The Common Desktop Environment (CDE)'s a desktop environment for Unix, based on the Motif widget toolkit. HP's OpenVMS uses CDE as its standard desktop environment. History Corporate history SunSoft, HP, IBM and USL announced CDE in June 1993 as a joint development within the Common Open Software Environment (COSE) initiative. The primary environment was based on HP's VUE (Visual User Environment), itself derived from the Motif Window Manager (mwm). IBM contributed its Common User Access… (More on Decwindows)