🚀 go-pugleaf

There has probably been megabytes of arguments on X vs. NeWS and Motif
vs. OpenLook.  I think the technical concensus is that there is little
practical difference between Motif and Open Look.  Also there is little
technical difference between X and NeWS, except for very small machines
(where X probably wins because of its less complex server) and very
unusual machines (where NeWS probably wins because of its
high-level-only graphics model).  My metric in both cases is efficiency
(human time) of typical end users and application programmers.

The real reason for choosing, in most sites, will be applications.  If
you're a software developer, you should choose what your customers are
using.  If you're a customer, you have to choose from what your vendors
are selling.  I know that's kind of circular, but that's how capitalism
works.  Each side can influence the other, though (user groups and
advertising).  X is winning the window system war because customers
require it for interoperability and all vendors ship it.

The OpenLook vs. Motif war is still raging, but this is less
important.  If you use X, applications (other than window managers)
using OpenLook and Motif can generally exist simultaneously and
interoperate properly.  The look & feel will be slightly different,
though.  Eventually (possibly soon), there will be enough applications
on the market so that users can make look & feel one of their
purchasing decisions.  Some user surveys do indicate that Motif is
more popular, but this market is relatively new and subject to change.

You may ask, why aren't their standards in this area?  The answer is
there will be soon.  The accredited standards organizations (ANSI,
NIST, IEEE, X/OPEN, ISO) are all basing their window system standards
on the X Window System.  All but ANSI are also requiring the X
Toolkit.  IEEE is considering the OpenLook vs. Motif issue, but has not
made much progress yet.

Ken Lee
DEC Western Software Laboratory, Palo Alto, Calif.
Internet: klee@wsl.dec.com
uucp: uunet!decwrl!klee