Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
Fri, 06/15/2012 - 12:07
I thought this might be useful to the people here.
A little while ago, September 2005, I emailed the OpenGroup to ask 'Could you open source CDE please', I received back a positive response from Graham Bird saying that he'd look into it but it would take some time. I followed this up with an email in March this year, in which Graham explained that they'd be unlikely to find the effort to make CDE available, but added that the only things that might cause them to revisit open sourcing CDE would be 'significant demand from the market or the original sponsers'.
So for the people in the past, myself included, who have hoped for an open source CDE it seems that the OpenGroup arn't dead set against the idea, but need more of a kick than I can give on my own :)
I don't know if this is the sort of thing people would like to see around here, but there's lots more of you than just me :) I can provide contact details to the person I spoke too, and I'd love to hear others thoughts about what could be done to make this happen.
Peter
‹ Is there a Motif Media Player outside of CDE? New revision of Xplore? ›
Sun, 01/21/2007 - 14:07#1
Submitted by yahubat on
Mon, 07/16/2012 - 13:39
Sun, 01/21/2007 - 14:07#1
drjones
Ask HP to do it!
The only way CDE is ever going to be open-sourced (as opposed to dying in obscurity) is if HP demands it. HP is using CDE commercially, while Sun has already moved to GNOME. In my opinion, GNOME is a very amateurish attempt at a desktop and past CDE users will find themselves at a loss. (KDE is even worse). If users wanted flashy, non-functional, unstable GUIs, and if developers wanted non-frozen APIs and complete lack of standardisation, GNOME/KDE would be the way to go. If not, CDE/Motif is the answer.
However, this leaves *us* in the lurch, programmers who want the power of CDE available on inexpensive workstations running FreeBSD/GNU/OpenSolaris (preferably NOT GNU), while still not having our users to shell out big bucks (many of the markets in developing countries can't even afford to). No wonder more and more people are moving to MS Windows---it may be horrible, but it *is* better than GNOME!
If HP can be convinced that open-sourcing CDE will decrease development/support costs for them, they will pressurise The Open Group like hell. In fact, combining the markets of VMS/HP-UX, may even cause Motif to be released under a BSD-style licence (so that HP, SGI, etc. may still build and use proprietary enhanced versions). I am perfectly comfortable with such a licensed CDE being available only on open-source platforms (hey, if you can afford VMS, you *can* afford CDE)
Sun, on the other hand, is playing a closed hand. I think that Sun is one of the prime movers for the *lack* of open-sourcing of CDE. They are 'testing the waters', so to say. If their hyped-up Java Desktop (actually GNOME) sells well, they will *never* allow CDE to be open-sourced, so that an industrial-strength inexpensive desktop is never available, forcing people to use the regular GNOME/KDE, be disgusted, and simply purchase a Sun with the enhanced GNOME, never realising that a much more powerful desktop even exists! However, if the Java Desktop falls flat on its face, Sun can easily switch back to CDE, and again blow their trumpet about having a mature desktop. They want to have it both ways---either they use CDE successfully, or nobody can obtain it easily. They would rather see CDE finished than open-sourced.
All opinions expressed are my personal ones.
Tue, 01/23/2007 - 11:20#2
Submitted by yahubat on
Mon, 07/16/2012 - 13:39
Tue, 01/23/2007 - 11:20#2
flibble
Open Source CDE (maybe)
There's not a lot say about some of your points, the complexity of UNIX history is at times mind boggling.
My experience of speaking to some in the Sun camp is that they have no objection to making CDE available in Open Source form but would rather open-source contributors got involved in their JDS (gnome) projects.
However I figured if no one ever asked, then we'd never stand a chance of The Open Group saying yes. So I started a petition that you can see here.
http://www.petitiononline.com/opencde/petition.html
http://www.marutan.net/cde/
With now over eleven hundred signers I'm preparing a short covering document and will be posting it to The Open Group shortly.