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by panick21_ 821 days ago
OxidePad Laptop product based on Helios with NeWS Window System. When?
2 comments
imglorp 820 days ago
I know Don Hopkins hangs out here sometimes, but the big question is did NeWS source code ever get liberated from the depths of Mordoracle?
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DonHopkins 819 days ago
Naw, Sun never liberated it.

Sun did announced "NeWS is Free (only $1000)" which was kind of a kick in the balls and abuse of the word "free".

"Free (only $1000)" discussion on usenet:

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.windows.news/c/-G1l_372AP8/...

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.windows.news/c/YtZzYMZ587M/...

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.org.sug/c/IXcXK7hKgUQ/m/nf8...

A couple of my flames about the situation:

https://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/NeWS/Explanation.txt

https://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/NeWS/sevans.txt

And to cleanse the palette, DSRH's epic "Sun Deskset == Roy Lichtenstein Painting on your Bedroom Wall" flame (David SH Rosenthal was one of the original authors of NeWS, with James Gosling, and also wrote the X11 ICCCM):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38768724

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panick21_ 820 days ago
I don't really know. I was just trying to come up with some obscure references. Solaris on desktop wasn't crazy enough.

I think a modern take on NeWS style system would use Webassembly style system with capability based access rather then PostScript and no security. Basically a modern browser with Canves/WebGL and without a lot of other stuff a browser does.

Would have been a interesting alternative to the Wayland approach.

Kind of sad that Scott McNealy didn't have the balls to open it up. Having some real competition to X in the 90s would have been a cool. Specially if Sun had pushed it at least somewhat.

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pjmlp 820 days ago
That would be kind of cool.
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