true by budgenator · · Score: 1

      given the fact that my linux machine is about 1/5 state-of-the-art speed-wise; I've gotten pretty annoyed with KDE and gnome lately and have been using tvwm on the box. after seeing the fvwm site I think'll probably be returning to my first love. The small size should free up a lot of resources streching the machine into another year or two of usefull life

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  11. Happy Birthday! by MacOS_Rules · · Score: 4, Funny

    F* yes! Happy F*'ing birthday! (The BSD devel made me do it).

    Really, thanks and congrats to the developers of this great WM: this was my first Linux non-CLI, and it remains my favorite.

    --
    If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business. -Thackeray, William
  12. fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux desktop by green+pizza · · Score: 4, Interesting

    After trying out kde, gnome and xfce, I went back to fvwm and couldn't be happer with my current setup. The only thing on my desktop when I login is a single xterm. I can launch anything I need from there, but I also spent some time to customize my root menu (right-click on desktop) to give me quick access to the apps and scripts I use the most (including xterm -- I forgot to put that in their the first time around... didn't notice it until I accidently closed my one and only xterm -- oops!)

  13. Reparenting window managers are for wimps by Raul+Acevedo · · Score: 4, Funny

    REAL men use the console. For those forced to use those silly window gadgets by their PHBs, there's NAWM: Not a Window Manager. Non-reparenting, non-eye candy, pure window management functionality and nothing more. Check it out.

    --
    In a real emergency, we would have all fled in terror, and you would not have been notified.
    1. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by zakezuke · · Score: 4, Funny

      Real men eat pancakes in the morning, fart in bed, dress in women's clothing, and hang around in bars.

      --
      There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
    2. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by Unregistered · · Score: 1

      check out screen. The console manager. It's pretty cool. /me usues it a lot over ssh.

    3. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

      Screw that. REAL men use punchcards. And we punch the holes by hand.

    4. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by Crispy+Critters · · Score: 1
      All we had to use for punchcards were rocks.

      And we had to chew the holes into them with our teeth.

    5. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by loadquo · · Score: 1

      You had teeth, lucky bastard.

    6. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by fishbowl · · Score: 1

      Amen (to screen).

      However, I do wish more people would discover the framebuffer console, and/or that SVGATextMode would support current video cards. I vastly prefer native consoles, say, 200 columns by 75 rows at 1600x1200, to any xterm and font that I can get at the same resolution. Trouble is, whenever I mention this, I get blank stares. People seem to think that "console" means 80x25.

      --
      -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
    7. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by BigBadBri · · Score: 1
      Hand?

      REAL MEN

      have a much better tool for that - it's called....

      a wife.

      They're much better at all that fiddly shit...

      --
      oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
    8. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by killmenow · · Score: 1

      Okay, so I'm a little late to the party...

      I've said it before, and I'll say it again: There is only one real man...

    9. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pfft. Punchcards are for wusses. Realm men flip switches and watch the blinkenlights.

    10. Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps by orbitalia · · Score: 1

      I think I can go one better than that
      Try EvilWM which has NO window decoration at all. Pretty much everything is done via the keyboard.

  14. birthdays by bongobongo · · Score: 5, Funny

    my hypercard stack "Escape From The Dark Cassel [sic]" turned 12 today... can we celebrate that too?

    1. Re: birthdays by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeaah. How old is Hypercard itself anyway? That's the birthday I'm getting a gift for. I remember my first Hypercard stack. Drawing of a naked woman; when you clicked her nipple it made noises and played screen effects. Immature and simple, yes, but it still beats the hell out of fvwm.

    2. Re: birthdays by bongobongo · · Score: 1

      1987. i wish they'd update it... my hypertalk skills are going to waste!

    3. Re: birthdays by jandrese · · Score: 1

      Have you ever looked at Metacard? It's like Hypercard without the braindamage. The only problem is the cost ($1000/seat).

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    4. Re: birthdays by commodoresloat · · Score: 1
      It's like Hypercard without the braindamage.

      But that's the best part!

  15. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by McSnarf · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Aaah ! A troll !

    Here's some food for ya !

    How to explain FVWM to a troll ?

    In the good old days, when THE distribution was something you downloaded as floppy images, when a 386 DX with 16 megs was considered a nice machine (with your file server being a 486/33), when you had a Minix FS and hex-edited your boot device on your boot floppy, in those old days you did not want a *huge* window manager.

    But after downloading the slackware X series of floppy disks, you wanted SOME kind of WM.

    And yes, it was cosidered a bonus to open an xterm without the system starting to swap.

    Can your stomach take more, little troll ?

  16. FVWM stands for ... from the FAQ by yppiz · · Score: 4, Informative
    FVWM FAQ - what does FVWM stand for?
    1.1 What does FVWM stand for?

    A: "Fill_in_the_blank_with_whatever_f_word_you_like_a t_the_time Virtual Window Manager". Rob Nation (the original Author of FVWM) doesn't really remember what the F stood for originally, so we have several potential answers: ...

    --Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

  17. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny
    > After trying out kde, gnome and xfce, I went back to fvwm and couldn't be happer with my current setup.

    <AOL>Me too</AOL^>

    "Mouse? Oh, you mean the thing I use to figure out what xterm I want to type in."

    (Cripes, even the FVWM screenshots on the almost-slashdotted page look almost too glitzy for my tastes ;-)

  18. On fvwm... by Donald+Knuth · · Score: 1, Troll

    I currently have a graduate student who is working part-time on a rewrite of fvwm in CWEB, the literate programming language. It's helped to reveal several bugs and algorithmic inefficiencies in fvwm that would have otherwise remained hidden.

    As a followup project, he and a group of fellow graduate students plan to implement the X11 protocol in a similar manner.

    1. Re:On fvwm... by PD · · Score: 3, Funny

      And if you'd quit pestering him about how ugly his fonts are he'd actually get that thesis done.

    2. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is this guy for real?

    3. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dunno, the link is good, it's his first post.
      I sense a slashdot mystery brewing.
      Maybe it's Spanish Inquisition undercover...
      Who would suspect SI of posing as DK?

    4. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      noone, that's who.

      *nobody* expects...

      yeah. that's right.

    5. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you tell me.

      this is the guy that wanted to write a book. but had to create his own typesetting system first.

      or so the legend has it. pretty unbelievable if you ask me.

    6. Re:On fvwm... by VP · · Score: 1

      Now that's funny :-) Too bad I am out of mod points...

    7. Re:On fvwm... by MisterFancypants · · Score: 0, Flamebait
      Nice Karma grab.... I wonder how many times the moderators will fall for posts from "Donald Knuth".

      So far it's 1 for 1, or 4 for 1, depending upon how you look at it.

    8. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      -1, Flamebait: Don't fuck with Donald Knuth.

    9. Re:On fvwm... by diaphanous · · Score: 4, Informative
      Knuth is retired and doesn't have graduate students anymore. And if he did have grad students, I suspect they would be doing hardcore algorithmic analysis, not hacking fvwm and X11.

      ~Phillip

    10. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always believed it. From what he's written, he feels the same mathematicians' love of elegant geometry as Escher and Hofsteader.

      He'd already written some papers or books, saw how the quality was declining as the industry moved from more hands-on methods to computerization, and decided to Solve The Problem. He took a sabbatical and initially expected to be finished in a few months....

    11. Re:On fvwm... by xeeno · · Score: 1

      Nice to see our research funding going towards new and unique science.

    12. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Step 1: Post using fake Donald Knuth /. account
      Step 2: Use another slashdot account to point out that your own Donald Knuth account is fake
      Step 3: ???
      Step 4: Karma Profit

    13. Re:On fvwm... by jschrod · · Score: 1
      No, DEK doesn't even write Email by himself. You know you got an email from DEK if the subject says "message from Knuth" and the sender is his secretary.

      (For context: I'm a member of the TeX developer community since 20 years and had the opportunity to receive these letters and have DEK as a guest a few times.)

      --

      Joachim

      People don't write Manifestos any more -- what's going on in this world? [Frank Zappa]

    14. Re:On fvwm... by Art+Deco · · Score: 1

      Don't be so sure. Remember that Knuth took 10 years off his schedule to write TeX and friends. I have no doubt that if Knuth decided to work in the field of GUI's that whatever he came up would blow everything else out of the water. I doubt he would work with anything as cumbersome as X; he would start from the beginning and create something better in every way.

    15. Re:On fvwm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Completely owned.

  19. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Malc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I seem to remember that X didn't work too well on machines without a maths co-processor. You had better have had a 80387 in your 386DX or else X would grind to a halt everytime it wanted to scale fonts.

  20. Anyone else think that KDE and Gnome look average by zymano · · Score: 0, Troll
    I don't like the look of Gnome and KDE . Does anyone else share my thoughts ?

    They don't look professional like motif or like www.fresco.org .

  21. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by green+pizza · · Score: 1

    To answer a question my smartass roommate asked... yes I do have a nice background "wallpaper" image... I'm not so hardcore that I use a solid color or worse yet, greyweave as my root image.

    (Bonus points to those that have mucked around with X11 enough to know what greyweave is).

  22. Re:Real men don't use shells w/job control by winkydink · · Score: 2, Funny

    or tab completion, or inline editing, etc... Real men use SysV R3 /bin/sh on an old Wyse 60. For a real trip, try the Mashey Shell (predates the Bourne Shell).

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  23. Get fvwm back into RH!!! by wuchang · · Score: 1

    Blazing fast and highly programmable. The only time I need to touch the mouse in fvwm is to click a link in Mozilla. It's too bad RedHat DROPPED it from its CD distribution. Grrrr...

    1. Re:Get fvwm back into RH!!! by davidhan · · Score: 1

      with with Mozilla keyboard shortcuts like 'type a link' or whatever its called, you don't even need the mouse to click links most of the time.

    2. Re:Get fvwm back into RH!!! by praxim · · Score: 1

      Why not use Mozilla's type-ahead find?

    3. Re:Get fvwm back into RH!!! by dimator · · Score: 1

      Sometimes when I'm watching porn, I never touch the mouse or the keyboard!

      --
      python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
  24. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I seem to remember something called 'Windows 3.1' that put fvwm to shame.... even today

  25. Re:Why bother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DOS prompt drive letters to make the techies feel at home.
    I thought the newbies were the problem.

  26. Re:Why bother by commodoresloat · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Why bother duplicating XP? Why would Linux need to become just like Windows? If that's what you want, why NOT use Windows? You're advocating this to make Linux competitive with Windows? WTF?

  27. Happy Freakin' Birthday? by suwain_2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is like a "Happy friggin' birthday" greeting. "It's your birthday, here's the Slashdot effect for your birthday." And they can't effectively return the gift if they don't like it.

    --
    ________________________________________________
    suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
    1. Re:Happy Freakin' Birthday? by bongobongo · · Score: 1

      sure they can... redirect hits coming to http://fvwm.org/ from slashdot to http://slashdot.org/

      "thanks but no thanks" :)

    2. Re:Happy Freakin' Birthday? by tibbs · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The server that runs fvwm.org lives in my office, and it didn't start smoking or anything. Outbound bandwidth peaked at 13.7Mbps at 7:30PM CDT. CPU load never got above about 10%. I never saw any refused connections but if I had known this was going to hit /. I would have rebuilt Apache to handle more than 255 at once.

    3. Re:Happy Freakin' Birthday? by suwain_2 · · Score: 1

      Wow, 13.7 Mbps is an awful lot of traffic.

      The question we all want to know... Was the webserver running fvwm at the time? ;)

      Glad to hear it held up, although I had trouble getting there.

      --
      ________________________________________________
      suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
  28. Featherweight by Newtonian_p · · Score: 5, Informative
    The 'F' stands for Featherweight. It was called that way because it was originally less ressource intensive than twm (tabbed window manager) on which it is based.

    The author might have forgot what his acronym stands for but some people remember the original announcement.

    --

    There are 2 kinds of people in this world: Those who write in decimal and those who don't

    1. Re:Featherweight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Er, as I recall, it was feeble, not featherweight, you f!

    2. Re:Featherweight by IO+ERROR · · Score: 2, Informative
      From the old (version 1) man page of fvwm:


      The name "FVWM" used to stand for something, but I forgot what. (Feeble, famous, foobar? It doesn't really matter, this is an acronym based society
      anyway.)


      I certainly don't remember featherweight, and I can't find the original announcement. The earliest Usenet posting (Jun 1 1993) I could find refers to it as feeble. But it doesn't really matter, since I haven't used fvwm in years, and really don't have any plans to go back. After all, I have 256MB of RAM.

      --
      How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
    3. Re:Featherweight by cbiffle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yup, just as many of us have not forgotten that the K in KDE is for Kool, or was originally. I wonder why they didn't call it CDE...erm, wait....

      But, though KDE is still quite kool if your spelling is atrocious, FVWM need not necessarily be Featherweight in name or functionality. Acronyms can change. Take good ol' Personal Home Page.

    4. Re:Featherweight by Arker · · Score: 1

      Bah. Historically it stood for Feeble actually, a bit of self-deprecation.

