IRIX Interactive Desktop (formerly called Indigo Magic Desktop) is a

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

normally used as the default desktop on

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

workstations running

IRIX IRIX ( ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. In IRIX, SGI originated the XFS file system and ...

. The IRIX Interactive Desktop uses the Motif

widget toolkit A widget toolkit, widget library, GUI toolkit, or UX library is a library or a collection of libraries containing a set of graphical control elements (called ''widgets'') used to construct the graphical user interface (GUI) of programs. Most widg ...

on top of the

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...

found on most

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

systems. The default

window manager A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunction ...

on the IRIX Interactive Desktop is 4Dwm.

History

IRIS Workspace is SGI's first

in IRIX versions 3.0 through 5.0. This was succeeded by Indigo Magic Desktop, introduced in 1993 with IRIX 5.1 on the

Indy Indy may refer to: Computing and technology *Indy (software), used for Internet access to music *Internet Direct, or "Indy", a software library *SGI Indy, a computer workstation Periodicals *''The Indy'', shorthand for newspapers that include " ...

multimedia workstation. Along with Sun Microsystem's former

OpenWindows OpenWindows is a discontinued desktop environment for Sun Microsystems workstations which combined SunView, NeWS, and X Window System protocols. OpenWindows was included in later releases of the SunOS 4 and Solaris (operating system), Solaris ope ...

environment and the

Common Desktop Environment The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) is a desktop environment for Unix and OpenVMS, based on the Motif widget toolkit. It was part of the UNIX 98 Workstation Product Standard, and was for a long time the Unix desktop associated with commercia ...

from COSE released the same year, these were some of the first

desktop environments In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

to be provided by default on a

computer system. The Indigo Magic Desktop was renamed to IRIX Interactive Desktop with the release of IRIX 6.5 in 1998. Beginning in 2000, Eric Masson, a passionate user of SGI systems, began work on a recreation of IRIX Interactive Desktop for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

. By 2005, Eric and

SGI SGI may refer to: Companies *Saskatchewan Government Insurance *Scientific Games International, a gambling company *Silicon Graphics, Inc., a former manufacturer of high-performance computing products *Silicon Graphics International, formerly Rac ...

had worked through an official agreement, resulting in a special license permitting him to duplicate the IRIX Interactive Desktop for

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

-based Linux systems in a project called MaXX Interactive Desktop.

Features

Indigo Magic Desktop is intended to promote easy access to multimedia functionality, and provide user-customizable environments. The environment is based on audio cues for the start and finish of an operation, intelligent windows to track recently visited directories, and multiple virtual desktops grouped by function. 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 a particular Silicon Graphics workstation. When not in use, program windows minimize onto the desktop in a small rectangular shape, while the

file manager A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or pr ...

that also displays the desktop uses a distinct

vector graphic Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...

icons (utilizing the IconSmith .fti file format).

Reception

''UNIX Review'' magazine in March 1994 gave Indigo Magic Desktop a mixed review, with an overall rating of "superior".

References

External links

Toastytech IRIX Interactive Desktop screenshots

MaXX Interactive DesktopOld Website

{{X desktop environments and window managers Desktop environments IRIX software Software that uses Motif (software)

History

Features

Reception

See also

References

External links