FVWM-Crystal aims to create an easy to use, eye-candy but also powerful desktop environment for Linux or other Unix-like operating systems. It can be easily extended with external programs like Thunar or ROX-Filer, MPD, XMMS2, AlsaPlayer or MPlayer as music/media players (there's built-in support for controlling these programs), and several other tools for different functions, like setting a wallpaper or making screen shots. The icons are from the Tango project and from the 2 pictures Ken's Icons http://www.five-star.com/icons.htm.

Some interesting features are a FreeDesktop compliant applications menu with support for the additional categories, support for the XDG user directories and for the mounted partitions with configurable icons on the dekstop, 17 different recipes (or themes), esay to use font preferences dialog with full xft support, and more.

Please dont just copy the files but read the INSTALL and README files. It is just to run something like
make prefix=/usr install
as root and you will be done.

On Debian and Ubuntu, you can install fvwm-crystal with apt-get, on gentoo with emerge (It is even an ebuild into the pro-audio overlay that will install the development version from the svn repository.). Arch also have up-to-date versions. For the other distributions, you can have very old versions or up-to-date versions.

Version 3.7.2
-------------

Fvwm Crystal 3.7.2 is out.

This release is an important bug fix and new features release.

- Initial IPTV support for mplayer.
From the playlist menu, fvwwm-crystal can download the playlists from the internet
and will incorporate them into the playliste menu.

By default, all IPTV categories are supported, but the nsfw
cateegory is disabled. Its preference file is into FVWM_CONFIGDIR/preferences,
so that only a sysadmin can change it. For the other categories,
a preference setting is provided into the playlist menu.

- Fix nasty Piperead calls into the mplayer control that could freeze fvwm.

- Fix the Fullscreen functions for use with fvwm3. That should also work with fvwm2
and fix these functions for the browser windows and other windows using
the F11 Fullscreen mode or similar Fullscreen functions.

- Various improvements, fixes and cleanup. See ChangeLog for details.

Power to the people,

Version 3.7.1
-------------

Fvwm Crystal 3.7.1 is an important bug fix release.

- Fix X failure at fvwm-crystal start when sh is dash (Debian and derivatives).

It introduce some minor bug fixes and feature as well:

- Use StartFunction with Test (Init) instead of the deprecated InitFunction.
This male the Startup file in the preferences folder to be more reliable
with fvwm3.

- Add alsamixer launcher in the Startup file with support for the current
Mixer preference setting.

- Start FvwmMFL when running fvwm3.

- Add support for FvwmPrompt (fvwm3 with golang support only) into the
FvwmMiniConsole. Fvwm2 and fvwm3 without golang are supported as before
via FvwmConsole.

As always, see ChangeLog for details.

Have fun!

Version 3.7.0
-------------

Fvwm Crystal 3.7.0 is out!

This release add fvwm3 support and a minor fix.

- Initial fvwm3 support. It should work out of the box.

- Support for fvwm3 debug mode vie environmental variables.
See 'man fvwm-crystal' for the details.

- Xephyr nested sessions: make the different fvwm versions use different FVWM_USERDIR:
fvwm: ~/.fvwm; fvwm2: ~/.fvwm2; fvwm3: ~/.fvwm3 and fvwm-themes: ~/.fvwm-themes.

- Fix temperature sensor path in the CpuTmp applet.

See ChangeLog for details.

Version 3.6.6
-------------

Fvwm Crystal 3.6.6 is out!

This is a bug fix and new features release:

- Fix libreofficce icons styles.

- New addons/Xdefaults.no_transparency and Xresources.no_transparency files;
they add support for non transparent terminals.

- Fix the size of the desktop manager (Icons on dekstop).
The widget was too big verticaly, which could be an issue when configured
to display a lot of icons.

- Add complete EWMH support for the size and the placement of the desktop manager.
This fix collision with the magic button bar of the Custom recipe.
I never constated such collision, but it was possible in theory.

Anyway, this should be fixed now and this support, plus the geometry fix,
make the visual to lock better.

Enjoy!

Version 3.6.5
-------------

Fvwm Crystal 3.6.5 is out!

This is an important bug fix release:

- Fix the application icon styles when the application menu
is generated.

See ChangeLog for details.

Systematic testing is the b-a-ba of a modern medical fight
against a pandemy.
No systematic testing is eugenism!

Have fun!

Version 3.6.4
-------------

Fvwm Crystal 3.6.4 is out!

