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1 • CDE on (Open)VMS (by brad on 2022-01-10 01:08:13 GMT from United States)
Yup, that was one of my first experiences with GUI's on a non-Windows OS.
2 • CDE on a Sun Blade with Solaris (by marti on 2022-01-10 01:36:10 GMT from United States)
I loved that Sun Blade workstation with Solaris 8 and Rational ClearDDTS. Too bad it was at an evil Intel agency at which I had to sell my soul. I'll end up paying for that.....
3 • The Common Desktop Environment is history (by Heinz on 2022-01-10 01:52:01 GMT from United States)
CDE looks interesting only in the context of its place in the development of modern computing. I can’t imagine ever wanting to take the time to install it, let alone use it on a production machine.
4 • Does being a Sun employee count? (by bigbenaugust on 2022-01-10 02:14:16 GMT from United States)
Used it for several years on Solaris.
5 • CDE was Simple, and Universal (by Graham on 2022-01-10 02:20:33 GMT from Australia)
I used CDE on the Solaris, HP and DEC machines that my organization had in service, and subsequently on SCO machines at another organization.
So of course I now use XFCE on the machines that I currently access, because it's probably the closest thing to CDE that's now available.
It's a pity that CDE isn't currently available as a Snap for current Ubuntu and derivative operating systems.
6 • CDE (by gatton on 2022-01-10 02:35:24 GMT from United States)
I'm surprised Jesse didn't check out the NsCDE project.
https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE
7 • CDE in Debian Unstable (by Andy Prough on 2022-01-10 02:38:27 GMT from United States)
CDE is in Debian/Devuan unstable, you should be able to try it again soon once it moves over from testing I would thing. Or just dist-upgrade your Debian 11 installation to unstable, and install CDE from there.
8 • CDE (by Friar Tux on 2022-01-10 02:51:11 GMT from Canada)
I came across CDE a few years ago. It reminded me of my favourite Windows 95 theme as it had the "normal" task bar, not the one pictured in Jesse's example. Now-a-days, if I feel the need for nostalgia, I use the OneStepBack theme by Jean-Pierre Bucciol (the darker version). It's pretty close. I've reworked the colours more to my liking but it has that CDE/Motif/Win 95 charm.
9 • CDE again (by Friar Tux on 2022-01-10 03:15:28 GMT from Canada)
By the way, if you want the actual CDE theme try this:-
https://www.pling.com/p/1231025
10 • Dolphin (by Shawn Rogers on 2022-01-10 03:34:06 GMT from United States)
I wish we could also get an unmount option for dolphin. ATM it only has "safely remove", which completely removes the mounted device, and has to be reattached to the PC to be mounted again.
11 • CDE - mainframe fork of WIMP (ex-XEROX) (by Greg Zeng on 2022-01-10 03:52:22 GMT from Australia)
There are many attempts to simplify the CLI dominance of computers. The microcomputers of the 1970's had Wordstar, Visicalc, Supercalc, and other
CLI and Window Managers (WM), keyboard only.
Xerox researched their Desktop Environment "metaphor", often called WIMP: Windows, Icon, Mouse, Pointer.
Microsoft tried its version of WIMP, after Apple "borrowed" these Xerox experiments. Unix (including BSD) and Linux (including Android) then tried their Desktop versions, including the CDE version mentioned in Wikipedia, and this Distrowatch article. Many coders released versions of WIMP: Atari & Commodore included.
Linux improvements to the original WIMP settings have been numerous: XFCE, GNOME-2, KDE, GNOME-3, and others. Currently no Desktop aenvironment has yet the luxury to be correct, nor suitable enough to stisfy the rapidle evolving user requirements.
Linux (with Android) and BSD (with Apple) have more serious demands. Rapidly evolving are storage, system management & user interfaces. User interfaces need multiple inputs: touch, proximity, eye & body sensing, multiple work stations, and complex security demands.
The three biggest market areas for end-user interfaces are Android, Apple and Microsoft. Linux is playing catchup, with beta-only versions of Wayland, Flatpak and BTRFS, especially in the KDE & GNOME interfaces. The old Unix CLI and their alternatives are very far behind.
