What is "qvwm"

Qvwm is a simple, lightweight window manager, which is intended to be a reimplementation of the Windows 95 interface for Linux systems. Released in 1996 under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), it features a start menu, a taskbar incorporating a system tray, and Windows-like task-switching. The project's name comes from wordplay references to Japanese words and Roman numbers. In 2000, Linux Format called Qvwm "an unusually impressive imposter".

Unlike Windows 95's registry, Qvwm uses a textual configuration file. Qvwm includes virtual desktops, a feature lacking in Windows 95. One reviewer criticized this practice as "against qvwm's stated purpose." Apart from standard X libraries, the only software library it depends on is X PixMap (libxpm). The developers had intended to develop a full class library called libqv but this never occurred.

The original author of Qvwm, Kenichi Kourai, no longer maintains it, but in 2006 the project was picked up by Ivan Kurmanov, who applied patches made by the Debian project and added features of his own.