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From: dlw@Atherton.COM (David Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Where does UNIX fit in a graphically-based computer world?
Message-ID: <30046@athertn.Atherton.COM>
Date: 7 Sep 90 17:36:47 GMT
References: <14894@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM> <1990Sep5.202652.700@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Sender: news@athertn.Atherton.COM
Reply-To: dlw@Atherton.COM (David Williams)
Organization: Atherton Technology -- Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 34

In article <14894@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM>, dave@PRC.Unisys.COM (David
Lee Matuszek) writes:

>Apple's A/UX is supposed to provide a user-friendly front-end to UNIX,
>but only on hardware well out of my price range.  I think NeXT does
>the same, for a UNIX variant whose name escapes me at the moment.

That is Mach, a unix variant from CMU, also to be the core of OSF/1 the
first version of a unix operating system out of OSF.

>government-related work.  The GUI that seems to be winning the race in
>the IBM/DOS world is Motif.  (Motif uses Athena widgets.)  Motif is
>also being ported to the UNIX world, but I don't know how that's
>coming along--it hasn't appeared on my Sun yet.

Nope Motif uses Motif widgets developed for OSF under contract by HP.
They are specifically noted for their "3D" appearance and conformance to
Presentation Manager style and behaviour. The idea being that you can
sit down at a $2k PC running OS/2 (or Windows 3) or a $15k unix
workstation and "experience" the same kind of consistent behaviour...in
terms of window management and user interface interactions.

Also Motif was developed to and does run on UNIX -- it is already on
HP, DEC, IBM and SUN. You are confusing Motif look and feel with
Presentation Manager (the stuff for OS/2). Also you can get Motif for
A/UX from a company called ICS in boston who normally does X consulting
and puts on the X Windows trade show called Xhibition.

By the way if, OSF(the Open Software Foundation)  doesn't sell Motif for
Sun, I believe that HP does! In any case we have it running on our Suns here.

You might find it amusing to know that the original graphic design for the 
look of the Motif widgets and HP's workspace manager are all developed on 
Macintosh II's using PixelPaint and MacroMind Director.