[roach-commuter]

I had read somewhere that the Supplemental Applications CD contained CDE packages for Irix but this information had somehow slipeed through the cracks and I never gave it a second thought until today. After you install it, If you want to try it you should create a .xsession file in your home directory containing at least this line:
 

Code:

/usr/dt/bin/Xsession

It may also be useful to have something like this at the end of your .login

Code:

setenv PATH $PATH:/usr/dt/bin

[gijoe77]

This is awesome!

CDE grew on me when I was a Solaris admin years ago - I got pretty good at customizing it - my goal was to get it as close to 4dwm as I could and it actually is pretty capabable once one does some customizations. I think I heard that 4dwm was based on CDE or something and I definitely saw it

[jan-jaap]

4Dwm was SGI's own handywork. It was written in C++.
CDE was a joint venture between HP, SUN, IBM  and some others. I believe it was written in C.

They're both based on the MOTIF toolkit, so a lot of things look similar.

TriTeal ported CDE to many different OSes and sold this as a commercial product. The IRIX CDE software is TriTeal CDE, shipped by SGI under license. I believe the CDE installation media on the 6.5.x discs will install on IRIX 5.3 and newer.

[weblacky]

I had read somewhere that the Supplemental Applications CD contained CDE packages for Irix but this information had somehow slipeed through the cracks and I never gave it a second thought until today. After you install it, If you want to try it you should create a .xsession file in your home directory containing at least this line:
 

Code:

/usr/dt/bin/Xsession

It may also be useful to have something like this at the end of your .login

Code:

setenv PATH $PATH:/usr/dt/bin

Did you use this?

https://techpubs.jurassic.nl/library/man...11-001.pdf

Also when you say supplemental, did just mean the normal applications disc? Can you post the tardist name in the post for completeness of what you installed from what disc so others can follow along?

[protocol7]

The SGI background tile was less of an assault on the senses than the earlier TriTeal one (which is still there in the SGI release). I've linked a screenshot below of TED 4.0 running on IRIX 5.3 in MAME. There are a few more in that Flickr album.

Also, if for some reason your user account doesn't have a password, you will need to set one before using the SGI release of CDE. Otherwise you won't be able to log in. This wasn't a requirement in the earlier TriTeal releases. If you get caught out with this (as I did), choose console login and then set a user password from there.

Also make sure to get the licence key from the pdf weblacky linked above.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/96579068@N...0324964991

[vishnu]

I remember when CDE was released, it was supposed to be the Unix equivalent, or more to the point, the commercial opponent to Windows NT. It's been open source for quite a while, but I don't think anyone really works on the code base anymore.

[protocol7]

NsCDE was last updated a couple of years ago. OpenWindows has OWacomp which seems to be still active.

I wasn't there at the time but from what I've read it sounds like CDE was as much a competitor to OpenWindows as Windows. Brought about by concerns over Sun and AT&T's dominant position.

It's grown on me over time but I've always preferred OW to it.

[vishnu]

Well, as I've pointed out many times before, though I think these desktop environment developments posses a certain interest from a software engineering standpoint, I'm still using the same window manager I've always used, the Motif window manager with the iconbox activated.

[protocol7]

It's a solid option. I really like what shrek has done with DeskView. I have some future plans that will need a nice X11 environment and I'll definitely give it a shot.

[vishnu]

I always just start the applications I want to run from the command prompt. Which actually works better because then their feedback comes to the command window I launched them from. Which is why I never start an application with its feedback piped to /dev/null - which strangely has been the Unix standard for decades.