12 • @11 (by Simon on 2022-01-10 05:02:17 GMT from New Zealand)
Shells are not "far behind" clumsy GUI interfaces, any more than Ferraris and Lamborghinis are "far behind" modern electric cars just because the electric cars are more recent and complex. New versions of shells like BASH continue to be released. Competent users continue to use them. The fact that a drooling idiot can stab at pictures on a touch screen doesn't make the modern interface objectively "better" than an interface that requires learning and competence...it just makes it better for the drooling idiot. For some tasks, shells remain more powerful and efficient than GUI tools. In terms of power and flexibility they're still miles ahead of modern GUI alternatives.
13 • NsCDE (by Ali on 2022-01-10 05:52:45 GMT from Iran)
@Jesse
There is NsCDE, please take a look and provide one of your great reviews.
" NsCDE is a retro but powerful UNIX desktop environment which resembles CDE look (and partially feel) but with a more powerful and flexible framework beneath-the-surface, more suited for 21st century unix-like and Linux systems and user requirements than original CDE"
https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE
14 • CDE (by OneHue on 2022-01-10 06:00:44 GMT from Mali)
Yes, I used the NsCDE incarnation on SparkyLinux.
15 • a ghost from 1995 (by yikes!! on 2022-01-10 06:20:53 GMT from New Zealand)
CDE? Curious, so I scrolled down. And staring back at me was a ghost last seen circa 1995. Wow.
16 • Dolphin (by lupus on 2022-01-10 06:27:52 GMT from Germany)
It's not that often I agree with Linus Sebastian on anything but Dolphin..... If only there was a way to uninstall that piece of crap and use another File Manager...... but wait this is Linux which means there is and it's always the first thing I do when I try out another KDE DE. For me it's not worth the effort of hard working people to maintain that particular piece of Software. Let it die and rot in hell where it belongs
17 • CDE... yes and no (by Microlinux on 2022-01-10 06:49:39 GMT from France)
Back in 1996 Olivier Fourdan built an open source version of CDE and named it... Xfce. I'm surprised so few people know this.
18 • CDE (by Fabio on 2022-01-10 08:08:35 GMT from Italy)
I used CDE in 90th in Solaris and Unix machines from Digital when i was
a student and after at work before the progressive substitution of this
expensive machines with Linux workstations running generally redhat and Gnome desktops in the first years 2000. I have a good memories of
CDE (i suppose that modern desktop environments relies on concepts
developed with CDE) but returning back to this last century technology
make no sense today. Just for nostalgy or for fun. I have to say that
for work reasons i yet compile or use some old applications using Motif in modern PCs (for example the editor nedit). If i remember well CDE was based on Motif.
19 • Parental controls (by Someguy on 2022-01-10 09:47:26 GMT from United Kingdom)
Kids are smart, just a matter of time before they'll outsmart parents. Tin boxes are 2-a-penny so give them one of their own. Run the mains plug to your own bedroom/where-ever. Ban outright laptops from your house - they're thoroughly nasty, unreliable monstrosities anyway, so doing yourself a favour. Then there's mobile phones! [Never use them, personally, too many interlopers - landlines are almost secure except from GCHQ and BT] Ultimately, all your efforts will be thwarted when they go for a 'sleep-over' with their mates/share a mobile with friends at school. There's an entire industry of crooks, ne'er-do-wells, pushers,' entrepreneurs' out there just waiting to pervert your offspring, divert their funds and welcome them to communities of alternative lifestyles, etc. Best option is good home life, good education, good example & hope. Nothing new in that advice.
20 • CDE was nice (by CDE was nice on 2022-01-10 09:50:02 GMT from Italy)
I, too, used CDE while studying IT engineering, and I definitely preferred that above olvwm. That's why I've been using Xfce since many years: it sounds like being the easiest and nearest approach to CDE paradigm. But should an official CDE package for Debian be released, I'd quite give that a chance.
