Editing Common Desktop Environment (section)

{{Short description|Desktop environment for Unix and OpenVMS}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox software
| title = Common Desktop Environment
| logo = Common Desktop Environment logo.svg
| logo size = 100px
| screenshot = CDE Application Builder.png
| caption = CDE desktop and ''Application Builder'', a GUI development tool
| author = [[The Open Group]]
| developer = CDE Project (modern)
| released = {{Start date and age|1993|06}}
| latest release version = 2.5.2<ref>{{cite web | url=https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/code/ci/master/tree/cde/HISTORY | title=CDE - Common Desktop Environment / Code / &#91;ca84b1&#93; /Cde/HISTORY | access-date=February 2, 2024 | archive-date=February 3, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240203174257/https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/code/ci/master/tree/cde/HISTORY | url-status=live }}</ref>
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2023|11|18}}
| latest preview version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q49417|P348|P548=Q51930650}}
| latest preview date = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q49417|P348|P548=Q51930650|P577}}
| programming language = C, C++
| operating_system = [[Unix]], [[Unix-like]], [[OpenVMS]]
| size = 54.9 MB (source code)<ref name="src">{{Cite web | url = https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/files/src/ | title = CDE - Common Desktop Environment - Browse _src at SourceForge.net | access-date = November 18, 2021 | archive-date = November 18, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211118034216/https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/files/src/ | url-status = live }}</ref>
| language = English, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Spanish, Swedish
| genre = [[Desktop environment]]
| license = 2012: [[GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL-2.0-or-later]]<br />Original: [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
| website = {{URL|sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/}}
}}

The '''Common Desktop Environment''' ('''CDE''') is a [[desktop environment]] for [[Unix]] and [[OpenVMS]], based on the [[Motif (software)|Motif widget toolkit]]. It was part of the [[UNIX 98|UNIX 98 Workstation Product Standard]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/testing/prodstds.htm|title=Testing requirements by Product Standard|publisher=The Open Group|date=January 31, 2013|access-date=September 29, 2013|archive-date=September 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928064133/http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/testing/prodstds.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and was for a long time the Unix desktop associated with commercial Unix [[workstation]]s. It helped to influence early implementations of successor projects such as [[KDE]] and [[GNOME]], which largely replaced CDE following the turn of the century.

After a long history as [[proprietary software]], CDE was released as [[free software]] on August 6, 2012, under the [[GNU Lesser General Public License]], version 2.0 or later.<ref name="osnews2012-08-06">{{cite web
 |url = http://www.osnews.com/story/26247/CDE_released_as_open_source
 |title = CDE released as open source
 |publisher = OSNews
 |author = Thom Holwerda
 |access-date = August 6, 2012
 |archive-date = August 8, 2012
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120808184128/http://www.osnews.com/story/26247/CDE_released_as_open_source
 |url-status = live
 }}</ref> Since its release as free software, CDE has been ported to [[Linux]] and [[BSD]] derivatives.