9 ms·

CDE Open Sourced

46 points by jonathansizz 14y ago

opminion 14y ago
Just what we needed, a timely contribution to help bring Linux to the desktop. /sarcasm
- spudlyo 14y ago
  Maybe soon we'll have open source Motif, then I'll finally be able to not give a shit. Funny timing though, I'm pretty sure I saw a Motif app or two on one of the screens at NASA during the Curiosity landing.
  - ktsmith 14y ago
    You saw XVD when they were displaying the images from the rover: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20090032078 http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20090032078
  - rjsw 14y ago
    What is wrong with Open Motif: http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif/ http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif/ ?
    - lmm 14y ago
      If you'd actually read the page you link to you'd see the part where it says "Read the faq for clarifications on the license... such as why Open Motif does not meet the Open Source definition."
- LiroXIV 14y ago
  Touche.
- zerostar07 14y ago
  Finally! Now I can hope for fat window borders on my phone!
Zenst 14y ago
Excellent, was always my favorite GUI as was compact, fast, and could get on with things with the only real distraction being xeye's that you could get bored of very soon.
- rogerbinns 14y ago
  You what? I worked on a competitor to CDE. We existed first and were actually compact and fast. When CDE was announced it put a serious dent in our business, but then was vapourware for quite a while so our sales returned. And once available was bloated, ugly and slow. We also had a side business in the graphical toolkit CDE used (Motif). Basically we took the Motif from OSF, fixed bugs and made a whole host of similar improvements and then sold and supported the result. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IXI_Limited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IXI_Limited
  - Zenst 14y ago
    Sorry to hear CDE hits a nerve with you. Vaugly recall your product from my days at DHL and when we looked at UNIX on the desktop with SCO, but SCO etc priced themselfs out of the market on that one on comparision to windows. So what happened to your GUI today? As for Motif, well OSF is the Open Source Foundation right and if so selling open source, can see how that business model worked out. IIRC your GUI was mostly desktop/PC based and in that CDE wasn't a competitor so i'm somewhat confused, but I belive you.
    - bijupunalor 14y ago
      Open Software Foundation (or "Oppose Sun forever"), they were never about "open source" but was a corporate group originally formed to fight AT&T/Sun and later Microsoft/WinNT. Despite millions of dollars investment in R&D and product development, they didn't produce anything of value. They also failed miserably in competing against Windows-NT. Except BSD, none of "traditional UNIX" had much to do with open-source. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Software_Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Software_Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USL_v._BSDi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USL_v._BSDi
meepmorp 14y ago
I like that it's on Sourceforge, as though they're inviting people to ignore it. That said, I'll probably try building it over the weekend, just for nostalgia's sake.
nnq 14y ago
what's amazing is that something like CDE's default look seems very "clean" and utilitarian in a sense, after so much exposure to modern desktop environments... it's like the computer screaming at you: "it's about getting things done, Sticky, not about aesthetic masturbation!"...
dlinder 14y ago
I read this as: "CDE open sourced..." <audience laughter, comedic pause> "...on SourceForge" <riotous laughter, fade to black>
- barbs 14y ago
  Pardon my ignorance, but what's wrong with SourceForge? Is it simply not as popular as other open-source project sites?
  - noselasd 14y ago
    * Bog down slow. * Unhelpful user interface with a bad/non-existing thought to workflow. * Annoys the user.(You want to download that 30k file, please wait 5..4..3..2..1..).
  - tomjakubowski 14y ago
    Obnoxious ads everywhere, download page with countdown timer, and as you mentioned the OSS community has largely abandoned it. Do you think this doesn't matter?
  - owyn 14y ago
    Sourceforge was great back in the day when it was the only (?) option for public code hosting besides running your own site, but it's not as "cool" now... it feels like most projects have left, only abandoned projects remain. Putting a "new" project there seems strange. I don't know if that's due to functionality or not though, maybe it's just that the UI feels dated. Even with free offerings, people pay attention to the usability and UI, and although I've never run a project using sourceforge, I don't think I'd ever choose (or recommend) it over github or bitbucket. I'd love to hear reasons why I'm wrong on that opinion?
    - gt384u 14y ago
      I had a conversation with a senior engineer on SourceForge where he pointed out that most people forget that developers are actually a minority of their business: most of their users are nontechnical people that come to them to download binaries of things like zip utilities.
madrona 14y ago
Bad memories of writing CS assignments on overtaxed Sun workstations, with that crap WM. I fetishized those expensive purple boxes until I had to use one.
- apgwoz 14y ago
  You mean you didn't just use XDM to switch to a different environment like everyone else in the know? I just switched to FVWM, which was my favorite window manager at the time.
- dfc 14y ago
  SGI Indys were my purple box fetish.
  - wazoox 14y ago
    You mean Indigo, the Indy is blue :) (mine doesn't work anymore, alas, but the Octane is doing great).
- Gmo 14y ago
  Exactly the same experience here ... Can't say I'm a big fan of CDE, but it was obviously from the previous decade ...
einhverfr 14y ago
CDE... Oh the memories. This is a good thing. Those few unfortunate souls who have to care will now have free access to the code in order to figure out the problems they are having.....
SwellJoe 14y ago
I remember when CDE was awesome. It was not during this decade, er, century... I think it would be useful for us to all pause and think about what being on the right side of history looks like. CDE could have gone open source back in the 90s and been extremely relevant and useful. I'm glad it's happened because I think there's value in having an accurate and complete software archaelogical history...but I doubt anyone will be digging into this as a project to do current work on.
Flow 14y ago
Slightly off-topic: What if they open sourced Open Step? Is that even possible to do? Would that change open source Un*x desktops forever or would no-one care?
- zokier 14y ago
  I doubt that it would have significant impact. There is already GNUstep which is GNU implementation/clone of OpenStep.
- aaronbrethorst 14y ago
  In addition to GNUstep, there's also Cocotron: http://www.cocotron.org http://www.cocotron.org
JulianMorrison 14y ago
I wonder if this might actually be useful for people on very restricted (or legacy) hardware? How does it stack up against eg: LXDE?
voodoochilo 14y ago
hah, finally!
abalashov 14y ago
Speak for yourselves, I'm excited! Unity and GNOME and all the other useless crap civilisation has invented over the last decade and a half? Get off my lawn!