21 • @12 Gui vs shell (by Angel on 2022-01-10 09:52:42 GMT from Philippines)
I can't count how many times I've heard or read someone expounding on the relative efficiency of shell vs GUI. Perhaps you might explain in words even this drooling idiot can understand. More efficient at doing what? Using a modern office app? Choosing videos to stream from a web-page? Video conference calls? Online gaming? Using messaging apps? I could go on, but perhaps you don't realize that the majority of non-drooling non-geek-cultist non-idiots have other things to do than engage in geeky pursuits requiring time and effort learning arcane expressions. Even the Catholic church gave up om Latin. And by the way, Ferrari automobiles are incredibly complex machines, many times more so than electric cars.
22 • Motif and CDE (by Curious on 2022-01-10 10:07:36 GMT from Canada)
Speaking of Motif and CDE, seem to recall there was an open source version of Motiff called Lesstif available on old versions of Slackware.
Doing a search turns up: http://lesstif.sourceforge.net
And: lesstif.sf.net
Licensed under lpgl.
23 • re my comment 22 on lesstif (by Curious on 2022-01-10 10:15:03 GMT from Canada)
Reading through the lesstiff page, noticed the last release was in 2009, and it was considered freeware, released under lpgl.
Then under that, it is mentioned that as of 2012, Motiff was released under lpgl, that lesstif developers had "moved on", so best to use versions of Motiff as of 2012.
24 • CDE (by xChris on 2022-01-10 10:53:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
CDE is nice, but I m not fan of it's dock, waste of display space, I had the opportunity to play with it on Sun Systems, but I was more fan of the OpenWindows , way lean interface.
25 • CDE (by Otis on 2022-01-10 12:21:34 GMT from United States)
Never heard of it but found myself jealous that I had not been exposed to CDE in my early forays from Windows decades ago. The earliest stuff I remember were the first browsers and email utilities, etc. Thank you for the education on an important portion of personal computing evolution.
26 • CDE (by James on 2022-01-10 12:43:07 GMT from United States)
I am a diehard traditional desktop user (Mate for now), CDE holds no interest for me.
27 • CDE is a useless joke! (by Jörg on 2022-01-10 12:52:54 GMT from Germany)
CDE is a real joke, looks like Windows 95....nothing for me.
28 • @27 Jorg: (by dragonmouth on 2022-01-10 13:10:25 GMT from United States)
Many comedians make a good living out from useless jokes. :-)
29 • CDE (by crayola-eater on 2022-01-10 13:12:10 GMT from United States)
A year or so ago, while looking at various desktops, I ran across CDE. I installed it (from where or how I don't recall, but neither do I recall having to compile it). Never having used it in the past, it seemed to run and work quite nicely for me (was running on Debian 10). In fact, I was having so much fun playing with it I started to dig into trying to get it to where I might use it as a daily driver. Eventually I ran into a speed bump that no amount of sweat and FAQs seemed to be able to conquer, so I left CDE on the roadside.
I suspect that with a bit more work, and I'm sure prior working knowledge would have helped, CDE could make a basic daily desktop - not a gaming or media platform, but surely a basic office work/tech platform.
Was tempted to try nsCDE at that point, but just rolled back to openbox and continued on.
While writing, just recalled that I got the CDE-desktop from the SparkyLinux repositories, if anyone cares to take a look at it.
30 • @16 What's wrong with Dolphin (by Scott Dowdle on 2022-01-10 13:30:08 GMT from United States)
I use Dolphin and ton and it works great for me. I'm not sure what issues folks have with it... but I do admit, when I have a freshly installed system, I do take a few minutes to configure the Dolphin interface by adding several things to the main toolbar including an Up button, and a reload button... and I have the menu always showing... and generally use detailed view.
Regarding CDE, quite a few distros package NsCDE. I installed it on Fedora some time ago and it showed up in my graphical login manager as a graphical session I could select... but it wouldn't load. My guess is that I was still missing some package needed to make it work. I do have about a dozen DEs and WMs installed which can sometime lead to a sub-optimal configuration.
31 • CDE (by Scott R on 2022-01-10 13:36:55 GMT from United States)
I used cde on OpenVMS, Solaris, and Tru64 Unix
32 • CDE (by Tim on 2022-01-10 13:42:08 GMT from United States)
I used UNIX long before CDE, but I used CDE for a little more than a decade on HP-UX and Solaris systems. I have never tried it on Linux, but sometimes for kicks, I run twm, which reminds me of CDE.