This release provide a few new features and updates:

- The Panel font preferences is applied to GTK+ 2 and 3
as the default font.

- '3.11: How to get a consistant look between toolkits'
into the FAQ is updated to reflct the current state of Qt.

- xpenguins and xsnow are added into the application database,
as well than a few audio application launchers.

- Added icon styles for the Brave browser.

- Automatic generation of the application menu: Fix for when
the date of newly installed desktop files is older that
their installation date.
Comment the style fix, it is not needed anymore.

Version 3.6.3
-------------

Fvwm Crystal 3.6.3 is out!

This is a bug fix release:

- Fix the mpd FvwmScript applets.

This fix add a dependency on python-mpd available
on github as python-mp2. It must be part of most
GNU/linux distributions.

It is a little bit slow at that time, but hopefully
all the issues with these applets should be fixed.

Version 3.6.2
-------------
This is a bug fix release:

- Fix the Show Custom Button Bar at top preferences to work on the same border with the mouse.
- Fix outdated conditions syntax in Window-List, this remove the warning at start.


Version 3.6.1
-------------
This is a bug fix release:

- Fix media players styles after start and restart.
- Use new exec name in the xmms2 audio player control.
- Fullscreen function: fix nasty loops with the Schedule/Deschedule of the stay in fullscreen browser workaround.

and a few minor fixes. See the ChangeLog file.

Have fun!


Version 3.6.0
-------------
Code name "Magic Star"

Fvwm Crystal 3.6.0 is a big step forward.

- Dependencies updated to >=fvwm-2.6.9 and python3.
- A configurable button bar along with the Custom new recipe are providing a contemporary look. It have its own preference menu and can be placed on any side of the desktop.
- Left click: menu or application launcher
- Middle cllick: remove the button and redraw the bar
- Right click: preference menu, a new button will be placed at the right of the clicked button
- New Italian translation
- Support for FVWM_*DIR at fvwm-crystal invocation, see 'man fvwm-crystal'.
- Support for Icon and MiniIcon fvwm Styles for each application found during the application menu generation.
- Support of automatic restart of urxvtc when crashed.
- Silent the application database. This make the login shell (and fvwm-crystal logfile if any), to be less poluted by external applications.
- Improved the systemd Exit menu with hibernate/resume support.
- Screenlid suspend-hibrid support with preference
- Cadence support into the Music menu and Music GUI key binding
- Mouse velocity preference (default: system value)
- The python scripts are updated to python 3. They was tested with python 2 and should work, but that's not officialy supported anymore.
- Update of the Fullscreen fonction to the new fvwm builtin function with workaround about non ewmh compliant browsers. That update simplify this function and make it to work better.
- Improved support of different button sizes into the recipes with preferences.
- The ACPI applets will be shown only when the required hardware is found.
- New window decorations Buttons-amigaos-Fullscreen and Buttons-amigaos-MiniIcon-Fullscreen. A left click on the second button will bring the window in fullscreen. The existing amigaos button models will now maximize the window.

As always, numerous fixes, bugfixes and new applications and icons for the application menu. Most important ones:

- The EWMH working area was reverted to its original function and improved. It should work fine with all recipes and with both the desktop manager and the new button bar when activated.
- Fix support of svg application icons.
- Temporary fix for the Font preferences applet crashing at launch with some colorsets (due to a fvwm bug). It can look uggly but should work with all colorsets.
- Fix the media players styles. This also fix their icons at top layer after a recipe change bug.

See ChangeLog for the details.

I tested fvwm-crystal with fvwm 3. It mostly work and is usable, but that's not supported at that time.
Anyway, that's a very good news for the future of fvwm-crystal.

A big thank you to the fwvm workers for their dedication to fvwm
and for their support!

A big thank you to Star the dog and to the translators!

With the new Custom recipe and its magic button, fvwm-crystal get a modern look and a terrific customizable multiple launcher.
This imply most effort into its development will be focused into making it fvwm3 fully compliant. Which in turn mostly imply to update the fvwm dialogs to fvwm scripts at that time of writing.

Translations, fixes and bugfixes will continue to be applied.

New functions and other improvements will be accepted, but for my part, they will be part of a general reflexion about what I want to do with fvwm-crystal.

I know what I don't want: a full rewrite would be a time consuming catastrophe, because we will loose all the history including numerous fixes.
Also, as fvwm-crystal has been more and more extended with time, I think a tooltip system must be added.
Beside that, I would appreciate very much any ideas or contributions.


