On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:24:01 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ Kier ] on Thursday 20 April 2006 21:14 \__
>
>> As it had been discussed a bit here, I thought I'd download the Kororaa
>> Live CD and try it out. Quite surprised at how well it works on my very
>> modest 32 meg integrated graphics card, wobbly windows, transparency,
>> rotating cube desktops and all. Gnome looks very nice, but couldn't get
>> any drives mounted, so I tried KDE instead; worked a treat.
>>
>> Xine et al all seem to be flaky, and dump me back to the login screen, and
>> my NIC wasn't recognised, but otherwise everything seems to work okay. The
>> transparency thing is rather odd, and perhaps the least practical thing in
>> the demo, although I suppose it might appeal to those who'd like to see a
>> little more of their desktop background. I think it would be better if
>> transparent windows became opaque when they had focus. Wobbly windows is
>> odd, but kind of fun. Again, it doesn't serve a really useful purpose as
>> such, but for demonstration purposes is very eye-catching.
>
>
> You can set transitions (staged or immediate) for the level of windows
> opacity. Windows in focus will either comply with the global settings or
> have a manually set value, which you can find in the windows's context menu.
> If you have OpenGL support, transparency can aid productivity.
Neat.
>
>
>> The rotating cub desktop switcher is great. Seeing a screenshot of if, or
>> even a video, isn't half so impressive as actually doing it. I suspect one
>> could easily get used to having it.
>
>
> _This_, however, I suspect is not most productive and does not boost
> usability any natural tendencies. A flat extended desktop is often just
> fine.
I think I could get used to it myself, but that's just me. Then again, I
don't work on my computer - that is, I don't write code or anything like
that for a living, my PCs are used mainly for leisure and hobby activity.
It certainly livens things up
>
>
>> All in all, I'd say it was worth looking at for anyone who likes a bit of
>> eye-candy.
>
>
> There is little to be found, functionality-wise. However, some people present
> their work on-screen/projector (e.g. architects, speakers), so an impressive
> overall environment may be worthwhile, temporarily at least.
It's definitely good for visual demonstrations, showcasing and the like.
>
>
>> Over the Easter break I also tried out the Looking Glass 3D Desktop demo
>> Live CD.
>>
>> This takes a bit more ooomph in the processor/graphics department to
>> really run well, certainly more than I really have available at present,
>> though I managed to get it to run well enough to get some idea of the
>> features.
>>
>> It's.... different, to say the least. A 3D respresentation of the 'ls'
>> command was quite interesting, and the picture browsing/background
>> changing app did impress me. Also the end-on stacking of windows. Lots of
>> other stuff I didn't really try, as my current machines aren't quite up to
>> it.
>
>
> You can work around the greed for resources by using multiple machines and
> using one as a service-oriented box (computational server-type unit)
Interesting. Must look into that idea sometime.
>
>
>> Both demos, on a sufficiently powerful PC, certainly provide eye-catching
>> demonstrations of what can be done with Linux, and what there might be in
>> store for us on the desktops of tomorrow (in Xgl's case, I reckon most of
>> it won't be that long in coming to the average desktop, once the bugs are
>> ironed out).
>
>
> The XGL (and relatives) development helps repel those who abide by a false
> believe -- that which says that Linux is simple and ugly. Put your Penguin
> in a tuxedo for show, but have him (her?) wear a T-shirt thereafter. it's
> just more convenient to work that way.
Exactly. With Linux it's easy to do one or the other. And there's no
reason why Linux shouldn't look good when users want it to. I look forward
to further developments in that area.
--
Kier
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