33 • CDE (by kc1di on 2022-01-10 14:14:17 GMT from United States)
Yep, Showing my age used it in the 90's. On HP-Ux and Solaris
If I remember right there was one Linux Distro that tried it But don't remember which one.
34 • CDE (by kc1di on 2022-01-10 14:40:58 GMT from United States)
I now remember it was RedHat V? In 1997 or so.
35 • CDE and the dinosaurs (by Sondar on 2022-01-10 15:09:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
Oh no! Not another round of bragging rights by the youngster from the '90s. Think Pegasus & Autocode, Colossus & Atlas, Commodore64 and Amstrad128 closely followed by Amstrad 128 with disks and the advent of the turtle. Been there, done that. Have we removed all the Official Secrets about Tutte & Flowers amazing innovations yet?! Will the Nobel Committee change their rules and give the brilliant pair from Bletchley Park posthumous medals....
36 • what's old remains old (by Tad Strange on 2022-01-10 15:44:28 GMT from Canada)
Can't say that CDE interests me beyond the curious screenshots.
The oldest UIs I've tried recently have been Trinity and "Win95" (Via TwisterOS).
I really see no advantage to going back to something like that. Same reason why I wouldn't want to go back in time to my first vehicle - the present iteration is simply superior.
37 • Twister OS (by Ultrix on 2022-01-10 16:52:38 GMT from Italy)
Twister OS is a backup created with gnome disks, it have a looong way to go before becaming a proper OS
38 • CDE (by Bobbie Sellers on 2022-01-10 19:34:15 GMT from United States)
I never used CDE. If the main panel could be slimmed down and moved to the top of the screen I might try it. The Amiga OS used the visual Metaphor of drawers for the folders and
some additions to the system took the concept even further. Click on a drawer and open a Window to the Folder/Directory,
I use KDE and like to keep the display screen space open as far as possible on my laptop and on notebooks, one slim panel on top of display with a panel at the left side of the screen which curiously enough was how I ended my time with the Amiga OS.
CDE does sound interesting and the article is worthwhile. Too bad it has been out of the limelight so long.
bliss - brought to you by the power and ease of PCLinuxOS
and a minor case of hypergraphia
39 • CDR (by John on 2022-01-10 20:10:47 GMT from Canada)
I never used CDE but it interests me a lot. I remember early on people using Linux was trying to get Motif and CDE to be released in a compatible license. When they did, it was too late. I sometimes wonder what things would be like of CDR/Motif was released in 1995 when people were asking for it.
@22, lesstiff we created as a clone/work-like of Motif when people gave up "begging" for a license change by OSF.
40 • CDE & Dolphin (by cor on 2022-01-10 22:48:23 GMT from United States)
CDE? Why is this being discussed, at all? I used it very briefly. It isn't appealing considering all I can accomplish with Plasma.
I have been using Dolphin since it became the default file manager for KDE. It was easy enough to bypass the ridiculous sudo privilege restrictions placed on Dolphin in the past. But everything is working again since Plasma 5.18 was released. Dolphin is customizable, I recommend making it the file manager you want. That's what I did and it serves me well.
41 • CDE (by Kanwar on 2022-01-11 05:52:35 GMT from Australia)
That "Style Manager" from CDE is still seriously cooler than any other contemporary desktop out there, including MacOS!
42 • CDE (by penguinx86 on 2022-01-11 11:07:40 GMT from United States)
I answered NO to the poll. But then I looked at the screenshot and realized I have used CDE, back in the Pre-Y2k UNIX days. Isn't CDE based on X11? It probably won't work well with Wayland.
43 • Not Only, CDE, to revive old excellent Sofware like... (by Andre Gompel on 2022-01-11 16:44:20 GMT from Poland)
As an old timer, I have used CDE, on both Sun & SGI Indigo workstations.
It may be there (not so sure due to the maturity of KDE, MATE, and other Desktops) a value.