      Of course recursion fans know what it really stands for - the true hidden meaning. FVWM = FVWM Virtual Window Manager.

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  29. You have a woman's window manager by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll wager you never had fourteen shipwrecked mariners tossing about in it, or never been used to plug up a leak on a ship.

    1. Re:You have a woman's window manager by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 4, Funny

      Since you're clearly as mad as a mongoose, I'll bid you farewell.

      graspee

  30. Re:IMPORTANT!!! The Linux Gay Conspiracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mr. Gates, the time you spend hating people that are cooler than you...

  31. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I seem to remember something called 'Windows 3.1' that put fvwm to shame.... even today

    Nope. You aren't remembering Win3.1. I don't know what you ARE remembering, but it's not that.

    Maybe you're thinking of the C64's GUI? I always thought that was pretty slick. If it had ever been put on high-end hardware like a 286, with a nice little dos like CPM86 underneath, it would have really been something.

    Or, maybe you're thinking of NextStep, on the Next boxes? I kind of liked that better than fvwm, though it was simply a matter of taste.

    Nope, you aren't remembering Win3.1.

  32. Forget X... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...If only Apple would open source their user interface... Microsoft would be history. (Esp. if the Mac version of Office ran with it)

    1. Re:Forget X... by morbuz · · Score: 1

      [...]Microsoft would be history. (Esp. if the Mac version of Office ran with it)

      Oh, the irony.

      --
      CAPS LOCK IS LIKE CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!
  33. Re:Why bother by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Because it has to be very similiar to get people onto it.
    Some of us don't want to use MS products because of our principles.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  34. my favorite window manager by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fvwm1 is great! It doesn't chew up precious pixels like the so-call modern integrated GUIs. I've been running fvwm on FreeBSD for a decade now with no reason to switch.

  35. Re:fvwm should be euthanized for the good of *nix by appleLaserWriter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lets stack FVWM up with its contemporary, Windows 3.0 and then see who runs home crying.

    FVWM had the 3D look of Motif without the awkwardness of OpenLook and because it was just an X Window Manager it avoided the OS integration of MS Windows.

    Newer GUIs like WindowsXP and Aqua, GNOME, KDE, etc. move beyond the window manager concept to the entire visual user experience.

  36. Re:Why bother by kirun · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Scenario: Company is considering switching to Linux desktops, to save money on new installations. This costs money on existing installations, due to re-installing and re-training.

    Although all windowing environments bear some similarities, the closer to Windows one is, the less retraining is required, and the cheaper it is.

    You may be able to pick up any interface, but consider people you've helped. How many of them have written every step down?

    Use whatever desktop you want. Don't worry too much if somebody prefers something else.

    --
    I'm scared of numbers that can't be written as a fraction. It's an irrational fear.
  37. depends on your flavor of nostalgia by Xtifr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Twm probably has some nostalgia value amongst people who rolled their own X11 back in the day, but fvwm used to be the default for most Linux systems, so it's got plenty of nostalgia value of its own. Plus, it's still going strong; twm is all-but-dead, while fvwm still has a large community of enthusiastic users and developers. Including me. I keep trying out all these newer WMs, and they always seem to be missing some essential feature that I've come to depend on over the years, and/or they're massive, bloated monstrosities that don't do noticably more than my old workhorse.

    1. Re:depends on your flavor of nostalgia by CommandNotFound · · Score: 1
      I keep trying out all these newer WMs, and they always seem to be missing some essential feature that I've come to depend on over the years, and/or they're massive, bloated monstrosities that don't do noticably more than my old workhorse.

      I know how you feel. I always end up going back to fvwm2 for the clean, fast operation. Customizing it is a real pain, and my config files are so old that I can't use the latest versions.

      Might I suggest trying xfce, which I have been using for several months with no end in sight. It's default config is klunky, but I can send you my config file(s) with some better defaults, most notably desktop switching using the scroll wheel, which I like much better than screen edge flipping now. XFCE comes with a file browser and other *really* fast utilities. It also works very well over remote X.
    2. Re:depends on your flavor of nostalgia by Xtifr · · Score: 1

      Might I suggest trying xfce

      I've tried it. Brings back nightmares of CDE. :)

      Anway, I'm happy with fvwm. I've already tweaked my configs to work with the latest releases. I do keep trying the various new WMs (since running Debian makes this very easy), and there are a lot out there that I'd recommend to people (including xfce), but there's just a lot of little details about fvwm that keep it my personal favorite.

    3. Re:depends on your flavor of nostalgia by lightcycle · · Score: 1

      Speaking as a fvwm zealot:
      What every other WM lacks that fvwm has is configurability, and plenty of it. Despite every existing screenshot of it, a properly configured fvwm sweeps enlightenment right off the field, while still keeping an astonishly low resource footprint. I have tried most of the WM:s popular with linux, and I keep coming back to challenge fvwm:s configuration files. Let's hope for another ten years!

      --

      The stars that shine and the stars that shrink
      in the face of stagnation the water runs before your eyes
    4. Re:depends on your flavor of nostalgia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fluxbox is my poison of choice, it seems to keep memory footprint down - running X/flux/gkrellm2/and a couple eterms take up a whopping 24MB of RAM, that's lightweight enough for me

    5. Re:depends on your flavor of nostalgia by fault0 · · Score: 1

      If done right, you can configure sawfish to a greater level than you can configure fvwm.

      This is, of course, unless fvwm has had large changes in config options within the last five years... I haven't used it much since 1998 or 1999 so.

  38. fvwm rocks! I still use it fvwm 1. by Kludge · · Score: 1

    It loads fasts, never leaves RAM, and stops in a blink, and keyboard short-cuts are easy to implement. Anything else is bloat.

    Anything you can do I can do faster.

  39. pager by austad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The pager in FVWM is the epitome of how a pager should be.

    FVWM was the first WM I ever used (on SunOS back in the early 90's). I absolutely hated the pager, but I didn't know how to turn it off. After about 2 weeks of it, I can't live without it now. All of my boxes, OSX (VirtualDesktop), Windows(JSPager), Linux(crappy KDE pager), they all have one now. But, none of them even come close to fvwm's.

    --
    Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
    1. Re:pager by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I haven't used fvwm in a good while now, so I cannot really recall the pager. However, enlightenment has a very nice pager system as well. They are implemented as epplets and show a small snapshot of the screen as it would appear on the screen, and can also zoom in on windows on mouse over. The pagers (As there is a difference between multiple and virtual desktops in E, each desktop gets it's own epplet which includes the virtual desktops) are also very configurable.

    2. Re:pager by rowanxmas · · Score: 1

      I would say that the Enlightenment Pager is the most useful app that I ever use. And so cool too.

    3. Re:pager by cgori · · Score: 1

      Wow you were lucky, you had fvwm on your first Sun. I groveled through twm for years (stopping briefly with mwm, ick, and tvtwm, at least passable). By the time I installed Slackware 1.1.1 on a 486-33 and got the X series of disks loaded, I thought fvwm was the second coming of the Messiah.

      And now I have it compiled on "Solaris 8" and use it instead of CDE. Yes, I'm a luddite.

    4. Re:pager by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Windows(JSPager)

      Ha! JSPager is ugly and featureless. Install litestep and get a real pager.

    5. Re:pager by Yosho · · Score: 1

      Actually, did you know that you can run fvwm on your OS X box? Check out http://fink.sourceforge.net. I switch between it, KDE, and blackbox depending on my mood. ;-)

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
    6. Re:pager by austad · · Score: 1

      Litestep is interesting, but I've had more problems with it than anything else. I haven't used it for about a year and a half, but I tried to find it a month or two ago, and I couldn't find a download site. It looked as if development on it had stopped for some time and was getting started up again. Maybe I'll try it again, but I've been trying to ditch windows completely and move to linux on my work machine. Unfortunately, I have to use so many custom apps (time tracking, ticketing systems, etc) that it's hard for me to get away from windows completely. Most of it is changing to web based apps, so this shouldn't be much of an issue anymore.

      --
      Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
    7. Re:pager by Provocateur · · Score: 1

      austad is right about the dev aspect of Litestep. I used to be a huge fan of LS, but what's keeping me from returning is its [lack of] multimonitor support. Has that been improved? Inquiring minds would like to know...

      --
      WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    8. Re:pager by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      >I absolutely hated the pager, but I didn't know how to turn
      >it off. After about 2 weeks of it, I can't live without it now.

      Sound like smoking. At first you hate it, then after a few weeks you cant live without it.

  40. RedHat is lame by mallan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    (rant)

    Why on earth did RedHat take FVWM out of its distrubution? Like many long time Linux users, FVWM has been my window manager for years. It's small, fast, flexible, and infinitely configurable - with three CDs of space for RedHat 9, you'd think they'd be able to find a couple of megs for FVWM. Even their "switchdesk" utility still wants FVWM as an option.

    Taking FVWM out of the standard distribution is just plain dumb, not to mention insulting to many Linux users. How many years was FVWM the default window manager for RedHat? I've been using FVWM for years on RedHat, but now I have to change to a more "modern" window manager because they can't spare 3 megs on their distribution CDs? Grrr.

    (/rant)

    --
    "Good people drink good beer"
    1. Re:RedHat is lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      gentoo.

      joy root # emerge -p fvwm

      These are the packages that I would merge, in order:

      Calculating dependencies ...done!
      [ebuild N ] dev-libs/libstroke-0.4
      [ebuild N ] x11-wm/fvwm-2.4.14

      hehehehhehe...

      libstroke.

    2. Re:RedHat is lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      They have this thing now called the "internet" where you can get programs that don't come on the distribution CDs.

    3. Re:RedHat is lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe you should switch to Debian or something. I love it because it ships with just about EVERYTHING you could ever want.

      su root
      apt-get install fvwm

      Done.

    4. Re:RedHat is lame by lactose99 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just use Slackware...

      Default install of 9.0 contains fvwm-2.4.15-i386-2.

      --
      Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
    5. Re:RedHat is lame by mallan · · Score: 1

      They have this thing now called the "internet" where you can get programs that don't come on the distribution CDs.

      That's not the point. FVWM has been in RH since the beginning. It's small. Old-schoolers like it. There's no reason to take it out. It should be part of the standard distribution.

      People would freak out if RH took out Pine and suggested they switch to Mutt, or KMail, or Balsa, or whatever.

      --
      "Good people drink good beer"
    6. Re:RedHat is lame by jericho4.0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Old-schoolers tend not to be using RH, and they can install a wm they like in a matter of seconds. People new to linux expect a slicker looking desktop than fvwm, simple. RedHat is Linux for the masses, not the gurus.

      --
      "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
    7. Re:RedHat is lame by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      I dunno about that. I used to run Slackware (from floppies) and Yggdrasil, I have also tried Mandrake and Debian but my machines have been booting into RedHat by default since RH4.0. Because it works.

      Of course since 7.3 is going EOL on 12/31/03 with no stable replacement planned I'll be moving to Debian in due course, but not because RedHat has technical problems.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    8. Re:RedHat is lame by mallan · · Score: 1

      That's assuming "old-schooler" means a hardcore geek with tons of time on his hands, who is willing to spend that time fiddling around with his system to get it 'just right.' I've been a Linux user for almost 10 years now, and I settled on using RedHat because that's what's installed at work, and that's the distrib most commercial vendors target.

      And as for installing a window manager, yes, it only takes a few seconds to install...after I've spent an hour or so downloading it over a crappy 33K connection.

      But the main point is, I don't want to spend the time tweaking my system. I've got a setup that I like, all I want to do is upgrade my distrib every once in a while, and have it "just work". Hell, I could download all my software and create my own distrib if I had the time or inclination - but I've got a life, and the less time I have to spend fiddling with my system, the happier I am. I havn't recompiled a kernel in years.

      And "new" Linux users aren't just coming from the Windows and Mac worlds, they're also coming from Solaris, AIX, etc. These folks are used to using mwm. They're not looking for a "slick" desktop, they want something similar to what they're used to... and that would be FVWM.

      --
      "Good people drink good beer"
  41. well, there are probably better choices now by 73939133 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fvwm was nice back then. But even if you want a small, light-weight window manager, there are probably better choices than fvwm these days: Oroborus, Blackbox, IceWM, Ion, to name just a few. Their code tends to be cleaner and their configuration and code tends to be more modular.

    1. Re:well, there are probably better choices now by Xtifr · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Perhaps you missed the part where it said that fvwm is still being actively developed? It's getting steadily better and better, IMO. Not to say that some of those other choices aren't perfectly nice too, but fvwm is a lot nicer than it was "back then", and it's still, pound-for-pound, one of the best tradeoffs for size vs. power, IMO.

      As for those others being more modular, say what? Fvwm is modular almost to the point of insanity. That's what helps keep it so lightweight. Only the modules you actually use get loaded.

      Now, for configuration, I'll freely grant that you have a point. Fvwm still has some of the most baroque configuration around. It's not for the faint-of-heart. And for this reason, I rarely recommend fvwm to anyone. But I already configured it just the way I like it, and I see little or no reason to use anything else. I keep trying all those others, and they keep coming up short on my personal feature requirements list. (My second choice, if they pried fvwm out of my cold, dead hands, would be windowmaker, with blackbox a close third.)

