“An example includes CDE (Common Desktop Environment), which was proprietary until 2012 before it was open-sourced. CDE was used in commercial UNIX versions like Solaris (before it became open source as OpenSolaris) and HP-UX.”
It’s a good question. I don’t think there are any widely used ones, but I’d bet there are a few running around for internal use.
I think that due to the nature of Linux in general the only ways to have a successful proprietary software package is by being a hardware vendor, owning a whole format that is widely used and needs to be licensed, or having pretty serious multiplatform support. Desktop environments don’t really fall under these.
But I could be way the hell off the mark. I’m just a rambling drunk.
Regarding internal use, if all the users of a piece of software can access the source code by asking to access it, then it’s open source, according to GNU.
Makes me wonder, are there closed-source desktop environments for Linux?
Not surprisingly, North Korea’s Red Star OS has a closed source fork of KDE.
You got me curious. I found this.
“An example includes CDE (Common Desktop Environment), which was proprietary until 2012 before it was open-sourced. CDE was used in commercial UNIX versions like Solaris (before it became open source as OpenSolaris) and HP-UX.”
Sounds like the common desktop
😎
Isn’t so common
It’s a good question. I don’t think there are any widely used ones, but I’d bet there are a few running around for internal use.
I think that due to the nature of Linux in general the only ways to have a successful proprietary software package is by being a hardware vendor, owning a whole format that is widely used and needs to be licensed, or having pretty serious multiplatform support. Desktop environments don’t really fall under these.
But I could be way the hell off the mark. I’m just a rambling drunk.
Regarding internal use, if all the users of a piece of software can access the source code by asking to access it, then it’s open source, according to GNU.