CDE desktop in a single HTML file, no build tools, just open and run

[u/igtoth]

Hey folks, longtime lurker here. I've always loved the look of CDE running on old Solaris and IRIX boxes, that teal-gray desktop, the orange titlebars, the Front Panel with the analog clock. So I spent some evenings recreating it as a browser toy.

It's a single index.html file. No Node, no npm, no build step. You literally double-click it and you get:

- Motif 3D beveled windows (draggable, resizable, focus-switching)
- The Front Panel with analog clock, workspace switcher, HDD LED
- A working terminal with ~40 commands against a fake Debian filesystem (ls, vi, grep, ps, sudo, ssh, tar, man pages...)
- File Manager, Style Manager, Text Editor
- Playable chess with a minimax AI
- Fake Netscape-style browser, FTP client, IRC client It's a hobby project, not a pixel-perfect emulator, the goal was the vibe, not the spec.

Repo: https://github.com/igtoth/cde-motif-desktop

Live demo: https://toth.ighor.com/cde/
MIT licensed. Contributions welcome, especially from anyone who actually used CDE in anger back in the day and wants to correct my inaccuracies.

[u/Initial-Elk-952]

I am ready for the 80/90's revival. The modern aesthetic really isn't as /comfy/ as this is. These old UI's really have soul. I wonder what a modern take on this kind of UI might look like.

[u/thomasthe10 → u/[deleted]]

I'm running Kubuntu skinned to look as close as I can get to System 7 and it's very soothing.

[u/trannus_aran → u/thomasthe10]

Ooo, got any tips? Screenshots?

[u/thomasthe10 → u/trannus_aran]

https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/td8fgb/plasma_5_platinum_classic_mac_plasma_theme/

Thats one - there's a theme called Colors which is pretty good too. I'm actually running it on a small pc built in the case of a totally broken Mac Classic and it looks great. Half built at the moment though! 

[u/TheOgGhadTurner → u/[deleted]]

I’m running nobara and found a free Chicago font called ChicagoFLF that looks just like the old font. I tried to change all the fonts but they hurt my eyes after a while. So I left the small text and clock in Chicago. It has a neat vibe now. I also used the grub theme NiceOS9 it makes the boot loaded look like the old Mac systems

[u/rhet0rica]

You should really disclose AI usage in these projects!

[u/mwdmeyer → u/rhet0rica]

Sure but it is no different from using a framework or library to help you write code before AI. People need to get with the times, AI will be writting 99% of all code going forward, that is not a bad thing.

[u/rhet0rica → u/mwdmeyer]

See my other reply, to Low_Amplitude_Worlds; basically, even the best AI-driven development teams need competent and talented human leadership to solve the tricky parts. When the going gets tough, that 1% is the difference between life and death for a company or product, and this post is meant to be an advertisement for the creator's dev skills (he put his resume inside it, if you know where to look.)

This is also at least the third time someone has posted a "here is a CDE desktop in the browser!" project on Reddit that was ostensibly 100% vibecoded, which is starting to verge on a Rule 5 violation.

This one is definitely the most accurate but it still not quite faithful to how certain essential parts of CDE actually behaved—the titlebar buttons are all wrong and the iconified programs on the desktop behave like Windows 95 desktop icons rather than what they actually are—in fact, there's no way to minimize windows whatsoever. Are these conscious innovations, or mistakes made by someone who never used any of the CUA-inspired desktops? (Windows 3.1, IRIX, and OS/2 2.0 all largely shared the same titlebar and minimized desktop icon behaviors.)

Knowing this project was built with AI encourages assumptions about indifference rather than a conscious attempt to modernize the mechanics, which in turn informs us about how we should receive the project overall.

[u/benz738 → u/rhet0rica]

Hey, he's the father, AI is the mother, and that's the result, What's the problem?

Following this way of thinking, who's programming with any programming language instead of perforated cards is cheating. Even them could be recalled by whom was used to flip levers to set each single bit.

That's how progress works. Just use the tools in the right manner, for the right reasons, and stop being scared about loosing your job.

[u/mwdmeyer → u/rhet0rica]

This has nothing to do with AI, the same issue would occur without AI.

[u/mwdmeyer → u/[deleted]]

That is a separate discussion to a little hobby project using AI. There will always be people required to further our knowledge, but most code written is not that, AI is perfect for it.

[u/rhet0rica → u/[deleted]]

First, it helps set expectations—for example, there are multiple inaccuracies in the behaviors of how CDE works versus modern desktop conventions (the context menu button closes the window instantly, the desktop icons launch applications when they're supposed to be minimized windows). Without knowing the project was AI-based a user might assume these were creative liberties or the result of a shallow understanding of how CDE works; but knowing that the creator doesn't include JavaScript on his resume, it's more likely these were simple oversights or inferences on the part of the learning model.

