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CDE on modern days?

2021-01-05
2022-01-02
  • Richard Seo

    Richard Seo - 2021-01-05

    I have GNU/Linux in all my PCs, and I really like CDE, so I am planning to move all to CDE from AfterStep and WindowMaker.
    I just follow the guide in the wiki, and most my GNU/Linux PCs use distributions like Debian, Ubuntu (trisquel), etc.
    Some people say that CDE is too old and it has problems, but is this true?
    CDE's look and things are good enough for me, and in fact better than the other ones,
    Also, is there security risks? I mean, on the first wiki page, it says dont' connect the pc to the internet, but is there way to make it secure? I am planning to use this on my main desktop PC (trisquel) and my custom rom build pc (ubuntu) and my main laptop (debian).
    Thanks!

     
    • Jon Trulson

      Jon Trulson - 2021-01-11

      On 1/5/21 6:27 AM, Richard Seo wrote:

      I have GNU/Linux in all my PCs, and I really like CDE, so I am
      planning to move all to CDE from AfterStep and WindowMaker.
      I just follow the guide in the wiki, and most my GNU/Linux PCs use
      distributions like Debian, Ubuntu (trisquel), etc.
      Some people say that CDE is too old and it has problems, but is this true?

      Some people say the Apollo moon landing was fake and 9/11 was an inside
      job... So what?  :D

      As for problems, all software has "problems".  Patches are always welcome.

      CDE's look and things are good enough for me, and in fact better than
      the other ones,
      Also, is there security risks? I mean, on the first wiki page, it says
      dont' connect the pc to the internet, but is there way to make it
      secure? I am planning to use this on my main desktop PC (trisquel) and
      my custom rom build pc (ubuntu) and my main laptop (debian).

      Ideally, you should never allow someone on the Internet to have access
      to your desktop (and X11 server), no matter what you are running.  There
      may be security issues in CDE, although all the ones we know of are
      addressed AFAIK.  The main potential worries are the dtspcd daemon and
      the rpc.ttdbserver daemon.   These I'd avoid with a 10 foot pole :) 
      However in current CDE, these are built, but not enabled.  I think when
      the autotools branch is ready, they will not even be built unless
      specifically configured.

      --

      Jon Trulson

      "Entropy. It isn't what it used to be."
      -- Sheldon

       
      • Antonis Tsolomitis

        Is there a solution for HiDPI monitors and CDE? I tried some xrandr
        commands (from the ArchLinux wiki)
        but did not manage to make it work.

        Also I set Xft.dpi in .Xresources but firefox did not care.

        Moreover, on a laptop the mousepad works only if you actually click. If
        you tap the pad it does nothing.

        Antonis.

         
        • Roger Brown

          Roger Brown - 2021-12-26

          Moreover, on a laptop the mousepad works only if you actually click. If
          you tap the pad it does nothing.

          That does not suprise me, CDE dates from the days before trackpads, according to the X protocol mice do movement and have up to five buttons.. You would need to trace the X server events to see if anything comes from the server itself before the apps can handle it.

          https://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/events/keyboard-pointer/keyboard-pointer.html

           
  • Roger Brown

    Roger Brown - 2022-01-02

    I have just tried CDE running under XQuartz, the MacOS X-Server. There the track-pad does work "as expected", you can tap in the middle of the touch pad and drag a window by the title bar. So it is reasonable for this to be a feature of the X-server itself to simulate mouse-button-down when pressing on a touch-pad.

     

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