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Turn your dumb terminal into a workstation today, with X Window System! – GUI Wonderland (blisscast.wordpress.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by blisscast@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.ml
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What if you used a late 80s Unix system for your job or university, but still wanted a nice and pretty GUI to use? Well then, let’s discover a nice selection of window managers and graphical user interfaces that will make your boring installation look awesome!

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[-] dparticiple@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Nicely done. I was charmed by the perspective in this article, which struck me as at that of a systems archaeologist rather than someone who was there at the time using the interfaces. I cut my teeth on twm and CDE, eventually moved to fvwm, and then turned pro by becoming a SGI IRIX admin.

The diversity of window managers at the time was impressive; I'd liken it to cars in the 1950s and 60s with chrome, vents and fins in every possible configuration in stark contrast to today's bland automobile designs. The Enlightenment WM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_(window_manager) ) was a particular favorite due to its customization possibilities.

[-] blisscast@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Thank you! You're right, I'm too young to have been there at the time, but I'm deeply fascinated by these things, and would like to share them with a new audience as well! It's always amazing to read comments written by people who were there at the time, and see new perspectives!

I managed to obtain an SGI Indy, but I haven't done much with it yet, I'll have to research it a bit more. As for Enlightenment, that will be for a future Episode about the rest of X Window System, there were simply too many to include in this one.

Glad you enjoyed it!

[-] dparticiple@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm heartened to see a younger person taking an interest in vintage computing topics! *nix / Linux window manager customization (a la Enlightenment) is still a very active space (for instance, on Lemmy, look at the "unixporn" communities - SFW despite the name, featuring user WM customizations). I hope you'll continue writing!

[-] blisscast@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Thank you! I'll definitely have a look at those, perhaps they'll give me some inspiration for my new Endeavour OS installation.

I'll definitely keep on writing this, as I'd like to hopefully reach Windows Vista (and its fascinating beta, Longhorn), and maybe even 8, we'll see. It will take a while, but I'll get there!

this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2025
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