At the moment I am using Ubuntu hardy on my desktop. I am going to be adding other Linux's and maybe FreeBSD. I use gnome for special effects, eye candy, and plain old show off stuff. But I want to have a simple DE in my computer installed. I like the way CDE looks and the reviews about its light weight and differences from other DE's. I know that xfce 1-3 was created as a CDE clone. But the problem is that only xfce4 is available at the moment and it takes on its own look. My question is can I mod xfce4 to look and feel like CDE or the original xfce style. If so, how and do you know of any online tutorials/howto's on the subject. I googled it but I guess I just didn't use the right searches.

You won't get the CDE feel (would need code changes in XFce).

XFce came with a "Stelar" theme modeled after SUN CDE for a long time - has this really vanished?

If you prefer HP-UX' CDE style there's an appropriate theme on freshmeat: freshmeat.net: Project details for CDE/Motif theme for GTK 2

I just installed the xfce4 DE and yes, it does have "stellar". I used it but I still can't get it like CDE clone. The theme on freashmeat I couldn't download. I looked for the title on google, but I couldn't find any other download site to get it off of, just text/docs on it. so any help would be useful. Thnx all.

What do you mean by that? Do you get the "right" colors? What do you still miss?

I see how your confused. bad wording on my side. I mean that if you were to look up on a image search engine "CDE", I don't know how to make it look like that. The panel at the bottom and the programs going tot he desktop. I don't you xfce that much, I usually use Gnome so.just what would i have to edit ot do to make the desktop have that bottom panel and the minimized programs to the desktop. Thx all.

I'm actually using CDE ;-) Hm. As far as I know there is no XFce theme reflecting CDE that accurate. One had to write a GTK+ theme modelled after that - which could be quite much work. But furthermore there is nothing *exactly* like CDE file manager available as open source and the CDE panel acts a bit different from XFce's. So sincerely you won't get that much closer to CDE's look & feel with XFce. If you really, really want to get CDE you could install Solaris on your box (but not OpenSolaris as it does not ship with CDE).

The latest Xfce is quite simple and fast by itself. There's no need to mod it. It accomplishes what it is intended to, provide a fast and elegant interface with a light memory footprint, very nicely. If you're doing it for pure looks, then I don't think it's possible. I don't think you'll be able to get the CDE feel from Xfce, but the Xfce feel is very nice. If you really wanted, you could use Compiz/-Fusion with Xfce and kick Gnome too.