High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Common Desktop Environment is a desktop environment for Unix, based on the Motif widget toolkit. HP's OpenVMS uses CDE as its standard desktop environment.SunSoft, HP, IBM and USL announced CDE in June 1993 as a joint development within the Common Open Software Environment initiative. The primary environment was based on HP's VUE , itself derived from the Motif Window Manager. IBM contributed its Common User Access model and Workplace Shell. Novell provided desktop manager components and scalable systems technologies from UNIX System V. Sun contributed its ToolTalk application interaction framework and a port of its DeskSet productivity tools, including mail and calendar clients, from its OpenWindows environment.