---
But there are some old sofware, which were excellent like:
* TECO editor (I used it on PDP8, PDP11, VAX), I used it extensively, the best and most editor I ever used, I could not (On Fedora) get to to work. A good package, with documentation would still be a great value. The old OS8 manual, has OK user manual there.
* VMS, (DEC) a very clean, simple and elegant Operating System, I used it on VAX and micro-VAX.
The DEC shell (common to several DEC computers and OS'es) , was very good, very clean, very consistent. Porting at least this shell, would nicely complement the BASH (and like) Linux Shells.
* PAL11 and similar DEC's macro assemblers: I used extensively GCC, largely on ARM, and liked it.
Still a version of PAL11 (macro-assembler) for at least the ARM and RISC-V architectures, would be a great asset, in my view, no disrespect to RMS's GCC.
* COBOL language: old venerable COBOL still has a feature that I think is sorely missing in more modern high level languages (HLL), it is the concept and features of KIF or Key Indexed Files (a.k.a Sequentially Indexed Files), which greatly simplify files records access in an intelligent, elegant, and space efficient way. I used extensively KIF files, on a large project, and found it a precious asset. IBM has a linux library for COBOL files, I don't know if it is really Open Source, that IBM until it purchased REDHAT never endorsed with enthusiasm (Ah the IBM and more corporate culture of secrecy !)
* DEC FMS, a friend (Henry M.) and great S/W engineer worked at DEC, and told me DEC's FMS (or "Forms Management System" was a superb, masterpiece of S/W, I have never used it though.
**** MORE : Please add to this list, and perhaps Distrowatch's Ladislas, may have a special page for these old superb software's worth reviving ! (first as they wer, then possibly enhanced, like VIM is old VI enhanced etc... ****
A.G
44 • Interfaces (by mmphosis on 2022-01-11 20:00:59 GMT from Canada)
Mac Applications were opened from the Finder, in earlier Systems via single tasking, and later via collaborative multi-tasking. They were self contained binary executables with all the resources embedded in the resource fork of the file: Similar to flatpak, snap. There were also smaller Desk Accessory items that could be launched from the Apple menu similar to Terminate-and-stay-resident programs in MS-DOS. The term global menu, I had not heard of until I started using Linux. It is good to try different interfaces, Linux certainly allows the opportunity to try many different ways. It was interesting to read how the author revived CDE.
45 • thoughts on the Common Desktop Environment (by Simon Plaistowe on 2022-01-11 20:18:25 GMT from New Zealand)
Looks innovative for it's time and interesting from a historical perspective, but I've never used it and unlikely to feel motivated to do so. I'd rather just use a modern DE to get stuff done efficiently. I'm most familiar with Cinnamon & XFCE since I use them daily. Familiarity helps, I suppose if you were entirely familiar with CDE then you'd get a lot of stuff done efficiently with it. But why bother if it doesn't do anything the modern DEs can do?
46 • @21 (by Simon on 2022-01-11 20:39:49 GMT from New Zealand)
Thank you, your examples nicely illustrate my point. Those are all tasks that drooling idiots perform every day. Rather than dismissing "geeky pursuits" on the grounds that they require time and effort to learn, maybe notice that the Internet doesn't run on "choosing videos from a web page" and "using messaging apps": those kinds of activities, that young children do every day, run on the software produced and maintained by the "geeky pursuits" you seem to hold in contempt as a result of their requiring effort to learn. It was claimed that "the old UNIX CLI" is "very far behind", as if like the CDE it's been superseded by something better. It hasn't: shells are still the preferred interface for many "geeky pursuits".
They're also more efficient at many everyday tasks. A single quick shell instruction can find all of the photos on a disk with a specific name in them, shrink them for emailing and add them to an archive ready to send. It's not just that GUI tools are slower and clumsier at that kind of thing, it's also that their use doesn't encourage efficiency: someone used to pointing and clicking on things is likely to keep doing it when it's no longer efficient (e.g. to manually look for and drag across five different files with "conference" in their name, rather than just mv *conference* as a shell user does automatically and much more efficiently). Shells are great at what they do.