CDE Open Sourced

46 points by jonathansizz 14y ago

opminion 14y ago

Just what we needed, a timely contribution to help bring Linux to the desktop. /sarcasm

spudlyo 14y ago
Maybe soon we'll have open source Motif, then I'll finally be able to not give a shit. Funny timing though, I'm pretty sure I saw a Motif app or two on one of the screens at NASA during the Curiosity landing.
- ktsmith 14y ago
  You saw XVD when they were displaying the images from the rover: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20090032078 http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20090032078
- rjsw 14y ago
  What is wrong with Open Motif: http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif/ http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif/ ?
  - lmm 14y ago
    If you'd actually read the page you link to you'd see the part where it says "Read the faq for clarifications on the license... such as why Open Motif does not meet the Open Source definition."
LiroXIV 14y ago
Touche.
zerostar07 14y ago
Finally! Now I can hope for fat window borders on my phone!

Zenst 14y ago

Excellent, was always my favorite GUI as was compact, fast, and could get on with things with the only real distraction being xeye's that you could get bored of very soon.

rogerbinns 14y ago
You what? I worked on a competitor to CDE. We existed first and were actually compact and fast. When CDE was announced it put a serious dent in our business, but then was vapourware for quite a while so our sales returned. And once available was bloated, ugly and slow. We also had a side business in the graphical toolkit CDE used (Motif). Basically we took the Motif from OSF, fixed bugs and made a whole host of similar improvements and then sold and supported the result. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IXI_Limited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IXI_Limited
- Zenst 14y ago
  Sorry to hear CDE hits a nerve with you. Vaugly recall your product from my days at DHL and when we looked at UNIX on the desktop with SCO, but SCO etc priced themselfs out of the market on that one on comparision to windows. So what happened to your GUI today? As for Motif, well OSF is the Open Source Foundation right and if so selling open source, can see how that business model worked out. IIRC your GUI was mostly desktop/PC based and in that CDE wasn't a competitor so i'm somewhat confused, but I belive you.
  - bijupunalor 14y ago
    Open Software Foundation (or "Oppose Sun forever"), they were never about "open source" but was a corporate group originally formed to fight AT&T/Sun and later Microsoft/WinNT. Despite millions of dollars investment in R&D and product development, they didn't produce anything of value. They also failed miserably in competing against Windows-NT. Except BSD, none of "traditional UNIX" had much to do with open-source. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Software_Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Software_Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USL_v._BSDi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USL_v._BSDi

meepmorp 14y ago

I like that it's on Sourceforge, as though they're inviting people to ignore it. That said, I'll probably try building it over the weekend, just for nostalgia's sake.

