Project Looking Glass and OS XI
Here's a link for the demo video
Basically, it's a demonstration of the potential of the Java Desktop, but it portents for the future of OS X IMO.
The utilitly of rotating a window three demensionally may seem a bit gimicky, but combined with Expose style window management I can see it being quite compelling.
I think Sun is obviously borrowing for OS X in many respects (movie in the dock, hell, the dock itself), but I like the 3D feel. Also, I couldn't quite tell but it looked like the background image would move in a panorama style. This is one hell of an idea, a 360 degree desktop with a background designed to attach some scenary to a particular coordinate.
I'm also an advocate for making icons animated and interactive, but I don't think they did that.
Thoughts?
Basically, it's a demonstration of the potential of the Java Desktop, but it portents for the future of OS X IMO.
The utilitly of rotating a window three demensionally may seem a bit gimicky, but combined with Expose style window management I can see it being quite compelling.
I think Sun is obviously borrowing for OS X in many respects (movie in the dock, hell, the dock itself), but I like the 3D feel. Also, I couldn't quite tell but it looked like the background image would move in a panorama style. This is one hell of an idea, a 360 degree desktop with a background designed to attach some scenary to a particular coordinate.
I'm also an advocate for making icons animated and interactive, but I don't think they did that.
Thoughts?
Comments
Originally posted by giant
You know, every 3D GUI I've played with has always felt a bit pointless and clunky, but Sun seems to be on to something. Those windows that flip over just make so much sense. I'm not a GUI junkie, but that sure made a whole lot of sense to me.
You've gotten to play with this GUI?!
Yeah it does look ok, I'm curious what you have to do to have those windows behave that way. It wasn't really the most thought out design (I know demo), but having every window turn translucent when the mouse goes off of it?! I noticed they had something like the dock it looked like.
I don't really get what makes a 3d interface 3d. I mean I don't see how those would be very hard to integrate into OS X. I'm sure QE could handle all of that pretty nicely.
There was a lot of cool stuff in that Sun demo, but there were also a lot of bad UI that they were showing off.
That the only thing they could think of using this for was to take notes for each window, though, isn't nearly so inspired..
The eyecandy was great and could easily become part of OSX, but the moving the windows to teh side and such, i just don't see the point. How is it different than putting them in the dock, or using expose?
I just don't understand. Seemed to be little more than eyecandy. Very nice eye candy, i must admit, but still just eyecandy.
~ tommy
Originally posted by Cosmo
I agree with most people here, the notes thing was the only really good thing about that GUI.
I don't even see the use in that. Watching the demo, it didn't look to me as if there was any indication of a note from the FRONT side of the window. I certainly wouldn't use it if I had to flip the window over in order to see IF I had a note, much less what it was.
Being able to attach notes to windows and pages could be useful, if you could see there was a note there and that indication didn't get in the way, and you could work with the note at the same time you were looking at the window. Who takes notes on the back of papers if you could take them on the front?
The eyecandy was great and could easily become part of OSX, but the moving the windows to teh side and such, i just don't see the point. How is it different than putting them in the dock, or using expose?
I just don't understand. Seemed to be little more than eyecandy. Very nice eye candy, i must admit, but still just eyecandy.
I agree here. Moreover, I have the feeling that if BeOS was still being developed today, they could do that sort of stuff at the drop of a hat if they wanted to.
Originally posted by jginsbu
I agree here. Moreover, I have the feeling that if BeOS was still being developed today, they could do that sort of stuff at the drop of a hat if they wanted to.
I think that OS X using QE could do that stuff without much tweaking at all. As mentioned before all the framework is there.
Can OS X do everything demoed in the video? Yes. It probably already has in one form or another for some time. Thankfully Apple is committed to developing technology to solve real world problems, with a few exceptions like the genie effect.
Want to impress the world Sun? Implement consistent system wide cut/copy/past and clipboard support in a Linux distribution. Not as leet to demo, but a million times more useful and needed.
I do think Sun's desktop will help ween the large number of MS Windows/Linux fence sitters over to Linux. The Slashdot crowd has been clamoring for something like this for a long time. They'll clearly see how a 3D desktop is one better than a 2D version.
The main impression the video left me with is Steve Jobs gives great demos.
Originally posted by Tuttle
Thankfully Apple is committed to developing technology to solve real world problems, with a few exceptions like the genie effect.
Actually the genie effect is a perfect example of how eye candy can be very good UI design. One of the hallmarks the Mac has always been to show the user what is going on i.e. zoom effects. The genie effect show the user exactly what happens when the minimize the window, it goes into the dock.
Originally posted by HOM
Actually the genie effect is a perfect example of how eye candy can be very good UI design. One of the hallmarks the Mac has always been to show the user what is going on i.e. zoom effects. The genie effect show the user exactly what happens when the minimize the window, it goes into the dock.
I agree with the principle, but it really belongs in some slick user interface demo or help system.
as a side note, i about busted a gut when everyone started cheering when he flipped the window to write a note. i mean it is cool, but CHEERING? c'mon, how nerdy are we? it sort of reminded me when everyone started cheering during the jaguar keynote when spring-loaded folders were "introduced"
Originally posted by Cosmo
I think that OS X using QE could do that stuff without much tweaking at all. As mentioned before all the framework is there.
I don't doubt it. Although isn't QE a 2D graphics engine? In any case I wasn't questioning Apple's capabilities -- I just don't think this is the sort of thing Apple would go for. But I couldn't help being reminded of the old BeOS movies-mapped-over-3D-shapes demos while watching it. It just didn't seem all that new to me.