# FVWM

28 Hacker News commenters recommended FVWM and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 25 years (7 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Lightweight, long-lived X11 window manager that people praise for deep configurability and low memory use; configuration takes effort and the default look feels dated.

## Why people recommend it

- Lightweight on memory and CPU (7 comments): "Fvwm ran exactly that way on my Pentium-60 and I do not recall ever experiencing performance or latency issues" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46584975)) "Gnome / KDE on Wayland will use far more memory than FVWM / Fluxbox on X11" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648769)) "it was much lighter on memory than the window manager I was using" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46295470))
- Highly configurable, can mimic any interface (7 comments): "I have such a setup (using FVWM with customized key bindings and virtual layout that I like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46488052)) "It's important to remember that fvwm is customisable so it doesn't need to look dated." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49834020)) "I like the Win95 aesthetic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46293277))
- Long-running favourite for years (6 comments): "The original fvwm also holds a special place, that was the first I used in GNU/Linux, back in 1995" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46237775)) "nothing better exists :o) not for the lack of trying mind you !" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46298615)) "I still use it (shout out taviso iykyk)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46292864))
- Multiple screens and virtual desktops (2 comments): "Fvwm2 was brilliant with its multiple screens and controlling the mouse using arrow keys" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46180202)) "X with FVWM gave me so much more virtual desktop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49414601))

## What people warn about

- Configuration is difficult or painful (3 comments): "I like the Win95 aesthetic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46293277)) "The configuration is painful but every tiny thing can be adapted." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49829902)) "FVWM? Perl? Oh noez! Such complication! ;>" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46611685))
- Dated Windows 95 look (2 comments): "This looks a little too Windows 95, but the dock is a nice reminder that it's X Windows." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46291368)) "It's pretty visually accurate, fonts notwithstanding" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46292512))
- Fvwm95 fork is stale (3 comments): "FVWM95 was encouraged by power users and developers to stop being used in favor of FVWM3" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46291995)) "fvwm95 was a fork of fvwm2 and has remained in that state, and never updated." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46307015)) "I was not a fan of the evolution into fvwm-95" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46292702))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Hyprland](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hyprland.md): 82 recommend
- [Enlightenment window manager](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enlightenment.md): 51 recommend
- [dwm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dwm.md): 22 recommend
- [Window Maker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windowmaker.md): 21 recommend
- [Compiz](https://hackerapproved.com/p/compiz.md): 15 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "FVWM", https://hackerapproved.com/p/fvwm/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).