    2. Re:well, there are probably better choices now by GypC · · Score: 1

      Hear Hear!

      I even have the same second and third favorites as you! We're practically brothers! heheh...

  42. It's about time! by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Funny
    I currently have a graduate student who is working part-time on a rewrite of fvwm in CWEB, the literate programming language.

    Finally. After 10 years of being written by illiterates, it's about time.

  43. Re:Why bother by Panoramix · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Why don't FVWM developers focus on something more modern, like GNOME, KDE or XPDE? Especially the latter, since it focuses on "duplicating Windows XP interface down to the pixel point". I've always maintained that Linux needs to be virtually indentical to Windows in feel, down to the DOS prompt drive letters to make the techies feel at home.

    Well, I use FVWM. It is my WM of choice, and I like it a lot. It is small, it is (very) fast, it is scriptable, it does not look nor act like a Windows knock-off (though you can probably make it, both, of course). And I use it on fast machines, mind you, it's not that I couln't use KDE. It's just that I like plain X + FVWM better.

    And it does have some cute features. I have impressed a couple of friends with FVWM's "stroke" thing, starting apps and controlling audio volume and stuff, by drawing shapes on the screen with the mouse---though I must say that I don't really have much use for that, save for showing off.

    How else are you going to see mass adoption?

    I wonder why is that so many of you regard mass adoption as something so desirable that justifies turning a first-class Unix system (oops, hope no SCO spies are reading this) into a bad Windows clone. Or even a good one. I just can't see the point: if a user needs something Windows-like, well, there is Windows already.

    If I were to say what to do, I'd have people stop wasting time cloning Windows, and use it to make Linux a better Unix. And as for GUIs, I'd like to see a good GUI in the Unix style. Like, say, apps with hybrid command line/graphic interfaces. Graphic pipelines, perhaps? Or if you have to copy it, something in the NextStep/OSX style (last time I checked, GNUStep was nowhere near usable). I don't know.

    But then again, neither me nor you nor anyone can make Linux developers do this or that; everybody is free to choose what to do with our Linux-hacking time. Fortunately.

  44. scrollable viewport by Esekla · · Score: 1

    I started with fvwm years ago and still use it because I haven't found anything else that easily supports a scrollable viewport: I don't like to flip between seperate desktops, I like one big one that I scroll around on using the keyboard or mouse.

    I wish I could find a good graphical configuration utility for it that uses straight gtk, though (not tcl).

  45. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, come on! If you will not say 'mathematics', just say 'math'.
    Brits: what can one do? ;)

  46. my favorite .fvwm2rc by rm_monterey · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I got my .fvwm2rc from the guy who introduced me to SuSE 4.x
    To this day, I can't part with that file - don't even know if it still works in the latest version. I haven't used fvwm in 2 years, but I know that file is in my $HOME on every linux box I work on... just in case.

    nostalgia...

  47. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by appleLaserWriter · · Score: 1

    Sixteen megs on your 386 DX ?? We were happy if we had 4 MB on our 386 SXes.

    Then, while we were waiting for a slackware distribution to be created, we downloaded SLS at 2400 BPs and were happy if it came with a 0.99pl12 kernel.

    Those of us unlucky enough to be caught with a Diamond video card hard to manually tweak the clock generation chip while those with ET4000s *might* get accelerated bitblit.

    Those were the days when rain(6) was the best visualization to go along with head seek chatter.

  48. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah! Even FPU would not be AFU!
    'maths' co-processor. Puh-lease.
    Ah, we love you, ally. ;)
    And now, some tea.

  49. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by heby · · Score: 1

    two empty 3x3 desktops (except for a sticky xconsole). all important applications have keybindings. my idea of a minimal desktop. i just hate to have to take my hands off the keyboard to reach for the mouse.

  50. FVWM still rules by argodk · · Score: 1

    I don't really care what other people think. Ever since I bagain using Linux i've used fvwm. First because it was the standard in SuSE, then because it was the best. You get the freedom you want, and the flexibility you want, it only takes a few hours of learning...

    1. Re:FVWM still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      personally, kde and gnome are shit. they consume too many resources, are slow, difficult to customize, and frankly appear to be copycats of the microsoft philosophy of making the user interface the biggest, most fragile application on the device.
      I suppose if you never write a line of code or have a need to automate anything, the user interface is paramount. but is not very productive.

  51. fvwm95 by Unregistered · · Score: 1

    y'all rmrmeber that? It actually didi a very good job of imitiating windows. It came as the default wm on RH 5.2 back in the day. UI was like LLinux has a start button. wow. And netscape. it's jsut like windows, except different. I rebooted into win95 to play a game later and didn't use linux for another year or so, but it was fy forst view of linux.

    1. Re:fvwm95 by gallir · · Score: 1
      y'all rmrmeber that? It actually didi a very good job of imitiating windows. It came as the default wm on RH 5.2 back in the day. UI was like LLinux has a start button. wow. And netscape. it's jsut like windows, except different. I rebooted into win95 to play a game later and didn't use linux for another year or so, but it was fy forst view of linux.

      And it seems to that you didn't upgrade it since they fixed that annoying xmodmap parsing bug.

      Just kidding, it?s noy fized yet.

      --
      sgis ddo ekil t'nod i
  52. Re:IMPORTANT!!! The Linux Gay Conspiracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bravo! A fine troll!

  53. Re:fvwm should be euthanized for the good of *nix by tarzan353 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You say that like the majority of WMs for X11 *are* good looking.

  54. The Future by FrostedWheat · · Score: 1

    I wonder what the world will be like when Gnome or KDE turn ten! Right now it's impossible to predict what things will be like in one year, let alone ten!

    640 Gb is enough for anyone, eh? :)

  55. FVWM is pretty cool by blitzoid · · Score: 1

    But after every WM I've used, I'll still always go back to Fluxbox... I'm using the developer release, and while it can crash from time to time, it's proving to be shaping up extremely nicely.

    --
    I am a filthy pirate.
  56. My .fvwm2rc file. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's the one I'm using right now:
    my .fvwm2rc file
    Here is a screenshot:
    screenshot for above fvwm2rc
    Here's a neat trick: Put that .png image in Opera 6.12, and press the "F11" key for fullscreen. On a 14" monitor, it will appear as if you are actually running fvwm, with this file, and you can say "Hey, I formatted your HDD, put Mandrake on it!" Only thing, none of the buttons work, so the joke comes to a quick end for the observant.
    Like most folks that post their .fvwm2rc on the internet, I have to say that this is not my latest .fvwm2rc, as working on these is somewhat of a hobby and I'm always trying to improve it.
    Here is a .fvwm2rc for a user account:
    click here
    That one gives an entirely different-looking setup, designed for those who do not have root access. As you can see, I like what fvwm can do, and try to learn more about it when I can. Examples posted on the internet help a lot.

    1. Re:My .fvwm2rc file. by danrees · · Score: 1

      Here's a neat trick: Put that .png image in Opera 6.12, and press the "F11" key for fullscreen. On a 14" monitor, it will appear as if you are actually running fvwm, with this file, and you can say "Hey, I formatted your HDD, put Mandrake on it!" Only thing, none of the buttons work, so the joke comes to a quick end for the observant.

      Presumably the fact that it says Tue 27 May might give it away too... :)

    2. Re:My .fvwm2rc file. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WOW that looks ugly as fuck. Totally motif. Those big rectangles. *********shrudder****** Totally six years ago. Give me KDE/GNOME/fluxbox anyday plz.

  57. screenshots? Bah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    fvwm runs on me machine right here :)

  58. Re:Anyone else think that KDE and Gnome look avera by Josh · · Score: 1

    Both of them offer several different styles/appearances and can be programmed to look most any other way. The KDE and GNOME technologies don't really constrain how they look. At a minimum, you should clarify whether you are criticizing the default look/feel on some particular installation or whether it is that you don't like any of the alternatives that ship with some distribution. In any case, my KDE desktop looks great but it doesn't use any of the installation defaults.

  59. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, dickhead. Yeah, I'm talking to you, dickhead. The word "troll" does not mean "person with which you disagree." Got it? Fucker.

  60. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Drathus · · Score: 2, Informative

    By definition a DX has a built in math coprocessor. The SX series was a DX chip with the built in CoProcessor disabled so Intel could sell a math coprocessor add on chip.

  61. Re:Why bother by k_herald · · Score: 1, Troll

    I think the point is that everyone agrees that Linux beats Windows on the reliability factor, but an OS is not defined by its uptime for a large amount of the people that use computers. Installing a program should require two clicks to the user. No RPM's, no Makefiles, no gcc. If it is needed, make it invisible to the user. Changing out hardware should be as easy as it is with Windows. The majority of people dont use the command line on Windows, you should be able to do the same with Linux. All of this command line junk that is left from Unix of the 60's should at least be made transparent for the majority of tasks. Linux is behind the curve for use on a home PC, it should at least catch up before trying to out-do Windows.

  62. Donald Knuth? Yeah, right (was Re:On fvwm...) by VP · · Score: 1

    Nice try though... Of course, prof. Knuth doesn't take graduate students anymore, and if he did, they wouldn't be rewriting fvwm...

    1. Re:Donald Knuth? Yeah, right (was Re:On fvwm...) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      says you. :p

    2. Re:Donald Knuth? Yeah, right (was Re:On fvwm...) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No need to pretend that "graduate students" are paying $$ to get to rewrite fvwm. There's plenty of folks like me out there that enjoy writing .fvwm2rc's anyway, and pretending that we are doing something wonderful. Here's my latest one, that uses FvwmButtons for the pager!
      (work in progress, but tested on Mandrake 8)
      I have tried to comment this file for fvwm fans, hope you enjoy it.

  63. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damn, why couldn't you be French? That way I could taunt you about your English way of speaking english.

    Now I can't because we like the Brits.

  64. Re:Anyone else think that KDE and Gnome look avera by saintlupus · · Score: 1

    I don't like the look of Gnome and KDE . Does anyone else share my thoughts ?

    Yes. But then, I'm a Windowmaker freak, and Not To Be Trusted.

    --saint

  65. Re:fvwm should be euthanized for the good of *nix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fvwm is a copy of Motif (mwm?). Motif is licenced copy of Windows 3.0.

    Lets compare fvwm95 with Windows 95. MY EYES! they're burning. make it stop!

  66. Why FVWM matters by crucini · · Score: 5, Interesting
    A lot of folks seem to think that Windows represents the pinnacle of GUI aesthetics, and that everything else (except Apple) should try to copy it. These folks look down on fvwm as "not even as good as Windows 3.1".

    I don't agree. I like the Unix desktop at its most Unixy - clean, efficient andminimal. No need to waste pixels catering for an idiot when this desktop is the interface for a computer professional. But if I wanted to waste some pixels, and I have in the past, I'd waste them on stuff that looks cool to my aesthetic, not what looks reassuring to some marketer trying to soothe the average user.

    If you want to understand the "real" window managers, like fvwm, Afterstep, etc., realize three things:
    1. They aren't trying to be "as good as Windows 3.1". They're in a totally different space. Just because they run on PC hardware now doesn't mean they partake of the PC mentality. These WM's can be configured from minimal to maximal, but at maximal they express a strong aesthetic that's quite different from consumer OS's.
    2. Forget about "user friendliness". Real WM's are delicately balanced between aesthetics and efficiency, leaving little room for user-friendliness, which means accomodation to beginners. Let beginners use Gnome/KDE if they're unwilling to learn, or learn the real stuff if they're willing. More importantly, real user friendliness requires the WM to know things about applications, the machine, etc. I prefer my WM ignorant and agnostic - a mere conduit for my actions.
    3. Don't judge them by how they "look". They don't look like anything - they're quite user-tunable, which is half the fun. The screenshots only give hints of the scope of customization. The feeling of running a desktop that you built is completely different from the feeling you get looking at someone else's desktop.

    I don't like CDE very much, but CDE is clean and technical-looking in a way that Windows isn't. Almost everyone would happily go from CDE to KDE or Gnome, but I'd feel some loss of Unix flavor.

    (I've ignored the fact that fvwm works with Gnome - you could have the fvwm coolness and the Gnome user-friendliness, I guess.)

    I'm currently running fluxbox at work and AfterStep at home. I like a lot of what I see in the fvwm release - it seems the good window managers are converging and adopting the best features.

    I know there will always be a small group that thinks as I do, but I'm afraid we're not communicating very well. Tons of newcomers are pouring into Linux, and most of them have only seen Microsoft Windows. Therefore they're inclined to view the desktop through a Microsoft lens, even as they criticize Microsoft.

    I don't like Microsoft software. I find it disgusting from concept to execution, from GUI aesthetics to file formats. I don't want anything on my machines to look like that.
    1. Re:Why FVWM matters by FattMattP · · Score: 1

      I think that ratpoison represents the pinnacle of GUI aesthetics. Less G and more UI, please.

      --
      Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
    2. Re:Why FVWM matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      You're definitely not communicating very well, I'll grant you that. This post says nothing at all about anything, yet you still manage to come across as an arrogant jerkoff that nobody would want to have as a friend. Nice work.

