In computing, Motif refers to both a graphical user interface (GUI) specification and the widget toolkit for building applications that follow that specification under the X Window System on Unix and other POSIX-compliant systems.
It emerged in the 1980s as Unix workstations were on the rise, as a collaboration between Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, and other companies to provide a common interface toolkit for the X Window System, to compete with the OPEN LOOK GUI. The independent group formed to maintain and develop the software has gone through several manifestations: from X/Open through Open Software Foundation (and Motif was sometimes even called OSF/Motif) to its current name, the Open Group.
Motif is the basic building block of the Common Desktop Environment.
The IEEE 1295 standard (now withdrawn) defines the Motif API. As of version 2.1 Motif supports Unicode, which has made it widely used in several multilingual environments.
The Motif look and feel is distinguished by its use of square, chiseled, three-dimensional effects for its various user interface elements — menus, buttons, sliders, text boxes, and the like. Motif's operation was designed to correspond closely with the then-familiar Microsoft Windows and OS/2's Presentation Manager interfaces, and Microsoft played a key role in designing the original style guide.
There are a few implementations of the Motif API available. As of October 2012, Motif the toolkit is available as a source code distribution under GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1. During the time when Motif was closed source software, the LessTif project was created with aims to implement the API under the LGPL license.