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I'm not surprised at the sun workstation requirement. All those screenshots reminded me of CDE. Was it just repackaged Solaris stuff? Edit. The answer is yes.
by dmead 5y ago
I'm not surprised at the sun workstation requirement. All those screenshots reminded me of CDE. Was it just repackaged Solaris stuff?
Edit. The answer is yes.
- jhbadger 5y agoNo, but it was licensed Motif (the widget set that CDE used). GeoWorks was excellent at what we would call "themes". The released versions allowed the user to choose widgets that either looked like early Microsoft Windows or Motif. And there were screenshots of unreleased builds that allowed Macintosh and NextStep theming as well, but these weren't shipped (probably over fears of their legality).
- coldacid 5y agoPC/GEOS took the Motif appearance, but I'm pretty certain that it didn't include the actual Motif toolkit. The source was essentially all hand-tuned x86 assembly. It would have been impossible to simply repackage anything from SunOS (Solaris didn't exist yet).
- notacoward 5y agoSeems very unlikely, at least until near the end of the product's lifetime. CDE and the underlying infrastructure were implemented in network-oriented and not-very-efficient ways that would not have been very compatible with contemporary PCs let alone the C64 where GEOS started. The SunOS (not Solaris yet) build requirement was a different reflection of that capability gap, similar to why I had to use a PC to develop software for an even less powerful Apple IIgs at around the same time. The appearance might have been similar, perhaps even deliberately, but copying the implementation would not have been a route to even the minimal success they had.