IRIX Interactive Desktop

IRIX Interactive Desktop (formerly called Indigo Magic Desktop) is a desktop environment normally used as the default desktop on Silicon Graphics workstations running IRIX. The IRIX Interactive Desktop uses the Motif widget toolkit on top of the X Window System found on most Unix systems. The default window manager on the IRIX Interactive Desktop is 4Dwm. IRIX Interactive Desktop debuted in September 1993 on the Indy workstation model.[1] The IRIX Interactive Desktop was preceded by the IRIS Workspace in IRIX versions 3.0 through 5.0, and was one of the first default desktop environments to be standard on a Unix computer system.

History

The Indigo Magic Desktop was introduced in 1993 with IRIX 5.1 on the Silicon Graphics Indy workstation. The Indigo Magic name was later changed to IRIX Interactive Desktop with the release of IRIX 6.5 in 1998.

Features

IRIX Interactive Desktop has two primary components: the System Manager and the Toolchest. The System Manager is the main utility for desktop and system configuration. The Toolchest is a menu (normally located on the desktop) that shows which applications are installed on that particular Silicon Graphics workstation. When not in use, program windows minimize onto the desktop in a small rectangular shape, while the file manager that also displays the desktop uses a distinct vector graphic icons (utilizing the IconSmith .fti file format).

Components

Porting to other platforms

Eris Mason has been working through a license with SGI to port the irix interactive desktop to linux, in a project called "MaXX Interactive Desktop".

In 2011, a petition was started asking SGI to open source all components of the IRIX interactive desktop environment to keep their desktop alive on all current UNIX-like environments.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Silicon Graphics Indy (PCW, September 1993)...

External links

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