If you've noticed a disruption in the time-space continuum recently, it is likely because I have finally been able to compile and install the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) in a current and actively-developed operating system (OpenBSD 6.2 in this case).
Since it's been a while - I love CDE.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-07-06
I don't know about anyone else, but having used CDE on Solaris for a year as a young(er) professional, I'm fairly comfortable in my position that CDE was horrible because it was a terrible user experience with endless non-discoverable functionality, non-orthogonal usability, required a text editor to make anything but the most basic configuration changes, and yes, was ugly.
Member since:2010-03-11
I used CDE on Solaris back in the 90s. I thought it was an okay experience and that might have grown out of the fact it was one of the earlier full blown desktop environments I'd used. Up until then I'd been mostly command line only, with some limited exposure to Windows 98.
Coming from a mostly DOS background I certainly found it easier to adapt to the CDE desktop than the complexity of the Unix command line.
Member since:2005-08-18
Member since:2005-07-11
The looks were not THAT bad for its time (mid to late 90s). But it was so incredibly bloody slow, and was a nightmare to use.
What i remember the most was it being an intelligence test to start an Xterm (ironic on a unix system) and waiting for the damn blinking yellow light to stop blinking so it would actually react to clicks.
I don't understand why anyone on a Sun machine would run this over OpenWindows. By the time the Ultra 5 was released, KDE 1.0 had luckily been released, and after that CDE has just been an unpleasant memory for me
Member since:
2007-02-18
Based on looks?