You missed the point of the example with traditional high performance cars. Like shells and the CDE GUI, there are very old Ferraris and Lamborghinis that are "behind" modern electric cars chronologically (and in terms of complexity, too)...but they would leave the modern cars in their dust on the track. Of course not everyone wants to go fast, and you're right, not everyone wants to learn "geeky pursuits". This is Distrowatch: not many of the drooling idiots who can't cope with geeky pursuits are going to be here reading these posts...they'll have better things to do with their precious video browsing and messaging time, than learning Linux. For those of us who aren't afraid of learning, shells remain useful...they have not been made redundant by GUI desktops.
47 • CDE (@45) (by Simon on 2022-01-11 20:52:35 GMT from New Zealand)
Exactly. CDE was the first UNIX GUI I ever used, on Solaris back in the 90s. You may be right that if it had also been my first GUI, period, perhaps I'd have liked it more just as a result of familiarity...but I had already given the Windows and Mac desktops of the day a spin, and found them more intuitive and pleasant to use. I used CDE for several years and did not enjoy it. I wouldn't recommend CDE to anyone except, as you say, people who are already fond of it: modern DEs are better.
48 • There is no CLI vs GUI just different tools for different jobs (by mmphosis on 2022-01-11 22:45:03 GMT from Canada)
I switch and integrate between a variety of interfaces, commands and automated scripts. It’s is easy to dismiss and miss the power available.
For example:
Type open . to open the $PWD in a file browser, click and choose with shift and ctrl/command key modifiers what would be super awkward from the command line, and drag to the command line to run a complex script with the selected files.
49 • CDE and also XFCE (by DistroWitch on 2022-01-11 22:46:48 GMT from United States)
First, to answer Jesse's question, yes, I used CDE on Sun boxes and on the earliest versions of Red Hat Linux I used back in the 90s. That would be RH 3 and 4. Back in the day it was brilliant. Yes, it was proprietary but the Linux desktop was in its infancy and honestly, not very good. In RH 4 and 5.x the default desktop was FVWM2.
XFCE started life as a free CDE look-alike. You can still configure it that way if you want with the current version.
50 • Bring back the TRS-80 on a single chip. (by nooneatall on 2022-01-11 23:16:41 GMT from United States)
Gosh, that'd be handy for simple control systems. -- No, a "Pi" isn't near so convenient for my ideas as ROM BASIC interpreter. -- That's just nostalgic musing (sort of topic this week due to CDE brought up) after I needed a subject line. Excuse.
@44: "It was interesting to read how the author revived CDE."
"Revived"? Did you read all? He never got left mouse click working! Yet he says: "I still like the concept of CDE even if it wasn't working well for me." -- That seems to mark the gulf between Linux fans and those who want to use for higher purposes without first "fixing" the basic system.
@46: "A single quick shell instruction can find all of the photos
n a disk with a specific name in them,"
Experts who've put in the necessary years think the Linux shell is simple. You cheat by having "name" text that can be found by simple filtering, but that was likely manual work, far easier in a GUI. Suppose you had to pick out specific images with, uh, TRS-80 computers: what help is your command-line fu then? -- It's easy to contrive examples to "prove" any position, is the point.
But here's a question for everyone: Are the ancient Linux / Unix shells and "tools" the very best that you can imagine? [If yes, then, So we're at the end of progress in computering? If no, then where are the new better shells?]
51 • used on SunOS originally (by Niall on 2022-01-11 23:58:28 GMT from Ireland)
Used CDE on SunOS/Solaris and chose XFCE on Linux because it was originally very similar.
52 • @48, there's no cli vs gui (by Wally on 2022-01-12 00:20:39 GMT from Australia)
"Type open . to open the $PWD in a file browser, click and choose with shift and ctrl/command key modifiers what would be super awkward from the command line, and drag to the command line to run a complex script with the selected files."
Huh?
53 • Aha (by mmphosis on 2022-01-12 03:14:17 GMT from Canada)
Somewhere from .bashrc / .profile that calls ~/.bash_aliases, I have this excerpt of code that creates an "open" function ...