Version 3.4.0
-------------

Fvwm-Crystal 3.4.0 brings new exiting features and many bug fixes.

- Support for Hibernation/Suspend via pm-utils, include automatic
hibernation when the battery become low
- Support for /etc/sudoers.d: to be in the fvwm-crystal group will let you use the commands in the Exit menu
- The AlsaMixer control can use any ALSA 'Volume' control in the system.
- fvwm-crystal.generate-menu: add bmp, gif, jpg, pcx, ppm and tga formats to icon generation; use first picture when source have several pictures, fix to make more icons, use awk instead of piped commands, cleanup, helper script to launch the menu generation automatically.
- New XDG application menu via Alt + A with preference. For best result, install fvwm-xdg-menu from https://github.com/domichel/fvwm-xdg-menu. For this to work, you will need fvwm from cvs.
- A few key bindings changes.
- New instantaneous screen blanking function via Alt + O (as found on laptops)
- Default terminal: support for urxvtd
- New full screen preference to start application(s) in full screen by default
- Wallpaper menu: support for different thumbnail sizes, fix for space(s) in the file names/paths
- Media players: support for alsaplayer in daemon mode
- New colorsets for the ACPI aplets
- Fix for the tool-tip function, use it to show the volume at volume change, and the current song with mplayer and alsaplayer
- Fvwm-Crystal desktop icons: support for arbitrary directories
- some new icons
- cleanup and graphical fixes for the Lap* recipes
- Updated German translation by Thomas Funk
- New UTF-8 Frisian and Dutch translations contribued by Alwin
- Many fixes and idea from Alwin
- Fully rewritten addons/make.pot by Alwin
- fix for recipe reloading. Hopefully, it will work in any case (restart, automatic reloading from the preferences or external scripts like fvwm-crystal.generate-menu.
- The support for the gnome terminal is broken due to a bug in gnome terminal: the preference will work, it will start with the right click on the desktop, but will fail to launch external programs.
They needed 2 years to fix a previous similar bug, and only 2 months to introduce this one...
- Desktop icons: Initial support for simple-mtpfs, usefull for devices like some mobile phones. The mounting and unmounting of the devices must be managed separately
- Per Recipe Placement Preference
- Many fixes
- Fix for the desktop Icons when resuming from a NoIcon style
- Many fixes for the Preferences Editor

Many minor fixes and improvements I don't have the place to put here. See the ChangeLog for details.
And enjoy that new and exiting release!

Version 3.3.2
-------------
Fvwm-Crystal-3.3.2 is out. It bring:

- 2 new recipes for laptops with ACPI support
- a smaller clock button to fit these recipes

The fixes are:
- force the Gambas applications to not use their specified user and program location, but let fvwm do its job.
- increased delay before bringing the nesteed Xephyr sessions in full screen.
- ACPI batterie applet: changed the checks from /dev to /sys; patch from Debian.
- recipe Default with ACPI: height and colorset in the bottom bar; removed IconMan button warning.
- recipe Lapleft and LapRight: fix stalonetray startup with 1 icon width in the preferences; the clock use now a fixed 24 pixels height.
- Stalonetray give now the same alpha rendering than trayer, instead of the inverse rendering.
- the launch of the the nested Xephyr session use now $HOME directly instead of a nasty infostore variable. This is both simpler and more robust.

Version 3.3.1
-------------
Fvwm-Crystal-3.3.1 bring a new and complete Dutch translation. Thanks to lost+found for that. It is also several fixes:

- added dependency on xdg-user-dirs in the INSTALL file.
- Preferences: SilentOps will apply immediatly.
- Added missing strings and corrected typos into the locale files.
- Updated the French locale.
- New seek function for the mpd control.
- Various fix for the seek functions with AlsaPlayer and MPlayer.
- Fix quoting and special characters into the mpd menu.

3.3.0 is released.
------------------
The major new features are:

- New menu option Preference editor that launch an editor for the previously
lost preferences.
- New menu option for random loop wallpapers. This work only with the
wallpapers in $FVWM_USERDIR.
- A few new applications for the menu. Removed an old entry and the wrongly
spelled "Rythm" category.
- The nested X sessions are now launched in full screen.
- A Key Modifer Editor. It can be launched from the prefenrece menu and
replace the non working Ardour key bindings.
- A pot file is now present into the addons directory.
You can use it as a base for new translations.
All the non sorted locale files was also sorted in alphabetical order.

