AfterStep originated from the BowMan window manager, developed by Bo Yang in the early 1990s as a modification of FVWM to emulate NeXTSTEP's distinctive user interface. Dan Weeks, Frank Fejes, and Alfredo Kojima took over BowMan's development and expanded it significantly, renaming it AfterStep to reflect its goal of recreating the NeXTSTEP experience 'after' NeXT Inc. ceased hardware production.

AfterStep built upon FVWM's modular framework, adding NeXTSTEP-style elements such as the dock (a vertical application launcher), the Wharf (a customizable panel), and distinctive window decorations with the characteristic NeXT titlebar style. It became popular among Unix users who admired the NeXT aesthetic but couldn't afford NeXT hardware.

However, internal disagreements about the project's direction led Alfredo Kojima to leave AfterStep and create Window Maker in 1997, a clean-room rewrite intended as the official window manager for the GNUstep project. This represented a second-generation fork -- a fork of a fork -- and became more popular than AfterStep itself.

AfterStep demonstrated that Unix desktops could be aesthetically sophisticated, not just functional. It influenced the broader Linux desktop aesthetics movement and showed that visual design could be a primary motivator for a fork. The project also spawned Window Maker, which became the preferred window manager for the GNUstep ecosystem.