### open ###
[ -x /usr/bin/xdg-open ] && function open() { local file; for file in "$@"; do /usr/bin/xdg-open "$file"; done ; }
If I type "open ." from the Terminal, it opens a new thunar window showing the folder contents. The folder/directory it shows is the Path to the Working Directory (PWD) that I am in, in the Terminal.
From thunar, the file browser that came with the Linux distro I am using, I can pick and choose multiple files and folders. Thunar respects the Shift and Control keys. I have a vintage Apple keyboard, so my "Control" key is the "Command" key. Now I can click, shift click down the list to select many files all at once, and then Control click to deselect (or select) files and folders that I want (or don't want) selected. On my iPhone, it seems that I have to go through items one at a time which is extremely tedious. Or from the command line, I would have a lot of typing to do, and the file names don't fit some nice search pattern. Thunar is the best tool for this particular example.
Back in the Terminal, I can type "backup2mydrive " which is the complicated script I want to run. I drag the files and folder that I just selected from thunar to the Terminal window, and voila all the names are typed in automatically.
That's just one example. There's lots of power like embedding a command in a GUI program launcher like Xfce.
54 • CDE (by jol25 on 2022-01-12 15:47:09 GMT from France)
Used CDE in 1990-2000 years, first with DEC during my studies, then with AIX and Solaris for work (and a bit of HP) aside IRIX with its own windows manager, much better.
Frankly no regret for this...
Users were not used to it, and it was not friendly.
Administrators used terminal instead of GUI, and were more than happy to do so.
55 • CDE (by CS on 2022-01-12 17:25:13 GMT from United States)
What a time capsule. On a SparkStation I would ditch CDE in a hurry in favor of fvwm. On Trusted Solaris you were pretty much stuck with CDE, good luck trying to get another window manager to even function, that's the only place I ever really used it.
I'd rather use CDE than Gnome 3 but that's probably it.
56 • Benefits of CDE (by Friar Tux on 2022-01-12 17:30:32 GMT from Canada)
One of the things I forgot to mention in my earlier comments (8 & 9) was what I appreciated about CDE. The "drawers". I lovered the drawers. I have looked for something similar in other OSes and DEs. I DID find a third party program in Windows 98 that I liked better. Can't remember the name but it let you put tabs at the top of the desktop screen. Each tab acted as a pull-down drawer, in which, you could put anything you wanted. I had quite a few, one of which, was my Office drawer that held my word processor, text editor, note taker, etc..
I haven't found anything like it in Linux, yet.
57 • CDE - so that's what its name is (by eco2geek on 2022-01-12 19:40:50 GMT from United States)
I can't say I "used" CDE. I used an application that ran on a workstation running CDE. The IT people installed two workstations for us to use at work in the mid-90's. A map application ran on each workstation (I believe they were HP's). Unfortunately the map application went down pretty often, and when it went down, the CDE desktop was what you saw. I didn't know its name was "CDE" at the time. It's interesting, but somehow not surprising, that it's still around.
58 • That reminds me (by mxgogo on 2022-01-17 01:11:18 GMT from South Africa)
Pre-2000 I happily used OS/2 Warp on my development-and-admin PC (was mainly writing for DOS and Windows before Microsoft strangled OS/2 with win32s.) Loading it from 32 stiffies was ... memorable, though.
Seeing the upcoming implications of 64-bit hardware and suddenly very expensive system software as OS/2 was privatised as eComstation (where's Bob StJohn these days?) I was anxiously scanning the Linux theatre around 2000 for something I might package with my specialist software for a certain profession, but Linux-for-desktop was nowhere near mature enough to expose my newbie clients and their typist-secretaries to. For my own part, I disliked all (!) the desktops that I saw offered on Linux distros.
Imagine my surprise on seeing the pic in Jesse's CDE review. Albeit not exactly what I remember, it certainly reminded me of the OS/2 desktop that I had become very comfortable with and was reluctant to transition from. Had to spend a couple of years with Windows before Lubuntu started checking some boxes.
Methinks I'll make a turn past the CDE sites in a while, time's a bit tight right now, see if I can run it as an alternative to xfce. I tend to use several virtual desktops in preference to several windows open on one desktop, so (if the left-click gets sorted) it might be quite feasible.
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