nnq 14y ago

what's amazing is that something like CDE's default look seems very "clean" and utilitarian in a sense, after so much exposure to modern desktop environments... it's like the computer screaming at you: "it's about getting things done, Sticky, not about aesthetic masturbation!"...

dlinder 14y ago

I read this as: "CDE open sourced..." <audience laughter, comedic pause> "...on SourceForge" <riotous laughter, fade to black>

barbs 14y ago
Pardon my ignorance, but what's wrong with SourceForge? Is it simply not as popular as other open-source project sites?
- noselasd 14y ago
  * Bog down slow. * Unhelpful user interface with a bad/non-existing thought to workflow. * Annoys the user.(You want to download that 30k file, please wait 5..4..3..2..1..).
- tomjakubowski 14y ago
  Obnoxious ads everywhere, download page with countdown timer, and as you mentioned the OSS community has largely abandoned it. Do you think this doesn't matter?
- owyn 14y ago
  Sourceforge was great back in the day when it was the only (?) option for public code hosting besides running your own site, but it's not as "cool" now... it feels like most projects have left, only abandoned projects remain. Putting a "new" project there seems strange. I don't know if that's due to functionality or not though, maybe it's just that the UI feels dated. Even with free offerings, people pay attention to the usability and UI, and although I've never run a project using sourceforge, I don't think I'd ever choose (or recommend) it over github or bitbucket. I'd love to hear reasons why I'm wrong on that opinion?
  - gt384u 14y ago
    I had a conversation with a senior engineer on SourceForge where he pointed out that most people forget that developers are actually a minority of their business: most of their users are nontechnical people that come to them to download binaries of things like zip utilities.

madrona 14y ago

Bad memories of writing CS assignments on overtaxed Sun workstations, with that crap WM. I fetishized those expensive purple boxes until I had to use one.

apgwoz 14y ago
You mean you didn't just use XDM to switch to a different environment like everyone else in the know? I just switched to FVWM, which was my favorite window manager at the time.
dfc 14y ago
SGI Indys were my purple box fetish.
- wazoox 14y ago
  You mean Indigo, the Indy is blue :) (mine doesn't work anymore, alas, but the Octane is doing great).
Gmo 14y ago
Exactly the same experience here ... Can't say I'm a big fan of CDE, but it was obviously from the previous decade ...

einhverfr 14y ago

CDE... Oh the memories. This is a good thing. Those few unfortunate souls who have to care will now have free access to the code in order to figure out the problems they are having.....

SwellJoe 14y ago

I remember when CDE was awesome. It was not during this decade, er, century... I think it would be useful for us to all pause and think about what being on the right side of history looks like. CDE could have gone open source back in the 90s and been extremely relevant and useful. I'm glad it's happened because I think there's value in having an accurate and complete software archaelogical history...but I doubt anyone will be digging into this as a project to do current work on.

Flow 14y ago

Slightly off-topic: What if they open sourced Open Step? Is that even possible to do? Would that change open source Un*x desktops forever or would no-one care?

zokier 14y ago
I doubt that it would have significant impact. There is already GNUstep which is GNU implementation/clone of OpenStep.
aaronbrethorst 14y ago
In addition to GNUstep, there's also Cocotron: http://www.cocotron.org http://www.cocotron.org

JulianMorrison 14y ago

I wonder if this might actually be useful for people on very restricted (or legacy) hardware? How does it stack up against eg: LXDE?

voodoochilo 14y ago

hah, finally!

abalashov 14y ago

Speak for yourselves, I'm excited! Unity and GNOME and all the other useless crap civilisation has invented over the last decade and a half? Get off my lawn!