    3. Re:Why FVWM matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Big fan a' the 6502, eh pad're? hehe ... typatypatypa knock 'em dead.

    4. Re:Why FVWM matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Warning: Those who live in glass houses probably shouldn't throw stones.

    5. Re:Why FVWM matters by axxackall · · Score: 1
      The feeling of running a desktop that you built is completely different from the feeling you get looking at someone else's desktop.

      If you build such a primitive desktop as FVWM then you don't really notice anything as nothong to build really, so your feeling is not good enough. Try to build GNOME, especially with Enlightenment-17 (or at least sawfish) WM, with all their configuration options and *THEN* compare your feelings! :)

      The feeling of "building" desktop in FVWM is similar to customization of M$-Win in registries - too much of effort, to little of results :(

      --

      Less is more !
    6. Re:Why FVWM matters by Alomex · · Score: 1

      No need to waste pixels catering for an idiot when this desktop is the interface for a computer professional.

      I missed the part where using cleaner fonts or better designed window frames that fit on the existing fvwm ones is a waste of pixels.

    7. Re:Why FVWM matters by entrigant · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Either you are a really good troll or you truely believe what you just said. Perhaps you don't realize the elitism and self induced masochism behind your words.. perhaps you do. Either way, I feel compelled to make a counter, and I intend it to be as vague and pointless as your perspective.

      A lot of folks seem to think that Windows represents the pinnacle of GUI aesthetics, and that everything else (except Apple) should try to copy it. These folks look down on fvwm as "not even as good as Windows 3.1".

      First, I do not see how believing fvwm lags behind Windows 3.1 in technology as saying the same thing as Windows is the pinnacle of GUI aesthetics. Please do not put words into peoples mouths to suit your needs. Most people mean exactly what they say. When I say product A is not as good as product B I do not hide any subtext claiming product B is the best. Just that it's better. (For the record, I do NOT think windows 3.1 is better than fvwm, not by a long shot.)

      I don't agree. I like the Unix desktop at its most Unixy - clean, efficient andminimal. No need to waste pixels catering for an idiot when this desktop is the interface for a computer professional. But if I wanted to waste some pixels, and I have in the past, I'd waste them on stuff that looks cool to my aesthetic, not what looks reassuring to some marketer trying to soothe the average user.

      This may be a given, but minimal does not imply efficien tor clean, efficient does not imply minimal or clean, and clean does not imply efficient or minimal. These are all seperate and non-related attributes. As a computer professional who stares at a monitor all damn day, I prefer to look at something pretty. Also, because my desktop is pretty does not mean I am a "clueless idiot newb" nor does it imply I do not know what I am doing. MY desktop is also pretty according to my tastes, and not the tastes of a marketing rep. See, most of us don't configure our computers to be what other people think they should be, and the fact that you would presume we do is flat out insulting.

      They aren't trying to be "as good as Windows 3.1". They're in a totally different space. Just because they run on PC hardware now doesn't mean they partake of the PC mentality. These WM's can be configured from minimal to maximal, but at maximal they express a strong aesthetic that's quite different from consumer OS's.

      As ambiguous as this is I will attempt to make sense of this. I do not know exactly what you mean by "PC Mentality" as I do not see how the goals of PC users are any different from any computer user. Most of us just want to use our PC's to do what we do, and to be able to do that in a manner that we enjoy. MOST of us don't think we should make our computing experience feel like hard work. This is, however, not the typical attitude of the elitist.

      I am, as you may have guessed, a KDE user. Seeing as the whole of KDE is an environment and not a simple window manager most comparisons are immediately invalid or rediculous. I will try to make one though. I can configure KDE to present me with nothing but a background color and a mouse cursor. I can have it present a simple hard to read application menu when I click on this solid colored desktop. I can even have the window frame only be 1 pixel largeon the sides and bottom and 5 pixels large on the top. I can configure it to switch desktops with the mouse wheel or simply by moving the cursor to the edge of the screen and "push" into the next one. I can make it act like any minimal window manager you use, or I could have icons littering my desktop, a full size kicker bar, huge animated mouse cursors, and a liud and obnoxious sound for every little action that can be performed. So.. does that make my wm configurable enough for your stringent standards?

      Forget about "user friendliness". Real WM's are delicately balanced between aesthetics and efficiency, leaving little room for user-friendliness, which means accomodation to beginners.

    8. Re:Why FVWM matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are "better designed window frames" and what does it do?

      I use a one pixel border for a "frame". Works great with VNC on slow connections.

    9. Re:Why FVWM matters by Ploum · · Score: 1

      FVWM is the best and only wm I ever use http://frimouvy.udev.org/myconf/screen8.jpg (also available in png)

    10. Re:Why FVWM matters by Jonathan+McDowell · · Score: 1

      I so agree with these comments. I *hate* Gnome and KDE! I don't want a Windows-like machine, I want hundreds and hundreds of xterms (xterms with microemacs to code in, xterms to compile in, xterms to read mail in with commands like "inc; more 3278", xterms to run scripts or commands like "netscape 4.7 &" (and don't get me started on the newer browsers, grrrr...) ) The key point: Modern "desktops" get in the way of users who know how to use machines *efficiently*. fvwm doesn't get in my way; desktops do nothing but get in my way. I do wish Redhat would reinstate fvwm, it is a pain to have to mess around to get basic functionality.

    11. Re:Why FVWM matters by Alomex · · Score: 1

      What are "better designed window frames" and what does it do?

      read up on UI to see the difference a good window frame makes in user productivity.

    12. Re:Why FVWM matters by Hatta · · Score: 1

      My computer use varies from month to month and I find it damn convenient that the applications I find myself using the most I don't have to navigate to find. Perhaps you are too blinded by your anti-microsoft zealotism to see how handy something like that can be, but to many of us it is.


      Sure it's handy, that's why I use MenuMaker to do the same thing. But really, if you use an app that much, why not just start it from an rxvt?
      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    13. Re:Why FVWM matters by crucini · · Score: 1
      Replying to one more of your points:
      MY desktop is also pretty according to my tastes, and not the tastes of a marketing rep. See, most of us don't configure our computers to be what other people think they should be, and the fact that you would presume we do is flat out insulting.

      I don't think you understood. I'm not saying that you tweaked your desktop to appeal to other people. I'm saying that most people use a desktop that was crafted by Microsoft or Apple to appeal to the majority.
  67. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Malc · · Score: 1

    Doh! You're right. My memory is doing funny things. It was the 286 and before that didn't have a FPU builtin. Now I think about it, it was a friend who trouble with X on his 486SX.

  68. Top 5 Reason to run FVWM by sflory · · Score: 4, Funny

    1)It was good enough 8 years ago.

    2)I've got nothing better to do than fuck with my .fwm*rc file

    3)My desktop doesn't look enought like ass yet.

    4)I've only got 12M of memory.

    5)What the hell X only holds up my xterms, and mozilla.

    --
    IANALBIPOOGL (I am not a Lawyer, but I play one on GrokLaw.)
    1. Re:Top 5 Reason to run FVWM by MacJedi · · Score: 1
      5)What the hell X only holds up my xterms, and mozilla.

      Very very astute. If someone makes Mozilla-framebuffer, I'll seriously consider moving back to the console.

      /joeyo

      --
      2^5
    2. Re:Top 5 Reason to run FVWM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I only have 56MB of memory, you inconsiderate clod.

      Oh, and by the by, I run FVWM :)

    3. Re:Top 5 Reason to run FVWM by IO+ERROR · · Score: 1
      5)What the hell X only holds up my xterms, and mozilla.


      You forgot xclock, xload and xeyes!

      --
      How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
    4. Re:Top 5 Reason to run FVWM by d2003xx · · Score: 1

      4)I've only got 12M of memory.

      5)What the hell X only holds up my xterms, and mozilla.


      mozilla can't run on a box which has only 12M memory :D

  69. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny how the 1987 GUI on the Apple IIgs put most Unix GUIs to shame until a couple years ago.

  70. Re:Why bother by Master+Bait · · Score: 1
    I've always maintained that Linux needs to be virtually indentical to Windows in feel, down to the DOS prompt drive letters to make the techies feel at home.

    Very funny! However, I don't think that most techies feel comfortable with drive letters and Windows look & feel.

    --
    "Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
    --Tom Schulman
  71. Re:Why not just.... by convolvatron · · Score: 0, Redundant

    marginally useful? what else could you possibly
    need. you can move, resize, iconify, and uniconfy
    windows

    -proud twm user for at least 15 years (i think)

  72. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by ElectricRook · · Score: 1

    I put in a restart function in my root window function list. Also a "talk" function.


    With these two, anything goes.

    --
    - High Tech workers, please say NO to Union Carpenters, their Union sees fit to control our compensation.
  73. Personally... by shepd · · Score: 2, Informative

    I find VTWM suits my needs better.

    If you're going to go lean and mean, why not go all the way? ;-)

    --
    If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
    1. Re:Personally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TWM is not particulary lean and mean. It just lacks the features that make most other WMs truly bloated.

    2. Re:Personally... by SN74S181 · · Score: 1

      Personally, I find a VTVM suits my needs better than any fancy DMM.

      If you're going to go lean and mean why not go analog? ;-)

  74. Sorry, thanks for playing by appleLaserWriter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    80386 DX was a full 32 bit chip
    80386 SX was a 386 DX with 24 bit memory bus and maybe a 16 bit data bus

    For faster time to market, the 80386DX could work with an 80287 *or* 80387 math-co. There never was a 386 with built in FPU.

    When Intel introduced the 486, everything changed:
    80486DX had a built in FPU
    80486SX had a built in FPU but was disabled (maybe due to poor QA rating)
    80487 was an 80486DX with alternate pinout to fit in the "487" slot. Upon insertion, the 80486SX is disabled
    80486SL was an 80486SX with some power saving features and lower clock speeds
    80486SLC was a cyrix chip that had 16 bit data bus, 24 bit memory addresses, and no math co. It performed somewhat better than a 386SX but was cheap and drew little power. It was popular for notebook computers.

    80486DX2 was the first clock doubling CPU
    80486DX50 was a rare 50 MHz cpu with no clock doubling
    80486DX2-66 / DX2-50 were clock doubling CPUs
    80486DX4 were clock trippling CPUs

    Then there were a bunch of pentia.

    1. Re:Sorry, thanks for playing by Drathus · · Score: 1

      Heh, I stand corrected. At least I was right, just the wrong series of processor.

      I blame it in working retail for Best Buy in my youth. I lost more brain cells there than anyone I've known doing any sort of drugs. =P

    2. Re:Sorry, thanks for playing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still brings back memories of my trusty ol' 486 DX-2/66 from 1994 that got me involved in computing as a kid (my Sister's com actually). I actually ran it until 2000 on Windows 95, if you can believe that.

      *Sniff*... Commander Keen, Dbase(blecchh), old times... ;-)

    3. Re:Sorry, thanks for playing by NortonDC · · Score: 1

      80486DX2 was the first clock doubling CPU

      Bzzt! It was the first clock doubling CPU from Intel, but not the first alltogether.

    4. Re:Sorry, thanks for playing by SuzanneA · · Score: 1

      And of course the DX50 was 'rare' because it didn't co-operate too well with VLB. I went out of my way to get a DX50 instead of a DX66, since on non-CPU bound tasks and tasks that used RAM, it would perform a little better due to the 50MHz FSB. Of course, I like most others rapidly found out that not many VLB cards liked the VLB running at 50Mhz. It WAS a good choice if you could find a set of VLB cards that could handle it though. (Iirc, my VLB ET4000 and adaptec cards worked ok).

      A DX50 board was also a good choice if you were lucky and it could take a DX4 later on, as the DX4-100 could run at 2x, 3x or 4x depending on the board (2*50, 3*33 or 4*25). In many situations, a DX4-100 running at 2*50 would actually outperform a P100, too.

    5. Re:Sorry, thanks for playing by SuzanneA · · Score: 1

      Oh, and would you believe, a while ago Intel added a 486GX, which is similar to a 386SX, i.e. a 486SX with a 16bit data bus. Its aimed at being an ultra-low power chip for the embedded market, but its still a bit weird to see a 16bit databus chip return

  75. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by lga · · Score: 1
    By definition a DX has a built in math coprocessor.

    Partly right, but you are thinking of a 486DX. A 386DX has a 32 bit external bus rather than 16 bit bus on the 386SX. The co-processor was a seperate device until the 486DX came along.
  76. My very first experience with X, Penn State 1990 by The_Dougster · · Score: 4, Funny
    Somehow I managed to wheedle an account on the ultra-elite IBM RT, ostensibly to learn CADAM, and was pissing around with it and I found this mysterious "startx" command which looked promising. I was actually able to start an xterm! In fact I could start as many xterms as I wanted to... in fact there wasn't anything else I could do except start an xterm. But d00d, I had as many xterms as I wanted! Wow! And it was, like, fast! No click MS-DOS Prompt on Windows 2.1 and wait a minute for a shell where I couldn't do anything, instead I had the mysterious $ prompt, with its unlimited possibilites... and unlimited xterms! Wow!


