In an attempt to convince The Open Group that they finally want to fully Open Source Motif and CDE Peter Howkins has started a petition to help gauge how much interest there is. CDE, the Common Desktop Enviroment, was the default desktop on several commercial UNIX distributions. Motif is a X Windows widget
API used in many programs, including CDE
and other projects such as nedit and DDD. Howkins is not going to try to convince anyone to use either of them, but if you use them and would like to see them Open Sourced please sign the petition. For more background information about CDE and this petition visit the petition site or go straight to signing the petition.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-07-06
True, true; at least with Motif applications; sure, they weren't flashy, they didn't set the world alight in terms of eye candy, but they did, however, integrate well with the desktop environment, and were consistent - a Motif application, regardless of vendor, worked as a Motif application expected.
The Application Manager, file manager, the whole kit 'n caboodle is easy to understand and navigate, my old man was able to sit down and start using Sun's Solaris CDE without any need of learning a thing, the icons were self explanatory, the system configuration features were straight to the point.
Member since:2006-01-19
I had to work on a CDE desktop for 3 years.
As far as I am concerned CDE is:
- not providing the functionality I need
- wasting TWO (!) iconhights of my precious desktop space
- cannot be configured to provide the functionality I need and wasting less space.
- When I maximize a window, the CDE Panel hides part of the maximized window.
I never found out if this behaviour can be changed or not, although searching for several hours on the web.
To me, CDE is the tightjacket version of a Desktop. Sorry, but that was exactly how it felt.
Maybe they have good and consistent HIGs and stuff, but what they offer the user is too inflexible. I had loads of buttons in my panel which I never needed, and loads of stuff I would have liked there was not available.
Member since:
2005-06-29
CDE is the BEST desktop environment when it comes to consistency, both graphically and behaviourally.
ANY other DE can learn a great deal from CDE, because next to CDE, every other modern DE, be it Finder, Explorer, GNOME, or whatever, is an unpredictable incoherent mess.
UI design is about more than flashy graphics. It saddens me to see that current-day computer users are too shortsighted to look beyond the external appearance.