ABSTRACT
Modern users strongly prefer the convenience of a graphical user interface (GUI), which is missing in Unix. MS-DOS, Windows, and Apple users are accustomed to having pull-down menus, radio buttons, and the like readily available in their applications. Many users find it cumbersome to work with an interface consisting of a command line only. In some ways, GUIs are antithematic to Unix, since Unix was created originally to be functional on the full range of terminals, from the most sophisticated to the dumbest. Graphical interfaces are highly dependent on the terminal type and so violate one of the significant design principles of Unix. The X Window System is surely the graphical interface system that is most compatible with the Unix philosophy of simplicity. Actually, the X Widow System is not really a GUI. Rather it is the foundation upon which a user interface, in the form of a “window manager,” can be built. Unix supports the X Window System and the two most popular window managers: Open Windows (the popular version of Open Look), from Sun Microsystems, and Motif (a window manager that functions somewhat like Microsoft Windows), from the Open Software Foundation (OSF). The window managers are built on the X Windows Systems but are not a part of it. In this section, we will discuss the X Window System and give a brief summary of the nature of Open Look and Motif. In the next section, we will cover Motif in somewhat greater detail.
