MS Longhorn

dogcow

Well its still in Alpha stages, but take a look at <a href="http://msbetas.net/longhorn/"; target="_blank">this</a> and download the movie <a href="http://msbetas.net/longhorn/files/longhorn.zip"; target="_blank">here</a> (You will need windows media player to watch it).



They have genie effects, transparent windows and every thing! :eek: :eek:



[ 05-23-2002: Message edited by: Dogcow ]</p>

hmurchison

That's only natural...Microsoft has used Apple for low cost R&D for years. Longhorn is rumored to have Accelerated GUI via DirectX as well.

rubberducky

Longhorn has been slated to have a DX accelerated GUI for some time (even before I heard mention of Quartz Extreme).



The window opening animation can hardly be considered a "Genie Effect". It's just the natural next step for the visual cue that's always been present when windows are restored/maximised. Right now, that cue is simply the outline of the Window so filling it in seems logical to me.

airsluf

xmoger

I'm pretty sure hmurchison and rubberducky mean that the GUI would be 'hardware accelerated", like how dvd, audio, 3d can be accelerated by special hardware(not the cpu).



MS has said that those without supported hardware, could run in software emulation. They'll probably keep including the old shell of win2k and 3.1 if you want don't have a new card too. I don't really think the gui would use the new pixel and vertex shaders in dx9 so older cards may work as well.

airsluf

ghost_user_name

*ahem*



First of all, those videos were <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=001445"; target="_blank">already posted here</a> a month ago when they were actually newsworthy.



Second, they have been denounced by a very reliable source (Paul Thurrott) as fake. Basically, someone just had too much time on their hands and whipped up those fakes in something like Flash. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks that rigid mouse movement is a sign of a fake, no?



From <a href="http://www.winsupersite.com:"; target="_blank">http://www.winsupersite.com:</a>;



[quote]In late April 2002, a new video purporting to show the Longhorn Start Menu appeared. This video, however, is clearly fake. What is shows is a Longhorn "shelf" similar to the bar/panel design seen in the "Blackcomb" video, above. But the shelf features nonsensical sections ("task shelf," with application shortcuts, and "common tasks," with disk locations, not tasks). The strangest part of the video, though, displays a bizarre duplicate view capability, where you can open a second My Computer window displaying the same folder as the first. In the video, a third duplicate is opened as well, and then they're dragged to the Recycle Bin, ala the Mac OS.



[snipped list of screenshots]



In early May 2002, a second "Longhorn" video appeared. This one, too, is fake.<hr></blockquote>



I just thought you should know so you don't get too fussied up over this.



[ 05-24-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>