Window Maker was created in 1997 by Alfredo Kojima as a clean-room rewrite after he grew frustrated with the limitations of AfterStep. It became the intended window manager for the GNUstep desktop environment.
Written from scratch in C using Xlib directly (not based on FVWM code), Window Maker implemented the WINGs widget toolkit for its own interface elements. It featured dockapps (small applet applications that dock into the interface), multiple workspaces, and a preferences utility (WPrefs) that was itself a GNUstep application.
Alfredo Kojima, a Brazilian programmer and one of AfterStep's core developers, became frustrated with the inability to implement desired features within AfterStep's FVWM-derived architecture. In 1997, rather than continuing to modify AfterStep, he started Window Maker as a clean-room rewrite, designed from the ground up to faithfully reproduce the NeXTSTEP user interface while serving as the official window manager for the GNUstep project.
Window Maker quickly gained popularity for its faithful recreation of NeXTSTEP's look and feel, including appicons for minimized windows, a dock for launching applications, and the clip for workspace management. It was included as a default option in several Linux distributions during the late 1990s and early 2000s, including some versions of Red Hat Linux.
The last release under the original developers was 0.92.0 in 2005, after which development stalled. In 2012, Carlos R. Mafra, who had been maintaining a fork on Git, released Window Maker 0.95.1, reviving the project with modern improvements.
Alfredo Kojima begins Window Maker as a clean-room rewrite
Window Maker included in several Linux distributions
Last release (0.92.0) under original developers
Project revived by Carlos R. Mafra with version 0.95.1
Window Maker represented a second-generation fork (twm -> FVWM -> AfterStep -> Window Maker) that surpassed its parent in popularity. It preserved the NeXTSTEP interface paradigm in the open source world and became the standard companion for GNUstep development.