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Visual User Environment

Desktop interface for Unix workstations

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Visual User Environment (VUE or HP VUE) is a discontinued desktop environment developed by Hewlett-Packard, intended for use on Unix workstations. VUE is based on the Motif widget toolkit and targets the X Window System.

VUE is a precursor to Common Desktop Environment (CDE), which was also based on Motif.

01History

Work began on VUE in 1988 at Apollo Computer for use with Domain/OS, as an alternative to Apollo's standard DM and wmgr.

Shortly later, HP acquired Apollo, where they released the first version of VUE for Domain/OS, and then went on to modify VUE for use with HP-UX.

  • VUE 1.0, Released with Domain/OS SR10.4
  • VUE 1.1
  • VUE 2.0, Released for HP-UX
  • VUE 2.0.1
  • VUE 3.0, Released with HP-UX 9.0 in 1992

According to an article published in the Hewlett-Packard Journal, the look and feel of HP-VUE was used when developing the Common Desktop Environment (CDE):

HP is one of four sponsor companies that contributed key technologies and helped to develop CDE (Common Desktop Environment). CDE's consistent look and feel is based on HP's proven and accepted HP VUE technology.

After its release, HP endorsed CDE as the new standard desktop for Unix, and provided documentation and software for migrating VUE customizations to CDE.

HP 9000 model 425 running the login manager for VUE
HP 9000 model 425 running the login manager for VUE
HP 9000 model 425 running VUE on HP-UX 9
HP 9000 model 425 running VUE on HP-UX 9
Watch videos about Visual User EnvironmentExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Visual User Environment, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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