For comment : Nostalgia : XView/ Openwindows : Circa 1993/4

[d***@gmail.com]

Hi all.

I was reminiscing over it being over twenty years since I started using Linux, on a Intel DX2/66 with 4mb Ram and my Slackware distro. I remember tinkering with Xview, which some Unix users on SunOS will remember as OpenWindows. It was a very light weight desktop UI and I wondered if anyone out there a, remembered it and b, knew of any source code which existed on the Slackware CD's as I don't have mine any more I wanted to try and get it working on a modern day Linux distro.

having come from a development background I appreciate and recall the old a.out binary executables vs the latter day ELF binaries, how easy it would be to build the source code ?

thanks for reading,

[Eli the Bearded]

Post by d***@gmail.com
I remember tinkering with Xview, which some Unix users on SunOS will
remember as OpenWindows. It was a very light weight desktop UI and I
wondered if anyone out there a, remembered it and b, knew of any
source code which existed on the Slackware CD's as I don't have mine
any more I wanted to try and get it working on a modern day Linux
distro.
[...] how easy it would be to build the source code ?

Not too hard. The SlackBuild script will give a Slackware compatible way
to compile from source:

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/libraries/xview/

You could also check your distro's package manager. Ubuntu offers olwm
(the XView window manager) as an obviously named package.

Elijah
------
doesn't agree with slack build wanting to compile as root

[John McCue]

<snip>

Post by Eli the Bearded
Not too hard. The SlackBuild script will give a Slackware compatible way
https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/libraries/xview/

<snip>

Interesting, I remember seeing a note about XView
not building on 64 bit systems. Curious if that
limitation is now gone.

I gave it a try and yes, only available for 32 bit
Slackware :( I also remember seeing a comment that
indicates the work to port XView to 64 bit systems
is a lot of work.

John

[John McCue]

Post by John McCue
<snip>

Post by Eli the Bearded
Not too hard. The SlackBuild script will give a Slackware compatible way
https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/libraries/xview/

<snip>
Interesting, I remember seeing a note about XView

<snip>

Forgot to mention, Slackware 14.2 comes with the
actual mwm, I cloned /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.fvwm2 and
/usr/local/bin/startfvwm2 for use by mwm. So you can
at least use a competing environment from those days :)

John

[Eli the Bearded]

Post by John McCue
Forgot to mention, Slackware 14.2 comes with the
actual mwm, I cloned /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.fvwm2 and
/usr/local/bin/startfvwm2 for use by mwm. So you can
at least use a competing environment from those days :)

I still use some tools linked with motif (or lesstif, I'm not going to
check) libraries, like my go-to PDF reader, xpdf. I'm not a bit fan of
those widgets, and don't want to see more of them.

I have used twm in the last few years, albeit breifly. That's enough
nostalgia for me.

Elijah
------
oh, yeah, it has an icon box

[Anton Ertl]

Post by Eli the Bearded
I have used twm in the last few years, albeit breifly. That's enough
nostalgia for me.

Nostalgia? I use twm every day (and atually at the moment). A nice
thing about Unix and Linux is that one is not forced to follow the
fashions and whims of user interface designers.

- anton

[Eli the Bearded]

Post by Anton Ertl
Nostalgia? I use twm every day (and atually at the moment). A nice
thing about Unix and Linux is that one is not forced to follow the
fashions and whims of user interface designers.

And you are more than welcome to use it. It does not suit me. I want
very very minimal window decoration, "roll-up" to title bar only
functionality, and vitural desktops with a CPU/Network/Mail status
window that appears in all. (I have that now via full width status bar,
but smaller would be okay.)

I've settled (but do not feel wedded to) icewm, using a theme that I
edited to make all the window decorations half-size of original.

Elijah
------
most windows are xterms, second place by a large margin is firefox

[Eli the Bearded]

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[Dan Cave]

Post by d***@gmail.com
Hi all.
I was reminiscing over it being over twenty years since I started using Linux, on a Intel DX2/66 with 4mb Ram and my Slackware distro. I remember tinkering with Xview, which some Unix users on SunOS will remember as OpenWindows. It was a very light weight desktop UI and I wondered if anyone out there a, remembered it and b, knew of any source code which existed on the Slackware CD's as I don't have mine any more I wanted to try and get it working on a modern day Linux distro.
having come from a development background I appreciate and recall the old a.out binary executables vs the latter day ELF binaries, how easy it would be to build the source code ?
thanks for reading,

Thanks all for replying.. Very interesting to read some of your thoughts and findings about olwm on Debian. I used to use lesstif & mwm as well, I used to work on HPView doing development work and loved using mwm so there's a certain amount of nostalgia..

I hope to find time at the weekend to play with olvwm/olwm on my Raspberry Pi and the Debian distro - I find the need to have a fully blown PC is a bit overkill for the things I use these days.. Chromebook and OSX satisfy my tech itch..

regards
dan