Re: CDE or original Session Manager ?

In article <45389A7D.9D42FDF@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, JF Mezei
<jfmezei.spamnot@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

At the risk of starting a religious war....

If all religious wars were only about CDE vs. the traditional DECwindows
interface, the world would be a much better place.

Reading the manual, and using some the features, it appears that CDE is
more polished than the traditional session manager. (for instance,
ability to quickly install some background image/pattern into the fake
background (which isn't really the root window).

Yes.

There seems to be a neat function of having different workspaces (so you
could have one with all your system management windows, one for "office"
windows (email, worlk processing etc) , one for programming (all the
editor windows for the files you are working on etc).

This is the main reason I prefer CDE. I also like the fact that if I
arrange the windows in a particular configuration and save it, it is
like that the next time I log in. I can't do that on VAX. It might be
possible with customisation, specifying in user-edited files the
position of DECW$CLOCK or whatever, but I want to be able to just save
an existing configuration quickly and easily.

So this can greatly reduce window clutter. So when you switch from one
workspace to another it is the equivalent of making all existing windows
inconised, and expanding all icons related to the workspace you asked for.

Yes, great feature. I have 6 such workspaces at home, 9 at work.

Are there many who switch back and forth depending on the position of
the stars relative to the moon ?

When I don't have much to do, I log in at a VT320 console. When I have
more to do, I log in at a VAX and bring up 3 DECterms and a clock. It's
just as easy to log in to an ALPHA, but the one which is always in the
cluster needs a lot of its 192 MB without any DECwindows (mainly because
it has the TCPIP cluster alias and is handling most of the internet
traffic) so I don't like to strain it. (The VAX with 80 MB uses less,
both fractionally and thus also much more absolutely, with DECwindows
than the ALPHA without.) I do have an ALPHA with much more memory and 2
fast CPUs, but to save power it is a satellite which I boot up only when
I need much more power, such as when I need CSWB. When I am on ALPHA, I
do prefer the CDE.

Are people who stick with the traditional desktop just reluctant to
adopt change ? Or does it really end up being simpler and more
productive ?

Depends on what you want to do.

.

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