    This was thirteen years ago, mind you. I was 3l337 just because I was _using_ the RT, nevermind there wasn't jack shit installed on it except CADAM :-)

    --
    Clickety Click ...
  77. Re:Real men don't use shells w/job control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And by "real men use SysV R3 /bin/sh on an old Wyse 60" I assume that you mean "I've never had my fingers in a girl's pussy before."

  78. Desktop Shell by PineHall · · Score: 2, Informative
    If I were to say what to do, I'd have people stop wasting time cloning Windows, and use it to make Linux a better Unix. And as for GUIs, I'd like to see a good GUI in the Unix style. Like, say, apps with hybrid command line/graphic interfaces. Graphic pipelines, perhaps? Or if you have to copy it, something in the NextStep/OSX style (last time I checked, GNUStep was nowhere near usable). I don't know.

    I am also a user of FVWM, but I have heard of Enlightenment which is now calling itself a "desktop shell". I don't know much more than that but it sounds like something that would interest you. It is definitely very configurable and pretty.

  79. Coincidence? by Markus+Registrada · · Score: 1

    Just last night I finally dpkg --purged it from my system, for the first time in all these years. Of course that failed: who would ever have tested it? I had to clean up by hand.

  80. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You've got to be fucking joking. Win3.1 being better than Unix+X11+FVWM? We -are- talking WINDOW MANAGERS, and win31 has -shit- for a WM. You got a bit of functionality if you ran the Program Manager/File Manager bits on top of win3.1 (as was standard), but -nothing- is stopping you from running equivalent shit under FVWM.

    Win3.1 sucked ass. deal.

  81. It was ugly then... it is ugly now... by salimfadhley · · Score: 2, Interesting

    These days I have a salary and can afford to have nice pretty computers:

    In my primary work area I have a powerbook (With OSX) and a Gentoo Linux PC (Strictly KDE not Gnome). Looking at those screenshots reminds me how much the Linux community has advanced since those 'hobbyist' days. I think we owe it to ourselves to have desktops that are both functional AND pretty.

    Anyway Gentoo Linux includes FVWM even though that distro is less than 2 years old!

    Fvwm is what Microsoft THINK all UNIX(y) computers still look like!

    1. Re:It was ugly then... it is ugly now... by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Fvwm is what Microsoft THINK all UNIX(y) computers still look like! maybe then there is hope for Micro$haft after all

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  82. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by yomegaman · · Score: 1

    That was the 486 series. A 386DX had no co-pro onboard. The 386SX was a 386 with a 16-bit external data bus.

    --
    ...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
  83. Re:Why not just.... by Crispy+Critters · · Score: 2, Interesting
    " marginally useful? what else could you possibly need. you can move, resize, iconify, and uniconfy windows."

    I need multiple virtual screens. Other than that, I probably could get most of the functionality I want out of twm with a well-written .twmrc. Looking at the man page, there are a lot of useful functions that aren't available unless you customize. For example, I use the fvwm equivalent of TwmWindows frequently; I didn't realize TwmWindows existed because you can't get to it in the default configuration.

  84. Re:Why bother by ball-lightning · · Score: 1

    I would defintely have to agree with you. The interesting thing that not many people touch on is that while everyone always complains how Bill Gates is always trying to conquer everything, the Linux community is just as bad. Many people are obsessed with taking away windows marketshare, when there is absolutely no reason for this. If I want to play games, I boot to windows, if I want to work, I go on Linux, theres room enough for both.

  85. Re:Why bother by zakezuke · · Score: 1

    Very funny! However, I don't think that most techies feel comfortable with drive letters and Windows look & feel.

    Afterall, wasn't MS-DOS designed to emulate the look an feel of a terminal talking to a mainframe?

    I guess this is honestly a preference... but it's really a small point wether or not your drives are prepresented as a "a: b: c:" a 1> 2> 3> (spartados by ICD), df0: dh0: [amiga] or /mnt/floppy /dev/hda. Personaly I don't really give that much of a shit to really care all that much, this is a small point.

    a larger point would be for microsoft to actually switch to the freaking /... in order to stop confusing people.

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  86. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by McSnarf · · Score: 1
    While we are at it - of course, modelines were something you calculated yourself.

    It would at least allow you to run the NEC Multisync II at ALMOST 800x600...

    (And yes, you are right, it started with SLS. And backups on a floppy streamer... And a VLB graphics card... And alt.os.linux... And kernel patches via Usenet...) *sigh*

  87. Since I'm using Gentoo... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... I just did an "emerge --deep fvwm" and now I can reminisce and enjoy a nice new fvwm install. I started out on Red Hat 5.0 but it's been a while since I've seen fvwm.

  88. fvwm by Requiem · · Score: 2, Funny

    So ugly...can't...concentrate.

  89. Re:Why not just.... by The_Dougster · · Score: 1

    hehe twm has saved my butt sooo many times. I'm a Debian guy, and I tend to install it for my friends if they ask, so I don't bother installing a window manager until I can get X working to my satisfaction. Once I have hacked XF86Config enough to get a screen for their horrible laptop video chipsets and undocumented lcd screens, then I fire up twm and load xvidtune to tweak the config. Then when I get it optimized I install some other window manager, usually Gnome is popular with linux n00bs. Personally, I run Enlightenment-16 with the "Hand of God" theme... its almost exactly like twm except they kind of extended it a little.

    --
    Clickety Click ...
  90. DON KNUTH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    omfg i want 2 have like 10,000 of u'r babys!!!!!!

    1. Re:DON KNUTH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You certainly do. You still breed through your mouth, right?

    2. Re:DON KNUTH by PD · · Score: 1

      Don Knuth mates with a guppy! Eats all the babies he can catch! Film at 11.

  91. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by BigBadBri · · Score: 1
    I remember having a bitching (yes - really, it was - don't get me on the marvellous 2MB 16MHz 286 shit...) 386 setup for CAD - running Windows, it would even (given time) compile VB code.

    I preferred Autolisp, though...

    --
    oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
  92. Windows 3.0 is dead and buried, so should fvwm be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Why would we compare anything to Windows 3.0? This isn't a history lesson people. Any window manager for *current use* should be compared to the state of the art *today*. fvwm sucks out loud. Bury it, its starting to smell.

  93. FVWM, the few, the proud, the geeky by Vodak · · Score: 1

    It was a system installed with FVWM that got my attention on Linux. the gritty unclean nature of the it just made me love it, because it was so diffrent and uglier then a Windows and MAC interface.

    KDE and Gnome are great and get all the glory but if you want to screw with someone new to Linux FVWM is the way to go.

  94. OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by Raffaello · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, you got me there, but still, just because many X11 WMs are poster children for bad taste and color blindness, doesn't mean fvwm should be kept on life support. Pull the plug already and let this brain damaged embarrassment to the *nix community die.

    1. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by parkanoid · · Score: 1

      You should try aewm, my favorite window manager. The cool thing about it is that an uninitiated user will not be able to do *anything* with it :)

    2. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by sholden · · Score: 1

      I found 9wm combined with 9term works wonders. You never have to log out since no one can work out how to get run anything, and if they fluke on starting a 9term they won't work out the extra drag step.

      Plus there's no 'exit' or 'logout' option, and the inability to get a terminal window will prevent them exiting the window manager, even if they know the command.

      I still haven't worked out how to stop a power cycle logging me off though.

    3. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      aewm is the standard windows manager!

    4. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I still haven't worked out how to stop a power cycle logging me off though.

      You could disable the the power button in your bios.

      and.... errr superglue the power cord into the wall socket.

    5. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by parkanoid · · Score: 1

      Why can't they just hit ctrl-alt-backspace?

    6. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by antiMStroll · · Score: 1

      FVWM is only as ugly as you make it. I agree with you the common themes are a usually a grotesque swirl of primary colours, and I have no idea why, but the underlying functionality is really powerful.

    7. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by sholden · · Score: 1

      Because that doesn't work on a Tektronix X terminal.

      And even fewer people know how to bring up the menu on them then know how to exit 9wm :)

    8. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by Tet · · Score: 2, Insightful
      just because many X11 WMs are poster children for bad taste and color blindness, doesn't mean fvwm should be kept on life support. Pull the plug already and let this brain damaged embarrassment to the *nix community die.

      Care to suggest a suitable replacement? I've been using fvwm for pretty much all of its 10 year lifespan. In that time, I've tried a number of alternatives, but keep returning to fvwm because not one of the others has all the features that I need, and fvwm does. I'm certainly not going to ditch it in favour of a lesser wm. If another viable alternative presents itself, then I'll take a look. But I haven't yet found one.

      --
      "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
    9. Re:OK, most are ugly, but fvwm is the fug-ugliest by hughsaunders · · Score: 1

      icewm rocks, its light takes up very little screen space [without task bar] and everything can be done from keyb :)

      failing that fluxbox is nice but needs a bit of mousing :(

  95. I'm gonna have to by BigBadBri · · Score: 1
    stop reading at -1.

    You lil bitchy trolls have ruined a fine interview by Fyodor, and now you're bitching on every other post.

    Wankers.

    P.S. My IP is 81.86.161.107

    Hack that if you think you're clever enough.

    --
    oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
  96. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now, that explains why it may have been good 'back in the day', but it doesn't answer the original posters question of 'why is it still around?'

  97. Go text! by Openadvocate · · Score: 1, Funny

    There's this new thing out called text screens. Even Windows XP has it!!! You can find it in XP under start->programs->accessories and it's called "command prompt".
    And, get this. Instead of trying to figure out alle the menus and graphics you can just TYPE commands to it! It is my understanding the most UNIX and Linux systems has extended version of this features. One of my friends even saw a machine running TEXT ONLY!! I am sure that once Microsoft wrap their heads around it, they will be all over it. In fact, I would not be surprised if the next Windows would be developed for text use, with backward support for those old graphic programs. Oh, btw, I managed to get the ENTIRE screen in XP to be ALL text!

    --
    my sig
  98. Re: fvwm Turns Ten by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And theres STILL no easy way to configure it!

  99. Re:Why bother by tuffy · · Score: 2, Interesting
    but an OS is not defined by its uptime for a large amount of the people that use computers.

    It is when they decide to go online, access $FAVORITE_SITE and find it down for some reason. And really, reliability is something people should see as the rule rather than the exception from their computers.

    Installing a program should require two clicks to the user. No RPM's, no Makefiles, no gcc. If it is needed, make it invisible to the user.

    The majority of people can get by with pre-packaged software and the point-clicky equivilent of "redhat-config-packages". But all the ugliness on the back-end with Makefiles is what ensures it'll still be portable and usable many years from now after the prepackaged stuff is obsoleted by some newer packaging system.

    Changing out hardware should be as easy as it is with Windows.

    When one considers the horrors of "driver disks" and "driver installation", Windows doesn't have much to brag about in the hardware department, nor does it allow me to swap out an x86 chip for a PowerPC one, for example. Macintosh-quality hardware ease is to be aspired to, but it'll take better hardware standards for that to arrive.

    All of this command line junk that is left from Unix of the 60's should at least be made transparent for the majority of tasks. Linux is behind the curve for use on a home PC, it should at least catch up before trying to out-do Windows.

    I can type much faster than I can point & click, and I'd wager most other people can too. What we need is not the removal of the command line but rather the update to it. What we really need is a system that allows GUI elements and command-line elements to work seamlessly such that novice users won't be confused and expert users won't be crippled by slow interfaces.

    And quite frankly, all the current user interfaces have a long way to go before the needs of all users can be satisfied.

    --

    Ita erat quando hic adveni.

  100. Re:Why bother by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1
    If it is needed, make it invisible to the user.
    Now, be honest, sir:
    How many times has some little "I've got a secret" registry key given you a swift kick in the naughty bits? Licensing hassle?
    For a fact, we use computers to achieve some level of abstraction.
    And I'll even agree with you to the point that OSS frequently has you flying below the treetops.
    However, I would argue that, with late model distributions, you really get the abstraction, plus the ability to zoom in and see just WTF is going on.
    True enough, most Windows users can't even find the command prompt.
    Negates the value of the prompt as much as, say,
    the fact that few 'lay' people ever go beyond checkbook math renders calculus valueless.
    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  101. Why FVWM Exists by Diamondback · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because people want it to.

  102. fvwm by ManDude · · Score: 1

    That's what I like! It looks like a F*ing cumepooter!

  103. ratpoison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    yeah, ratpoison.

    Its lean, its mean and everything'll be fullscreen,..
    Here is a screenshot taken from this editorial

    let me put it to you this way, i don't even Own a mouse on this computer.

    shortcuts for browsing
    GNU/screen for copypasting

    Granted, no speak man nor info == no wm for harry,

    But i'll even recap the *entire* 00:05 of 'info ratpoison' in a 2 second blast:

    think 'screen' but use ctrl+t instead of ctrl+a
    so ctrl+t ? gets you, as expected, the help file,
    and ctrl+t c a fresh xterm

    apt has it, emerge has it,... whaddaboutyou?