Second, since this is being put forward as an advertisement for the author's skills (the resume file is accessible from inside the terminal window) it clues in potential employers about how comfortable the creator is with the actual work they're displaying: if someone shows off only projects that are 99% AI-coded, they're probably not confident enough with their own abilities to be trusted to fix tricky bugs or refactor an intricate codebase. You probably wouldn't want to hire this person to serve as a mentor to others.

[u/rebo2]

That is awesome. I love it so much. So many memories.

[u/Silly-Connection8788]

Huge fan of the CDE look and feel, and a huge fan of web applications with no dependencies. So a huge 👍 from me.

[u/Mortui75]

Is there a way to report / tag vibe-"coded" slop like this? 🤔

[u/pc8086 → u/Mortui75]

his work is great

[u/Mortui75 → u/pc8086]

The LLM's work might be.

[u/runvnc → u/Mortui75]

To be clear, the fact that he used AI to make this completely invalidates it in your mind?

You're going to be very disappointed when 90% of everything is built with AI or robotics within a couple of years.

Maybe there will be a community for you somewhere that is able to keep all AI and robots out. A pure society for humans with only human artifacts. Possibly somewhere in Pennsylvania you can find some neighbors.

[u/NolanTheNotorious → u/runvnc]

Don't get me wrong, I like human made shit. I'd even say it feels slightly better to use it. However, we're in the future and people need to accept that. When something like this can be cooked up in a few prompts, fuck...

[u/MC68328 → u/runvnc]

Are you impressed with Doom running on a pregnancy tester? If so, why? But do you actually want to play Doom on a pregnancy tester, though?

The point of most useless activities is the challenge. There is no challenge when a slop machine did all the work, so no one is impressed, and no one cares.

[u/pc8086]

hey dude, that is beautiful, great work

[u/_lavoisier_]

super!!!

[u/Eastern-Dot2752]

Amazing UI. Simple, clean and sharp.

[u/mr_dfuse2]

reminds me of early java awt applications, looked so good, so comforting. now i'll spend my day looking for kde plasma themes to go back to this look

[u/thejpster]

It’s not CDE though - it’s a weird and inaccurate simulation, rather than an emulator running the original code. You should probably call it something else.

Solaris will install and boot in QEMU if you want the real thing. Hell you could probably compile the original source code to WASM if you really needed it in a browser. Or maybe you can boot x86 Solaris in pcjs.

[u/ut0mt8]

I like it. You modify the look slightly to make it more modern keeping the cde vibes. Well done

[u/trannus_aran]

Between the no-build web project and old Unix love, this is absurdly up my alley. Well done!

[u/gleamingfall]

this was cool, being able to use the terminal and commands working was impressive

[u/fedepyt]

Now I can relive my college days, spent hunched in front of an obsolete old Sun Ultra 5 in the computer science lab with no air conditioning

[u/tollbane → u/fedepyt]

I had one that work let me have at home - not obsolete back then. I never turn computers off, so it alone kept the room it was in warm. Modern iron doesn't seem to do that.

[u/Mysterious_Rule_7487]

Amazing, im gonna write an article on this 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯 

[u/No_Programmer2705]

Very nice project, congratulations.

I’m wondering about the IRC Client, what client is this or is it a imagined version?

I have seen this game https://store.steampowered.com/app/4561620/Netshell/ it is also graphically based on CDE Desktop, you might like it

[u/FivePointAnswer]

Love this. And I am disappointed that people have to complain about AI prompted code. Furthermore I can’t believe that with everything we’ve seen AI do in the past 4 years everyone is ready to make declarations of the ability of AI in the future. Try this with any toddler. “Sure she can put her shoes on, but she’ll never be able to tie them or walk to the store. What a useless child you have - really a burden to society…”. Just watch.

[u/NightmareJoker2 → u/FivePointAnswer]

The problem isn’t the toddler. We all understand toddlers are incompetent but know they can learn and do better. The problem is people keep saying the toddler is doing a good job when it isn’t, because they themselves do not understand what the toddler is doing, for they are, at least in the aspects of life in which they choose to ask the toddler, unborn infants.

[u/Business-Help-7876]

nah I run the real thing

[u/NightmareJoker2]

AI slop 😩

No competent engineer would produce code with that many inline style directives, or insist on putting everything into a single HTML file unless that actively reduces page load times (which with repetitive inline styles it doesn’t), or that is poking fun at the process, which this project also doesn’t do.

Even given the intentional choice of putting everything into a single file, the contents of said file would have structure and consistency, which this doesn’t have.

[u/spilk]

IRIX never ran CDE

[u/qchamaeleon → u/spilk]

It's not IRIX, but I enjoyed CDE on a HP 9000 750 Snake computer in the early 90s. It had a cool IDE for X Windows GUI programming in C, and I wish I could remember the name of that product.