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| CDE released as open source |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-08-06 00:00:00 |
| We have some very good news for those of us with a love for the Common Desktop Environment. I'm a huge fan of CDE - I've even dedicated an article to it - so I'm excited about this. CDE has been released as open source under the LGPL, and can be downloaded as of today for Debian and Ubuntu. Motif will follow later. |
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| Comment by marcp |
| By marcp on 2012-08-06 09:34:52 |
|
It's almost like having Windows 95 or Mac OS 8 open sourced today. No real benefit, just a pile of closed, outdated and buggy source. Open source / free software paradigm is not a magic bullet to rescue dead projects. You can't expect your closed source project will be developed at no cost by others right after you have no more money to develop it / there is no real interrest in it, etc. I actually find it quite pathetic, though it depends on the reasons this code was made open. This can only have a sentimental value, not a real one. You could try to build on top of that code, but it would probobly take rediculous amount of hours to make use of that anyway. Free software is about real benefit to other people: this doesn't bring any real benefit. Open source is all about the method: and here it does apply. But so what? does it even have any sense? I'm sorry to be so critical, but I just can't see good intentions there. |
 - Score: 4 |
| Nice, but not very exciting |
| By Loreia on 2012-08-06 09:46:49 |
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As someone who is still using CDE on Solaris 10 at work I read this article with a smile on my face, but I don't see anything particularly useful that might come out of this. Is there anyone out there interested to do something with the code. Improve it? Make it look modern? Or at least make not look like an ugliest DE in the history*. Probably not. *I am not complaining about the ugliness of CDE. It is a great, stable DE, that keeps my sessions working flawlessly for weeks or months with zero issues. It is not supposed to look pretty, and I am so used to look at those ugly windows borders, I would probably refuse to use any modern version for the simple reason of "it being too pretty". Ugliness of CDE gives me confidence of its stability :-)) |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Comment by marcp |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-08-06 09:55:46 |
|
Just because it's old doesn't mean it doesn't have good ideas. You reference Mac OS 8/9 - for me, that interface, Platinum, is miles and miles ahead of whatever UI disaster Apple is using now. Platinum was designed with usability in mind, it was consistent and logical. Mac OS X, on the other hand, is Microsoft BOB with garish skeuomorphic crap and incredibly inconsistent. Old != bad. Platinum > Aqua. |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by hoak |
| By hoak on 2012-08-06 09:56:29 |
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I too have used CDE on Solaris and HP-UX, love it, and hope to see a Linux distro that makes this it's default interface. This is exciting news! =O) Edited 2012-08-06 09:59 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[2]: Comment by marcp |
| By marcp on 2012-08-06 10:17:54 |
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Well, of course old doesn't mean bad. I myself am a huge fan of many old projects, like BeOS, OpenVMS. But that's just a different thing and different history. BeOS died and Haiku OS was born as an open source [from the start], and OpenVMS ... was never *open*, so there's no real problem anyway. I would be more than pleased to know why exactly did they open their sources. This would give us valuable information and ... their motives. Might I add I don't try to take your joy away, CDE users! I can imagine you really love it and I have nothing against it. I'm just being suspicious ... or critical if you will. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Comment by marcp |
| By whitehornmatt on 2012-08-06 10:56:51 |
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I think the main point is that there's so much code out there designed specifically for certain horribly outdated systems that is near impossible to port to something modern. The more older stuff that gets open sourced, the easier it is to manage a transition to running on newer operating environments. The need for compatibility with one program often keeps entire networks back |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by kurkosdr |
| By kurkosdr on 2012-08-06 11:36:37 |
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What I didn't like about CDE was that you couldn't have access to the miniaturized apps or to the dock if you had a maximized window. I am sure some keyboard shortcut exists for both, but it should be an option, because most people don't know shortcuts during the first days the use a GUI (if they ever learn them). It has to be intuitive. Edited 2012-08-06 11:44 UTC |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE: How about apps? |
| By moondevil on 2012-08-06 11:37:52 |
| Yes Motif, which has functions that rival Win32 in the amount of parameters. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Comment by marcp |
| By moondevil on 2012-08-06 11:40:15 |
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> Free software is about real benefit to other people Assuming the developers are able to make a leaving out of it. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: good news |
| By zizban on 2012-08-06 12:06:57 |
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The license status is in the source. The Open Group isn't the fastest with announcements. It should be up today. It'll be here: http://blog.opengroup.org/ |
| - Score: 2 |
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