    Cheers!
    Thijs

  104. Why fvwm? by DrQu+xum · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Because Gnome isn't too swift with Cygwin/X11 on a Celeron 400 running 98SE* (hell, it doesn't even run!) Fvwm, keep on crankin'!

    *-Mum's computer. Mine runs OpenBSD ... and fvwm.

    --
    DrQu+xum: Proof that the lameness filter doesn't work.
  105. My first! by slasher999 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, started with RedHat's "Another Level" fvwm hack to work like AfterStep with 4.2, IIRC. Later moved to Window Maker. That lasted a few years until recently when KDE 3.x won me over. Played with Gnome with Sawmill (Sawfish) for a while - Gnome didn't impress me. Sawmill/Sawfish did.

  106. Re:Real men don't use shells w/job control by budgenator · · Score: 1

    HEY that's not funny, I just spent 6 hours fighting to get a Wyse 60 up with out knocking any of the other Wyse 60 down. Stupid 10 year old MoBo blew out 2 serial ports in a week, and if anything happens to a digiboard port, I'm going to have to reconfig one of the ports over from an unused printer config to a terminal config and in the process will have to learn more about $<0 openserver than I want to know because the support company went out of bussiness 5 years ago!

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  107. I take offense to that by silvaran · · Score: 2, Funny

    Real men eat pancakes in the morning, fart in bed, dress in women's clothing, and hang around in bars.

    Ok, I don't eat pancakes, fart in bed, _or_ hang around in bars. What was that about clothing?

  108. HyperCard Smut Stack by SimHacker · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I accidentally met the author of the HyperCard Smut Stack, several years ago at a dot-com trade show. I was ranting and raving with a group of people about pioneering forms of interactive multimedia, and of course I described the HyperCard Smut Stack with the nipples that go "ping" when you click on them.

    Then this guy I didn't know said "I wrote that". I stopped dead in my tracks, my jaw dropped on the floor, I rewound my mental tape of what I had been saying, played it back to myself, and asked incredulously "You wrote the HyperCard Smut Stack??!" He said yes, and proceeded to tell me all about it with pride. It really made his day for somebody to bring up his baby out of the blue like that.

    The guy who wrote the HyperCard Smut Stack is none other than Chuck Farnham, who is notorious in the San Francisco Bay area as a demented radio personality on Alex Bennett's "Live 105" morning radio show. "Yes this is the guy who puts food all over himself and lets people eat off of him."

    -Don

    --
    Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
  109. Re:Why bother by exspecto · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't share your opinion.

  110. Oh, you didn't hear? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Linux Gay Conspiracy unit has been reassigned, you are now the Apple Gay Conspirancy. Because our HQ has succesfully negotiated a deal with our long time ally, SCO, all of us homosexuals must now penetrate deeply into Apple's core. Love, Bill.

    1. Re:Oh, you didn't hear? by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 2, Funny

      This isn't fair. I'm Jewish, I didn't get in on the worldwide Jewish conspiracy. I'm an atheist, I didn't get in on the evil atheist conspiracy. Now I don't get in on the Gay conspiracys either? Life just isn't fiar.

      --
      Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
    2. Re:Oh, you didn't hear? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So let me get this straight. You're a gay Jew? You might as well set the oven on "incinerate," crawl in, and pull the door shut behind you. We'll clean up the ashes.

  111. what? by appleLaserWriter · · Score: 1

    Microsoft was involved in the Motif standard, but the only similarities between motif and windows are visual. Motif got the 3D look well before Windows did, but Windows figured out the desktop metaphor before X based systems did.

  112. fvwm vs KDE by baomike · · Score: 1

    When I installed my new version of Slackware (
    kind of tips off where this is going doesn't it) I tried KDE. It was pretty and pleasant but I could not figure out how to slide from window (view port ? ) to window. Where do you set the edge resitance in KDE? Anyhow back to fvwm , maybe next time I will
    try GNOME.
    I agree with some of the other posts , why make it
    look like windows? Make it look like what you want.

    1. Re:fvwm vs KDE by ocelotbob · · Score: 1
      Where do you set the edge resitance in KDE?

      Control Center -> Desktop - Window Behavior -> Advanced -> Active Desktop Borders

      I agree with you about the not looking like windows. I prefer a more NeXTish look to my desktop -- The minimize and the close buttons are all I really need on my titlebars. I like my flashiness subtle - something that both OS X and WinX seem to not provide. Closest I've found is the silver theme of XP.

      --

      Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses

  113. 80486SLC by budgenator · · Score: 1

    80486SLC was a cyrix chip that had 16 bit data bus, 24 bit memory addresses, and no math co. It performed somewhat better than a 386SX
    Mine was a 33Mhz w/16Meg of memory, I took it out of service because the harddisk failed, it's mobo and memory is still in storage. I wonder if you can still get a 25Mhz 80387 for it? would make a way cool nostalgia machine

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    1. Re:80486SLC by dadragon · · Score: 1

      Mine was a 33Mhz w/16Meg of memory, I took it out of service because the harddisk failed, it's mobo and memory is still in storage. I wonder if you can still get a 25Mhz 80387 for it? would make a way cool nostalgia machine

      Intel still makes the 386 series for embedded systems. It should be possible to buy one direct from Intel for much more than you'd pay on E-Bay. I don't know if they're compatible with what you got 15 years ago when you bought a 386 though.

      --
      God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
  114. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by Chundra · · Score: 2, Funny

    (Bonus points to those that have mucked around with X11 enough to know what greyweave is).

    Huh? You mean you can put images on the root window?

  115. Re:Why bother by ball-lightning · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't share your opinion.


    So what? They're a company. Loss of marketshare means loss of profits, loss jobs, loss of money (for shareholders, for CEOs, etc). Did you really expect them *not* to do anything? Of course not. The real question is, what does the Linux community really lose by not having everyone and their grandma using it? The people who use Linux right now, are the people who beleive Linux is the tool they need to get the job done. As long as that continues, whats the problem?

  116. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by axxackall · · Score: 2, Interesting
    You don't neet xterm - just switch to the text console VTY) and run programs from there. Oh, and don't forget to set DISPLAY variable.

    Hmm... it's seems like you don't neen even FVWM then, just run the naked X server!

    --

    Less is more !
  117. Others by DragonHawk · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Nostalgically twm would be more cool. fvwm, fvwm2, fvwm95, icewm, sawfish are the 'other' window managers."

    Actually, I think twm would be an 'other' as well. I believe the original window manager was xwm.

    http://www.plig.org/xwinman/others.html

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
  118. Re:IMPORTANT!!! The Linux Gay Conspiracy by The_Dougster · · Score: 1

    You blew our cover. You're fired!

    --
    Clickety Click ...
  119. Re:Why bother by exspecto · · Score: 0

    That was quite a long reply to a oneliner with no argument.

  120. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    That should be "person with whom you disagree". Your mama must have been too busy sucking cock to teach you anything.

  121. Re:Windows 3.0 is dead and buried, so should fvwm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah-- redundant, but like the poseter, I've tried kde and gnome numerous times and I always return to fvwm-- because it doesn't suck.

    It doesn't make applications fail. It just runs applications. I've thrown my hands up many times because of weird cofiguration problems with kde and gnome (all the while thinking, what the fuck is--,this win95?)

    fvwm is simple and it works.

    I despise windows because it tries to do too much. I despise gnome and kde for the same reasons. All the window manager should do is manage windows. Why would I want all that eye candy gumming up the works? It's useless.

  122. Re:Pixies suck... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    spanish bombs?

  123. Re:fvwm should be euthanized for the good of *nix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why should you care what other people think about yet other peoples' choice of window manager? I like fvwm, it works well, is fast and reliable. As a counter-example, Gnome and KDE take way too long to load, and their virtual desktop support isn't as refined (I love reflexively hitting control-arrow keys). And I think my .xsession/.fvwm2rc combination makes my desktop look very nice and elegant.

  124. Re:Real men don't use shells w/job control by winkydink · · Score: 1

    Does your mom count?

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  125. Sir, may I suggest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that you get a life?

    Thank you.

    1. Re:Sir, may I suggest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think about, you may realize that the people who use RedHat, want to upgrade with minimal fuss, and don't want to learn a new interface in the process, have something more important to do than fiddle with computers for the sake of fiddling. That something more important just might be a life. Then again, the original poster DID bitch about it on slashdot, so it's more likely his job.

  126. Re:Why bother by ball-lightning · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What can I say, I'm bored =D

  127. Laern the hard way by quantaman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My CS department has an old (at least I hope so) version of fvwm as the default WM with a particularily horrid colour scheme. I've heard the reason is to force the students to delve into the config files so avoid going insane.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  128. E16 and Hand of God by The_Dougster · · Score: 1

    Here is a link to the screeshot running on my little Debian/Arm Netwinder Apache webserver:

    My Screenshot [327850]

    Er... yeah that FVWM looks pretty nice (snicker).

    --
    Clickety Click ...
    1. Re:E16 and Hand of God by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you for reminding me how ugly X looks.

      Hey, 1987 called. It wants its fonts back.

  129. I still use twm... by jefp · · Score: 1

    ...but I have it configured to look like uwm.

  130. FVWM: The window manager I keep returning to by ChaosDiscord · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My first experience with Unix-esque systems and X-Windows was in 1993 when I started college. At the time my choice was TWM or FVWM. FVWM was clearly the more advanced option and one of the more advanced window managers at the time. (CDE looked advanced, but was more of a hassle than it was worth.)

    Since then I've tended to be lazy and taken what I was given, stuck with whatever was the default. As a result I spend a long time with Enlightenment followed by SawFish/SawMill. I've dabbled with a number of other window managers.

    Then last year (2002), I took a job back at my old university. The default was still FVWM! And while FVWM had matured, it remained instantly identifable. I hadn't used it in five years, but it came back instantly. It felt right. Sure, it lacks classy menus, but the configuration file was easy enough to use and let me set things up how I wanted. Most window managers are determined to stick the various window management buttons where they want them. FVWM makes it easy to stick them where I want them. It's a minimal WM, I don't run any of the modules except for the pager (to switch between virtual desktops) and the IconMan, a very minimal list of windows on each desktop. My desktop is spartan and I've discovered that I really like it.

  131. We already have an OS that does this by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

    It's OS X. And it looks nothing like Windows, and for me that's a huge point in its favor.

    1. Re:We already have an OS that does this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, OS X will only run on Apple hardware (unless anyone knows any different), while Linux and Windows will work on pretty much anything you throw at them these days..

  132. *sigh* ? by cje · · Score: 1

    (And yes, you are right, it started with SLS. And backups on a floppy streamer... And a VLB graphics card... And alt.os.linux... And kernel patches via Usenet...) *sigh*

    Why *sigh*? Them were the good ole days of Linux. ;-)

    --
    We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
  133. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wtf? long enough? shit. how old am I?

    Just out of curiousity-- why would you want a picture on your root window? Does all of your sratch paper have pictures of puppies on it?

  134. What I want in a window manager by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    • The ability to move, resize, and generally interact with a window while it remains in the background, partially hidden by other windows. (Sawfish can do this, I believe wmaker can...)
    • The ability to properly handle tabbed windows (a la fluxbox only better). e.g. I'd like the window manager to automatically add new windows into the proper group of tabs without me doing it manually each time. Can any wm's handle this? The webbrowser is not the place for tabs; the wm is. But until a wm can properly handle it...
    • The ability for a window's dialog/error popups to appear on its own virtual desktop rather than the desktop I'm currently viewing. Also the ability to start an application from, say, desktop 1 but have it open on desktop 2 while I wait back in desktop 1. Anyone...?

    I'm sure I left a few out. So, is there a wm that does all these things? Are these things possible? Have I just not read enough docs? Please, I'm here to learn.

  135. Re:Why bother by susehat · · Score: 1

    gnustep is getting better!. it is useable thank you very much. and, there is even an os based on it. http://simplygnustep.sourceforge.net/ there is a temporary lull as our main developer is out on a business trip, and we have to update the screen shots :-) , but it's getting there.

  136. Re:Windows 3.0 is dead and buried, so should fvwm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep in Mind that Windows is a complete Operating System.

    Of course it does "too much" when compared to fvwm.

  137. Re:Esp. when you try to pronounce it by Bastian · · Score: 2, Funny

    Especially when you try to pronounce it.

    I've heard attempts at putting every imaginable vowel sound between the letters in FVWM, and never with good results.

  138. fvwm2 is the best by meshko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think fvwm2 is the best window manager and I'm really happy to see this thread.
    I think that window manager/desktop must have the following features:
    * ability to start xterm instantaneously
    * pager which shows windows and their titles
    * flexible configuration in an editable file ... I think that's it.
    Now I know that there are some newer wms which can do that as well, but I think fvwm was the first one which offered this and I see no reason to switch.

    --
    I passed the Turing test.
  139. Re:and the V? by Bastian · · Score: 1

    Arright, so what the fsck does the V stand for?

  140. Windows offers a good interface.. by msimm · · Score: 1

    For a lot of people. Thats why there is a little bit of a push to emulate it. I'm not saying its the best, but it's fairly easy to understand and a lot of people have been trained to use it.

