Introducing the Common Desktop Environment, CDE 

Look at screenshots of XFCE 1.x :)

@HoboWild Unix wasn't trying to win. They had the professionals, who wanted functionality, and that was enough. In fact, my problem is that Linux is trying to win casual users. Because these users then come and demand x, y or z, stuff which will make it easier for THEM, but harder for ME.

For me, literally everything the Linux crowd created in Desktop-land just gets into the way. Yeah, it may be nice for casual users, but I'm not a casual user and there never will be an ample amount of casual users. I want my "hard to use" 90s Unix desktop, so I can get my work done.

90 % of the people are better off with Windows or Mac OS. I never doubted that, and I don't want to fight that.

@HoboWild Happy New Year. Gnome 40... ? I don't look that much after that one. I'm happy with what I have. ;)

Windows had virtual desktops since 1990. Nobody used them because that concept is stupid.

@@IkarusKommt I'm pretty sure they weren't implemented by the windows shell (Program Manager/Explorer) though. I think you had some alternate shells like Window Blinds that allowed you to use virtual desktops though. (I didn't look up the year.) In Linux I can't think of any window managers that don't allow you to use multiple desktops even going back to TWM in the base X11 install. I always liked being able to easily break down work, play, communications, etc. Microsoft always preferred to keep their interface uncomplicated. I think the reason they started using multiple desktops in the last several years is they actually need to compete with Linux desktops now. Unfortunately for them, Windows 11 is a mess. Routinely, new windows decide it's okay to open in the background or minimized and modal dialog boxes open up behind other windows, it is a real PITA.

Yeah, switch to CLI

People could do the same stuff in Windows for Workgroups, but they didn't have to pay $11,000 for that.

@@IkarusKommt Not at all, Windows 3x was a toy compared to almost any other graphical operating system/window manager at the time, Windows users didn't get to experience anything like it until Windows 98 and 2000 (95 was a mess), and even then, there are many features that were established in UNIX environments and Amiga that were only implemented in Windows in the mid-2010s, (and even so, these were implemented in a mediocre way too, such as virtual desktops). Windows 11 had to copy a lot of stuff from the *NIX desktops because Windows were just falling behind, to the point that the only real "innovation" of the OS is the built-in spyware and the planned obsolescence of mobile phones brought to the PC market.

@@Sumire973 What features? Unix had no features, being a timesharing system for universities. MS DOS and Windows were groundbreaking in the new ways to interact with computers and cornucopia of productivity applications. BTW, 'virtual desktops' is not the feature of Unix, it's not even a feature of the X server. It is just cosmetic detail some window managers support. Then again, the virtual desktops were available for Windows since the version 3.0.

@@IkarusKommt MS-DOS, innovative? HAHAHAHA, if the first thing Bill Gates did when he wanted to get into the operating systems market was buy an OS from a third party, which was a clone of another OS from a friend of his, and he took out the copying machine along with the hardware manufacturers (because IBM made the mistake of opening its platform) in order to boost the Wintel monopoly (and even so it took time because the IBM PC Compatibles were technically very inferior platforms to the competition until the early 90s). The only thing that Bill Gates (and Microsoft by extension) knew how to do and what he really innovated in was being a thief, stealing other people's ideas and passing them off as his own. That was literally Microsoft modus operandi during the 90s, and is still true today (to a lesser extent to avoid attracting the attention of regulators, obviously).

@@Sumire973 Microsoft copying IBM machine? What? IBM PCs were inferior to the competition? What competition? If you mean QDOS (a loose CP/M port), MS-DOS is a complete reimagining of it, adding a robust and extensible FAT filesystem, installable device drivers and handle-based IO, the support for keyboards, screens, and printers, etc.

You used CDE from 120 years in the past to 30 years in the future? Man, that must be a great desktop environment.

In case anyone forgot, MS Windows wasn't free. If you didn't buy it separately, the license was built into the cost of your computer. While Motif widgets weren't classically beautiful, it actually looks better than early windows and appears to have been easier to use. I might be willing to try that over Windows 11.

@@mikechappell4156 Motif, CDE, et al were costing much more than Windows. Also, the Windows and MacOS widgets were looking (and working) better than Motif (because people, not programmers, designed them).