Fixes and other features:
- More bashisms fixes in various places. A big thank you to Martin Vath for the
review and the fixes!
- Fixes for the focus policy styles at wallpaper redraw and with Fvwm-Buttons:
That fixes the erratic buzzy cursor with some recipes.
- Fix the update info line function in the Silent Hacker and Amiga recipe.
This fix contribute to fix the random buzzy cursor issue.
- Fix the redraw of stalonetray at wallpaper changes.
- Workaround for the Load file menu with mplyaer with a new preferences setting.
If you encounter issues with directories not being displayed in that menu,
choose No icon in the preferences. It will work much better.
For the detail, see the ChangeLog.
- The fullscreen function now remove its temporary files in /tmp.
- The FVWM-Crystal Icon manager clean up its helper script at FVWM-Crystal
exit or FVWM exit/crash.
- FVWM-Crystal check for orphaned files in /tmp at statup and clean up them if any.
- When used as nested sessions, FVWM and FVWM-Themes will not mix their files
with Crystal any more.
- Fix for the focus of buggy Wine windows.
- Removed outdated and non working Ardour key bindings.
- A few minor fixes into the menus like typos, etc.
- Fixed one more time the A and AT function for the recent syntax changes of
xfce4-terminal and x-terminal-emulator (Debian terminal).
- Fix for the A function with infostore variables.
- The Mplayer control will create the ~/.mplayer directory if it doesn't exist,
this before making its pipe in that directory.
- Fix moving of FVWMCrystalFAQ file during the asciidoc man page generation.
- Added userconfig examples in FAQ: 3.2.
- Moved the terminal geometries from the styles to addons/Xdefault. This is
where theys must be and that made possible to remove a fvwm-event, and
to fix the issue with terminals being placed outside of the screen.
Another big thank you to Martin Vath for pointing that out.


3.2.5 provides bugfixes and new features.

- Introduction of a screen resolution menu into the main Crystal menu.
- Some new applications and icons for the applications menu.
- Introduction of a form for users feedback via the About dialog.

Internal changes:

- Moved FVWM-Crystal menu from the recipes to functions/Fvwm-Crystal-Menu.
- Fixes for the recipe reload without restart.
- Fix the resolutions order in the screen resolution scripts.
- Fix for double applications menu after its regeneration.
- Fix the RTSynth(-jack) application launcher and added missing icons.
- Moved around the Music menu.
- Corrected some wrong menu strings for MPlayer and AlsaPlayer.
- Fix for disappearing tray icons at recipe change.
- To close a menu and open another one with a single click doesn't work
with recent Xorg versions, changed the Desktop menu context to be immediate.

3.2.4 is new features release

- Added transmission support in the application menu
- Added mount/umount support in the FVWM-Crystal desktop manager.

This last feature is a most wanted feature for a desktop manager. It provide the following functions:

- mount/umount support for the partitions using the user(s) key in /etc/fstab
- pmount support for mounting/unmounting the removable USB and Firewire devices.
- pmount-gui support.

3.2.3 is a distribution improvement release.

The only changes are the pythyon shebangs was reverted to python2, which make the python scripts compatible with python2 >= 2.5 (that was tested with python-2.5, 2.6 and 2.7), and the Copying file is not installed anymore, which make easier for GNU/Linux distributions to package Fvwm-Crystal.

3.2.2 is a bug fix release which address a possible cursor freeze with the toggle mute and/or pause function.

A new toggle mute only function was added as well with the Ctrl + XF86AudioMute key binding.

3.2.1 is out. This is a bug fixes release which stabilize the installation process with different prefix, make FVWM-Crystal to be more robust and consistant.

However, there are a few new features:

- The preferences doesn't use a restart anymore.
- Added ac3, flv and ts file formats to the playlist generation.
- New functions:
Alt + Shift + D rearrange the windows to their original size and location.
Alt + Shift + F toggle in full screen all the windows on the current desktop page.
XF86AudioMute toggle mute and/or pause.

Other interesting features are translucency support (using transset and xcompmgr); a Bling bling module; DVDNAV and DVB support with the MPlayer control; and last but not least, the FullScreen mode provide an Amiga OS like stack of full-screened applications. See this like an innovative way to flow through the desktop space without compromizing the traditional X multiple desktop pages.

To be noted: FVWM-Crystal will not screw up existing FVWM configurations.