    Different strokes. The Linux community really seems to get that.

    A large part of the reason I switched from using Windows was so I could customize my operating system to better suit me (the explorer shell felt "clunky" to me). Although I did try things like Geoshell and Litestep it still felt "heavy" to me.

    I preffer Blackbox (the older sibling of your own Fluxbox).

    Anyhow, I seem to have drifted off. My point is a Windows style desktop manager would be great on Linux and let them complain. You and I know all we really need is a fast menu and a good background (and stuff). ;-)

    --
    Quack, quack.
    1. Re:Windows offers a good interface.. by crucini · · Score: 1

      Exactly, different strokes. I'm not complaining about the existence of the Windows imitators. Maybe they are even crucial to the survival of Linux. I just want to show a different perspective to those who dismiss normal window managers as not being Microsofty enough.

      I tried blackbox and gave up because it lacked just one feature - can't remember which one. I guess that's what's nice about FVWM/Afterstep/WindowMaker - they dont' just encode one guy's personality, but have enough options to suit anyone. What really sold me on fluxbox was the tabbed framesets. I think blackbox has that too.

  141. speaking of which... by Tuxinatorium · · Score: 1

    What is X and what does it have to do with fvwvqm, whatever that is?

  142. Call me crazy, but I still like fvwm. by mark-t · · Score: 2, Interesting
    For a reason that probably nobody else agrees with, but I like it anyways.

    The virtual desktop can be panned across, and you can set the physical desktop *anywhere* within the virtual desktop space, so the physical desktop isn't just constrained to be on coordinates in the virtual desktop that are integer multiples of the physical desktop size. AFAIK, none of the other more recent window managers have ever incorporated this idea, but it's far and away the feature I liked the most about it.

    1. Re:Call me crazy, but I still like fvwm. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Older ones like VTWM support panning, however.

    2. Re:Call me crazy, but I still like fvwm. by puetzk · · Score: 1

      well, XFree86 itself supports panning - just set a big virtual resolution for your monitor. so the WM doesn't really need to do this, the Xserver that most of us use can

      --
      The Matrix is going down for reboot now! Stopping reality: OK. The system is halted.
    3. Re:Call me crazy, but I still like fvwm. by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Ack, I hate that kinda panning... I don't want the whole screen to move just because I'm moving the mouse.

  143. Re:fvwm rocks! I still use it fvwm 1. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    keyboard short-cuts are easy to implement. Anything else is bloat.

    *cough* ratpoison *cough*

  144. Re:and the V? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Virtual.

  145. Re:And the W? by Bastian · · Score: 1

    Arright, smart guy. What about the W?

  146. BTW -- I run "Graphite" theme for Gnome by The_Dougster · · Score: 1

    ... which totally rocks, but is hard to find. Lets see if I can post the thing on my wee server, ah yes, I will post in into my /misc dir. You want to install the gnome pixmap theme first, which will give you support to run this awesome thing. Look at my "Gimp" window - used it to make my screenshot.

    Graphite 1.2.x Get it or you suck! (Its only a theme, you can switch them at your whim).

    E-16 + "Hand of God" + Gnome "Graphite" = Beauty!

    Try it... you'll like it!

    --
    Clickety Click ...
    1. Re:BTW -- I run "Graphite" theme for Gnome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, after seeing this, I have to say that Gnome looks quite buttfucking ugly. It's only marginally better than fvwm. The best in looks department in *NIX is probably KDE, but that's only relative. It's still quite fugly. After messing with Linux for a few months, I ran screaming back to WindowsXP.

      I'm running the Longhorn leaked prereleases, can you say *yum*?

  147. Re:Windows 3.0 is dead and buried, so should fvwm by javiercero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You seem to have a hard time understanding the difference between a window manager (fvwm) and a desktop environment (gnome).

  148. Re:Anyone else think that KDE and Gnome look avera by d2003xx · · Score: 1

    They don't look professional like this one

  149. Memorys by Felinoid · · Score: 1

    It kinda feels stupid now but I was afrade of GUIs before I used Linux.
    Here's the story.

    Back when I used Geos 64 very easy but having already learned CP/M at the time the GUI seamed very impractical. But fun and reasonably easy to learn for those not already familure with the command line.
    (You have to realise that CP/M had very few commands to remember. In this context "user friendly" is more the case of not frightening the user than actually helping him to understand anything)

    Then I went to Dos and Geoworks... Tried Windows and was thinking "This is user friendly?"
    After that I was pritty much afrade of trying out any GUI. Seamed to me that "User Friendly" was marketting for "Built for people who don't know better" and the hype had it that GUI was User Friendly.
    But I couldn't dodge the bullet forever. I'd already used Unix (AT&Ts 3B2) and already priced commertal *nixes (Only $100 for the users manual...) and desided Linux was the only option.

    Slackware was an easy enough choice for me.
    (I could walk over to Walnut Creek CD Rom at the time..)
    And the first GUI I saw on Linux was pritty decent. FVWM. I tried FVWM95 and the LesTif but found I prefered FVWM.

    Nice light weight easy and simple.
    Of course it wasn't FVWM alone that ended my phobia of GUIs. I switched around and used a lot of *nix GUI's before giving up my phobia.

    --
    I don't actually exist.
  150. Re:and the V? by puetzk · · Score: 1

    vwm == virtual window manager - aka, it's a window manager, and has the virtual desktops we've all come to know and love (and miss when using non-X11 systems)

    on the plus side, I just found out about http://desktopian.org/bb4win. My windows dev box is now much more tolerable :-)

    --
    The Matrix is going down for reboot now! Stopping reality: OK. The system is halted.
  151. Re:And the W? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Arright, smart guy. What about the W?

    Window

    (Yes, I know. I've been trolled)

  152. Re:Why bother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The GPL is pro-capitalism. Information isn't capital (it isn't "scarce" in the economic sense), and pretending it is deprives civilization of much of its value--for no better reason than to prop up our hopelessly outmoded system for compensating creative work. Look at the music and movie cartels to see how businesses built on exclusionary restrictions over information make a mockery of capitalism.

    The GPL is pro-innovation. While innovating isn't required, guaranteeing that it's possible for everyone is a large part of the reason Free Software (as in speech) exists. If a third party wants to add clustering (for instance) to the Windows 2000 kernel, they're screwed--with GNU/Linux it's actually been done!

  153. Re:Esp. when you try to pronounce it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fihv-uh-whum

  154. Usability by master_p · · Score: 1

    All I can say from the screenshots is that there may be usability issues. Icons are non-instructive, fonts are ugly, window decorations are misguiding (for example, what does the down arrow do ? minimize or close the app ?), etc etc.

    (As a side note, I installed KDE 3.0 recently. All is good, but I have two major complaints: 1) menu fonts are really big; text is jammed together, making it difficult to read; 2) the start menu has quite a lot of things that only long-time linux users know what they are.)

    I hope this is taken as constructive critisism. These guys do a hell of a job when it comes to programming, but there are still usability issues.

    1. Re:Usability by Simon+Brooke · · Score: 3, Insightful
      All I can say from the screenshots is that there may be usability issues. Icons are non-instructive, fonts are ugly, window decorations are misguiding (for example, what does the down arrow do ? minimize or close the app ?), etc etc.

      I think you're missing the point.

      fvwm and friends are not designed for or typically used by lusers. They are intended for and used by people who are in control of their machines and know how to manage them. If we don't like the icons or the window decorations, we'll just change them. My personal favourite, wm2 , does not provide any icons at all, and the only way to configure it is to hack the source and recompile. But it's elegant and it doesn't get in my way.

      Yes, so it wouldn't suit everybody. Who cares? I am not everybody, and one size does not fit all.

      --
      I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
    2. Re:Usability by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The screenshots have little to do with fvwm per se, they merely reflect the configuration of whoever created the screenshot.

      In fvwm, you can pretty much create your own window decorations, and that's what a lot of people do.

      I'm not sure what the defaults are now, but they used to be close to Motif. I don't think that the defaults have any relevance to most current users of fvwm...

      As for fonts...you can change those, and you can do that in KDE, too.

    3. Re:Usability by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 1

      and the only way to configure it is to hack the source and recompile

      ...because god knows an "options" dialog would be too "luserish".

    4. Re:Usability by master_p · · Score: 1

      fvwm and friends are not designed for or typically used by lusers

      Why not ? I think that configurability vs ease of use is a myth. These two qualities can be easily combined. All it takes is to think about it.

      Let me give you an example: why is so hard for KDE designers to realize that their start menu is wrong ? the font is wrong, and the menu is too crowded. What does that have to do with lusers ? a better menu would be a positive thing both for beginners and advanced users alike.

      That Linux is Unix-like is no excuse. Look at OS X: unix from the inside, Mac from the outside. It can be done. The myth that Linux is not for lusers should go away.

  155. Christ, fvwm sucks my second asshole... by Jeebus · · Score: 0, Troll

    It's not even worthy of my first asshole. God bless colitis, as it has given me a second asshold worthy of fvwm.

  156. AMEN by cjsnell · · Score: 1

    Finally, someone hits on the (only) reason I love and still use FVWM. The pager is the best. FVWM's pager is the only one that I've been able to set up so that I could scroll around the 2-D grid of desktops using Ctrl+Arrow_Key. I love my 3x3 array of desktops. I put an xterm in three of them and a browser in some and, with autofocus, switch between them without taking my hands off the keyboard.

    A few years back (well, seven or so, heh), I tried to hack the FvwmPager module so that it could be run in any WM but was unsucsessful.

    Actually, one other WM that I know of had a pager like this. OpenView (I think thats what it was called) came with my first Linux install back in late 93, IIRC, and I used it for a while on my 486/66 + 16M (!!!).

    1. Re:AMEN by cjsnell · · Score: 1


      Haha, I found an old-ass screenshot of my FVWM2 setup. Please ignore the stupid comments in the irc window. I was young and ignorant.

    2. Re:AMEN by blinky · · Score: 1

      Think it was olvwm, you could drag windows into/out of the pager to appear in the current view/page. That one only feature i wish the fvwm2 pager had.

  157. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Does all of your sratch paper have pictures of puppies on it?

    I understand the youngsters these days don't use paper any more, except in the toilet. For me, a black root window is as good as a white background on scratch paper.

  158. FVWM saved me from CDE by BenjyD · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For the first year of my PhD I was stuck with a sparcstation 5 on my desk (32Meg ram, processor like a fast 486). It ran CDE and it was just too painful for words.

    Installing FVWM gave me a faster, more usable desktop that kept me from going insane until we got the budget to buy a new computer (which unfortunately runs win2K, but I guess you can't have everything)

  159. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by Tet · · Score: 1
    Hmm... it's seems like you don't neen even FVWM then, just run the naked X server!

    Aahhhh, the memories. The first time I got X running on my Linux box was with TinyX, a slimmed down X11 that came on a single floppy. You basically got the X server, an xterm, but no window manager. Of course, in those misguided days, I wanted to run mwm, which was only available for Linux at vast expense (lesstif hadn't evolved that far then).

    --
    "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
  160. woohoo by Z4rd0Z · · Score: 1

    Dude, this is awesome! Give 'em another year or two, and by the time 1990 rolls around, this is going to be one kickass windowing environment!

    Wait a minute, just kidding, don't freak out. It actually looks all right (except for those X-y fonts), and I haven't used it in so long I might just cd /usr/ports...make install clean it for fun.

    --
    You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
  161. Re:And the W? by Bastian · · Score: 1

    But thanks for biting. Pulling off a troll with such obvious bait gives me the self-esteem boost I need to make it possible for me to face each day.

  162. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not just Unix GUIs.

  163. Re:IMPORTANT!!! The Linux Gay Conspiracy by grub · · Score: 1


    A wonderful troll! Bravo!

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  164. fvwm saved my wrists by Ella+the+Cat · · Score: 1

    I'm asking for trouble with that subject line, but many thanks and happy birthday to fvwm. I use it because you can bind everything that matters to your idea of sensible keys (using a text based config file instead of a bloated control panel with nested dialogs) and that really helps avoid RSI.

  165. Re:Windows 3.0 is dead and buried, so should fvwm by fault0 · · Score: 1

    >
    fvwm is simple and it works.

    What the hell? You talk about configuration problems with KDE and GNOME, yet fvwm is practically one of the hardest window managers to configure properly.

  166. Re:Why bother by fault0 · · Score: 1

    > Like, say, apps with hybrid command line/graphic interfaces.

    KDE can do this-- Konqueror can split views and embed konsole in one... duo cmd line/file manager/web browser/KitchenSync.

    > But then again, neither me nor you nor anyone can make Linux developers do this or that; everybody is free to choose what to do with our Linux-hacking time.

    Yup. People will work on what they want to, what they are interested in, and what the beleive in.

  167. Re:fvwm rocks! I still use it fvwm 1. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fvwm is so much more bloated than ratpoison. when ratpoison came out, I ditched fvwm like a old piece of meat.

    Of course, since I got my p4 3.06 (with HT, mind you), I've been using KDE more and more. I miss some of the keyboard shortcuts, even with all the GUI effects on, it runs as fast as fvwm or ratpoison.

