[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Given the fact that more and more companies (except MS) are realising that a 3D accellerated GFX card is an awful thing to waste there's a tendency to try and push the next big thing in the desktop world.

I've seen the window manager in OSX, with it's rather nifty ability to zoom out from a bunch of windows and zoom back in on the one you select but I think SUN has really pushed the envelope: Realplayer vid

The thing I'm most pleased about is that this is open archetecture so you might bee seeing it on a linux box soon, or sometime later on a windows box when MS get around to copying it.
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[ChronoReverse]

Nice dig on Microsoft.  But the upcoming graphics system in Vista (and will be backported to XP) utilizes the 3D card to a greater degree than even OSX does.

Didn't know about Sun though but Solaris was always pretty nice.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by ChronoReverse
Nice dig on Microsoft.  But the upcoming graphics system in Vista (and will be backported to XP) utilizes the 3D card to a greater degree than even OSX does.

Didn't know about Sun though but Solaris was always pretty nice.

[color=66ff00]As has been widely accepted 'Microsoft does not innovate, it emulates'.

Anyhow it wasn't a dig as such as I have no great dislike for MS, it was just a fact: if this technology is liked then MS will at some later point copy it and insert it into Win* a la tabs in IE7.

Also using the GFX card to handle 2D graphics is all good and well but we've been using the same overall design paradigm for GUI's for a long time now. To see one of the larger companies with a bit of muscle (programming and cashflow), backing an innovative idea and not putting a pricetag on it is rather nice.
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[Fury]

I'm not touching a real vid, annoying its even used in such manner.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]I used to be the same Fury, but Real player alternative is light, unobtrusive and can be removed anytime you feel like it.
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[vyper]

Very nice stuff. I wonder if the JavaAPI will include this kind of functionality for JRE windows. (or frames within those windows I should say)

[Fury]

If Windows Media Classic with ffdshow does not play it, I don't need it.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Actually WMC with real alternative shows it, it's a codec not a player.
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[vyper]

Real Alt is a codec for WMC anyway ya bell-end.

[Fineus]

It never ceases to amaze me that people will wall themselves off from media, purely because they've grown bull headed about the application used to display it

[Fury]

Real is not common enough to warrant installing any other codecs besides ffdshow, which handles the most common video and audio formats. If they really HAVE to use a cross-platform streaming media, then they should use quicktime which is very common and warrants installing quicktime. Real is just bleh in every possible way.

[Col. Fishguts]

Nice, I've seen some screenshots of an eralier version of this, with a full 360 environment.

One of the most interesting thing was that network connections are represented as portals, through which you could see the "desktop" of another user and then go trough it. You saw other users represented as avatars, with line-of-sight representing where they were looking at (=where their mouse cursor was).

I'm looking forward to a Linux version of this.

[ChronoReverse]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]As has been widely accepted 'Microsoft does not innovate, it emulates'.

Anyhow it wasn't a dig as such as I have no great dislike for MS, it was just a fact: if this technology is liked then MS will at some later point copy it and insert it into Win* a la tabs in IE7.

Also using the GFX card to handle 2D graphics is all good and well but we've been using the same overall design paradigm for GUI's for a long time now. To see one of the larger companies with a bit of muscle (programming and cashflow), backing an innovative idea and not putting a pricetag on it is rather nice.
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Quite true.

Interestingly, Bill Gates has done interviews where he blatantly acknowledges Apple's innovation as its competitive advantage. In fact, he's been a valiant supporter of MSFT products for Apple when they struggled as a manufacturer. One can make the argument (poorly, albeit) that Microsoft's continued support of Office for Apple products during the lean years staved the company's death. Now that Apple has moved into consumer electronics, the dependence is less important. Gates also acknowledges that they look to Apple as an incubator for innovation which they then incorporate into their own products. This is all well documented. That makes Gates smart - why reinvent the wheel? For what? Microsoft doesn't seek to innovate - for better or worse - they seek to dominate. Apple is good at what it does, and thus far, Microsoft has been good at what it does.

In any case, I personally don't feel a 3D interface isn't as great as it could be until we have cheap consumer level 3D displays and hardware interfaces.  We simply think in 2D most of the time.


What I think would be neat would be an interface in the spirit of the one in Minority Report; multiple onscreen input + voice.

[Descenterace]

3D desktops (beyond merely taking advantage of 3D hardware to speed up 2D rendering) are another example of 'noisy, flashy crap'.

Unnecessary and ultimately a waste of time. Manoeuvering in 3D is more time-consuming than locating an object on a 2D screen.

[Flipside]

I've tried using some Shareware 3D Desktop apps, but they are either so convoluted that they are incapable of being anything other than an interactive screen saver, or buggy as hell. I used one call the 'Orb' I think, it allowed to you place icons in a 360' arc 'around' you monitor and rotate your view. I was forever losing icons

[MicroPsycho]

I thinks its an interesting idea, but I also think that after the novelty of having the '360 degrees, realtime 3d, explore desktop with portals and crap' wears of you'll be left with an impractical and likely confusing desktop.

[Ghost]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]As has been widely accepted 'Microsoft does not innovate, it makes it better[/color]

Fixed.

[karajorma]

Only if you mean in the same way you get dogs fixed.

[Solatar]

I love it when people do that. They "fix" things people say, and I guess that leaves them with an excuse to not back it up at all. Not just this thread, but people seem to like to do that lately. Well...none of the older members.

[Ghost]

Originally posted by Solatar
I love it when people do that. They "fix" things people say, and I guess that leaves them with an excuse to not back it up at all. Not just this thread, but people seem to like to do that lately. Well...none of the older members.

Alright, then. I don't see you making any legitimate excuse as to why your preferred OS is any better than Windows. Jackass.

Windows' user interface is better than Macs. Unless I'm much mistaken, GUIs first came out on Apple computers, correct?