Customer Reviews

Configuring CDE: The Common Desktop Environment

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is largely geared toward the WIMP (window, icon, mouse, pointer) tools for configuring CDE, as well as a somewhat useful section on actually extending the environment. However, for basic configuration, the almost exclusive focus on GUI tools (which frankly don't need explaining to a semi-competent admin) is a severe liability.

Coverage of configuration files, fundamental X philosophy, X resources, and releated issues is completely inadequate. I found the online man pages from HP-UX for VUE, and references such as the O'Reilly X Window users and administrator' references, to be far, far more useful in this context. Compounding this issue is the apparent unwillingness of vendors (I've worked with both Sun and HP boxes using VUE) to provide detailed man pages describing CDE, startup processes, and configuration.

The only praise I can give is that, for the topic of CDE, this is the best book I'm aware of. However, it's also the worst, as this is a class containing exactly one element.

I was having trouble finding a simple intro to how to configure and work with CDE. I support workstations running it and don't have much experience with it. This book is not for CDE gurus / programmers. But, from what I have seen, it covers the basics in a quick, bright fashion. If that is what you want, get the book. I like it.

The information in this book is quite useful but discusses a version of CDE used on (older?) HP equipment. Users of more recent versions of Solaris will find the information a useful starting point, but not a cookbook. Some topics, like fonts, are barely mentioned. However, I'm not aware of there being anything better available.

While supporting CDE, a customer pointed me to this book. I picked up a copy and was immediately impressed. After having my book borrowed almost daily, we invested in several copies to share among my team. This is an *excellent* test, covering just about all aspects of CDE configuration and customization. Everyone supporting CDE should have a copy.