  168. Re:Why not just.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just wonder why you need a WM to run xvidtune.

  169. Happy B-Day! by GypC · · Score: 1

    Nowadays, FVWM has "COOL" features like antialiased text, rotated text, text drop shadows, text outline shadow (I've never seen text outline shadow anywhere else), semi-transparent widgets, etc, etc.

    Unfortunately, most of the users seem to be extremely design-impaired / color-blind, so most of the screenshots on the web are ass-ugly. But don't let that stop you, people. You can make it look however you want.

  170. fvwm2 and Destop Environments by jschrod · · Score: 1
    As a fvwm user since more than 15 years, and one who has tried both KDE and Gnome and has gone back to fvwm -- to those, who complain that fvwm is no substitute for a desktop environment:

    Boys, I don't need no friggin' desktop environment. I got XEmacs. Go home to your kindergarten and keep on playing in your sandpit.

    Now, where is my Usenet-proofed asbestos underwear...

    --

    Joachim

    People don't write Manifestos any more -- what's going on in this world? [Frank Zappa]

  171. Flanders! by root+66 · · Score: 1

    Damn Neighbours.... making their own window managers now....

    --
    -- I love the smell of Blue Screens in the morning.
  172. Re:why didn't this window manager die LONG AGO? by SN74S181 · · Score: 1

    Funny only in the same sense that road kill smells funny after a day or two.

  173. FVWM and it's audience. by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    Call me a nittpicker, but this is what gives *everyone* introduced to GNU/Linux the creeps.
    Even with themes those desktops more than often look like someone did doo-doo on those screens.
    I never was convinced by fvwm and its shoddy-looking, pixelfont-ridden little gadgets on the screen. They where introduced to me 5 years ago and look crappy back then allready.
    Here I'd like to hail Enlightenment and GKrellm, projects that actually managed to look like something done by people not completely colorblind.

    Mod me down, but to me fvwm, along with Motifs bizar font technologies is one of those odd anacronisims of GNU/Linux that I would want begone rather sooner than later. Those geeks who still use fvwm, do as you please, but you might want to switch your WM before showing of Linux to some n00b, or else it could be that they think you're a little far out.
    Oh, and Happy Birthday anyway. :-)

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  174. Re:Why bother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The GPL is pro-capitalism.

    Oh, really? Then can you explain the anti-corporate propaganda on the Gnu web site?

    Information isn't capital (it isn't "scarce" in the economic sense)

    Wrong. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of economics. The only thing that determines whether a thing is an economic object or not is whether it behaves like one. If I have information and you lack it, I can give it to you in exchange for consideration. Therefore information is most definitely capital.

    Those who say it isn't are most often those who reject the idea of property outright, and that's inherently anti-capitalist on its face, so there's no point in discussing that position.

    Look at the music and movie cartels

    Do you even know what the word "cartel" means? You should look it up. Or maybe it's your grasp of reality that's flawed. One or the other.

    The GPL is pro-innovation.

    How do you justify this with the clause in the GPL that says you HAVE to give away your source code FOR NOTHING to ANYONE who wants it? How is that pro-innovation? "Yes, you can innovate, but you may not sell what you create." Whatever.

    While innovating isn't required, guaranteeing that it's possible for everyone is a large part of the reason Free Software (as in speech) exists.

    Which would explain why there has never been any form of innovation in any "free software" (as in absurdly restricted) product ever. A lot of people have thrown away their work by releasing software under the GPL, but nobody has EVER taken that work, innovated, and shipped it back into the community.

    Where's the real innovation happening? Places like Apple and others, that take truly free software (i.e., BSD-licensed software) and build something wonderful with it. Profit motive. It's a glorious thing. And the GPL seeks to torpedo it and send it straight to the bottom.

    If a third party wants to add clustering (for instance) to the Windows 2000 kernel, they're screwed--with GNU/Linux it's actually been done!

    There are many third-party clustering solutions for Windows 2000. You don't know what you're talking about.

  175. OI VEY by Holocaust+Administra · · Score: 0

    What is it with these Jewish religious fanatics? They're as bad as the right wing Christians. Funny, both groups seem to serve Jewish interests though.

    --
    Just say No.
  176. Re:fvwm allowed me to make my perfect linux deskto by Hatta · · Score: 1

    Why a desktop image? That just adds to the clutter. *box with the Cthulain suits me well. The background is a cool slate blue-grey that's real easy on the eyes, there are no icons to get in the way. and with openbox I can change desktops/windowshade windows with the wheel mouse. Simplistic. yes. But it beats the hell out of explorer.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  177. Re:Why bother by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful
    All of this command line junk that is left from Unix of the 60's should at least be made transparent for the majority of tasks.

    How? and Why? The command line is there for a reason. It's easier to construct arbitrary commands and handle a lot of options with a command line. Say you're using something like cdrecord. Do you really need a GUI? type $cdrecord image.iso and let 'er fly. If you need a special option, is it easier to page through a bunch of tabs and checkboxes, or / through a man page? I'd say it's easier to / through a man page, plus once you know what you're gonna use, a simple wrapper script will do it every time.


    And when you hide the CLI, how are you going to implement piping? How can you use conditionals and variables? You can't do this simply in a GUI, and that's why the CLI is so powerful. Do a little bash scripting, and you'll soon be using for loops and &&, and $() on the command line. If you think the CLI is just "left over", you don't really know how to use it.


    Someone on slashdot said, "The difference between windows and linux is not that linux lacks a decent GUI, but windows lacks a decent CLI." I totally agree. I don't know how windows users get by without bash. With tab completion, history, wildcards, grep, sed and dozens of other command line tools, I can move, view, and convert my data faster than a windows user could traverse a graphical directory tree to find the same files. Think about it, with a CLI you press the buttons and it happens. There's no looking for anything. It may be a bit confusing at first, but it's faster in the long run, and you can do things the interface designer never intended or imagined.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  178. [fvwm] auto-sorting menus by crucini · · Score: 1
    Thanks for a well thought-out reply. I don't think, though, that calling me a troll and zealot added much to its value. I'll just address one issue now, since I think it's fairly central to our disconnect:
    My computer use varies from month to month and I find it damn convenient that the applications I find myself using the most I don't have to navigate to find. Perhaps you are too blinded by your anti-microsoft zealotism to see how handy something like that can be, but to many of us it is. I WILL criticize microsoft as they have done a half assed job with their OS and application suites, but I am not so blinded that I will not give credit where credit is due.

    I don't start many GUI applications. (Browser is always running, xterms launched from a keybinding.) When I do, I just type 'xfig &' or whatever. No need for a menu. My background menu launches terminals ssh'd to various servers. It's arranged hierarchically by site. I don't want the WM resorting it based on usage, because it's already sorted correctly.

    In a nutshell, you like Microsoft's idea but not their implementation. Hence, KDE - a hopefully superior implementation of the Microsoft idea. I don't like Microsft's idea, and the poor implementation was just icing on the cake.
    1. Re:[fvwm] auto-sorting menus by be-fan · · Score: 1

      You can do all that in KDE too. If you don't like auto-rearranged menus, you can turn that off (which I do). KDE is completely different from Microsoft's ideas. KDE is ultimately configurable. By default, it comes configured to look and feel a lot like Windows, but if you're as elite of a user as you think you are, you'll have no problem configuring it to your taste.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    2. Re:[fvwm] auto-sorting menus by crucini · · Score: 1

      That's the trouble with software rivalry - software is so malleable. Emacs has a vi mode - so why does vi[m] even still exist? Well, as a vi user, I pretty much assume that vi does a better job of being vi than Emacs does. I don't really want to conduct a big experiment and note all the shortcomings, especially since all the shortcomings would be met with some excuse like "That's the best we can do given the way Emacs processes key-events." And Windows with SFU is theoreticaly Unix - more Unix than Linux is. But I don't see too many Unix folks deliberately choosing that configuration.

      My path to fluxbox ran through Afterstep. All the really cool features that initially impressed me about afterstep got on my nerves after a while, until I had shut off almost every option. At that point I realized a minimal window manager (*box, ice, aewm, etc) does a better job of being a minimal window manager than afterstep can.

      My colleague recently went through a similar transition from KDE to fluxbox. While I don't know the details, I think he's more comfortable.

      I could turn it around and claim that fvwm with the right add-ons (panels, configurators, file explorers) is just like KDE, but we both know it would be a house of cards.

  179. what I need to be productive by Tancred · · Score: 1

    I've used a lot of WM's over the last decade and have kept coming back to fvwm since '95 or so. I'm so much more productive when I'm on a linux box and my custom setup than with other window managers or in windows or on my new mac (hoping I'll get used to its shortcomings soon). For network engineering, I mostly need lots of xterms (or rxvt's or what have you) and some browser windows that are easily organized and easy to get around between. Everything below is something that I have had trouble with in mac osx, windows, kde, gnome or other wm's/environments. If anyone thinks there's another interface that does everything I list (note that lots of them can do some or most of this), let me know and I'll try it out sometime.

    - most importantly, i need about 10 virtual desktops, with a scaled down view of windows on each desktop and the ability to easily drag a window to another desktop. the pager should always be on top (i.e. never covered)

    - the ability to move around the screen easily via keyboard. e.g. i use shift-arrow to move from virtual desktop to virtual desktop, ctrl-arrow to move 10 or 20 pixels at a time, and shift-ctrl-arrow to move 1 or 2 pixels at a time. note that those last two can take me to another virtual desktop. the mouse however, i can move as much as i like without flipping to another desktop. i can click a desktop on the pager if i don't want to go back to the keyboard

    - four clean terminal windows easily fit per screen with readable text. font size should be easily changed (e.g. right-click and pull down to the size you want). also, windows must be resizeable by grabbing and dragging any side. anyone know an easier way around the default (right corner only) resize limitation in mac osx?

    - cut and paste has to be quick and easy - e.g. highlight in one window and middle-click in another. this is my main obstacle to liking mac osx. someone tell me there's a tweak for this somewhere without just running x in root mode (which I've been holding off on)

    - customizable menus that come up when clicking the desktop to save real estate versus a dock or task bar or whatever. should have options for move, close, and kill.

    - unless someone got focus follows thought worked out, here's what i want: sloppy focus follows mouse, no auto-raising of windows (i need to look at one window and type in another), and one raise window key combo that with one press raises or lowers the window in focus and with additional use cycles through all windows on that desktop

    - not a hard and fast requirement, but i do prefer a config file that's easy to grep through than endless menus. i list this just as a barrier to entry. for all i know lots of wm's have done all of the above for quite some time, but i've gotten frustrated with poor config menus and given up on them.

  180. (fvwm) Red Hat by crucini · · Score: 1

    I sense that Red Hat is moving away from users like you and me. Yes, I also run Red Hat. It's time to move on to Gentoo or Debian.

  181. Re:Esp. when you try to pronounce it by cperciva · · Score: 1

    You don't speak Welsh, do you?

  182. GWM (was Re:IMPORTANT!!! The Linux Gay Conspiracy) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was hoping for something about GWM, the Generic Window Manager, which I used for a while... It was none too speedy on my Sparc LX, but it was pretty flexible.

    I tried to xmkmf it a year or so ago but the libraries are too changed. I didn't feel like playing too much, so I gave up.

  183. STFU!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    Since I'm using Gentoo

    I started out on Red Hat 5.0


    Name dropping wanna be 31337 fagghorx! Quit sucking your own dick in public!

  184. MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mr. Garrison: I heard there is no Christmas
    In the silly Middle East
    No trees, no snow, no Santa Claus
    They have different religious beliefs

    They believe in Muhammad
    And not in our holiday
    And so every December
    I go to the Middle East and say...

    "Hey there Mr. Muslim
    Merry fucking Christmas
    Put down that book the Koran
    And hear some holiday wishes.

    In case you haven't noticed
    It's Jesus's birthday.
    So get off your heathen Muslim ass
    and fucking celebrate.

    There is no holiday season in India I've heard
    They don't hang up their stockings
    And that is just absurd!

    They've never read a Christmas story.
    They don't know what Rudolph is about
    And that is why in December
    I'll go to India and shout...

    Hey there Mr. Hinduist
    Merry fucking Christmas
    Drink eggnog and eat some beef
    And pass it to the missus.

    In case you haven't noticed
    It's Jesus's birthday
    So get off your heathen Hindu ass
    and fucking celebrate!

    Now I heard that in Japan
    Everyone just lives in sin
    They pray to several gods
    And put needles in their skin.

    On December 25th
    All they do is eat a cake
    And that is why I go to Japan
    And walk around and say...

    Hey there Mr. Shintoist
    Merry fucking Christmas
    God is going to kick your ass
    You infidelic pagan scum.

    In case you haven't noticed
    There's festive things to do
    So lets all rejoice for Jesus
    And Merry fucking Christmas to you.

    On Christmas day I travel `round the world and say,
    Taoists, Krishnas, Buddhists, and all you atheists too,
    Merry Fucking Christmas, To You!

    (Clapping)

    Thank you Mr. hat