Submitted by FVWM-Crystal is an eye-candy, functional and ultra-fast desktop environment for GNU/Linux and Unix, based on FVWM. Crystal can be used even on very old machines, thus it is a noticeable alternative to popular desktop choices like XFCE or Fluxbox.
FVWM-Crystal 3.0.4: Speed and Transparency
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
FVWM-Crystal is indeed a pretty and clean transformation of FVWM, but i’m sorry but every time i remember FVWM i remember the Win95 UI. I guess it’s the default FVWM look yet
Wrong. It’s a default, but in Fvwm95 project. Clean FVWM has a default of grey screen with nothing on it
Please read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FVWM and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FVWM95 for more info on those two.
Yeah, you right. That is my memory from old times with RedHat 5.2
That explains it. Don’t judge fvwm by the atrosity that Redhat used to package and call fvwm. Definately not the same. FVWM-Crystal is nice but to me it doesn’t seem to be much more than fvwm+a-nice-theme. Is this newsworthy, or did I miss something obvious here?
Maybe you should remember fvwm-xpm instead. It was after all the precusor to the development of Enlightenment, and should be flashy-enough for anyone.
Really enjoyed the article – the enthusiasm is so clear. This, things like elive, slax, its the true spirit of open source, people just doing things they like, with other like minded people joining in. Its the antithesis of the ‘computer as appliance’ that ‘just works’ with ‘user interface guidelines’ fascism. These guys will never dream of doing Bob the paperclip. Its really a celebration of a certain innocent diversity and enthusiasm. We aren’t all alike, one size doesn’t fit all, and we are not here to control you or even hold your hand.
And who knows, might just try it.
“Me too”
I like the screenshots more tho
might be a nice setup for some lower end hardware or to eek some extra juice from newer stuff.
Is anyone else worried that we will get this in yet another *buntu format soon?
Crystalbuntu – sounds great
Just kidding.
What about Cubuntu?
i wasnt until you mentioned it
Looks good.
They should also release it with an installer like XFCE’s one.
Would probably improve their user base.
I like it. It has many config options, as “recipes” and on my machine running Ubuntu Breezy.. gnome ..well anything seems to suck a lot of resources.. this is nice and light and still has some nice eyecandy.. great job guys.. its my default desktop for the time being.
and it took awhile for me to consider it again.
Recently I had installed a copy of RH 5.x on VPC on my iBook. It was as bad in emulation as when I first tried it (included in a beginner’s linux book). I played with it for a month or two, got tired of it and dumped it. I couldn’t even get Dillo installed, because no version of bunzip would install on it.
But I might give Crystal FVWM a try on some old machines at work.
I’m using an old 800mhz P3 laptop with only 256mb ram on school, and xubuntu is slow as hell on it with more than one app running at a time. Think I’ll try this tomorrow, looks pretty slick.
Edited 2006-09-18 02:15
Very impressive…5 years ago.
I’ll stick with KDE thanks.
I don’t know if I agree with how good of an alternativ e it is to fluxbox. I think the desktop is too cluttered. I admit I haven’t tried it, but I probably won’t either. I didn’t really see any feature in there I don’t have in fluxbox.