[plug] Last nights Novell installfest question

[Richard Meyer]

On Sat, 2006-08-05 at 16:38 +0800, Russell wrote:
> On 8/3/06, Bernd Felsche <bernie at innovative.iinet.net.au> wrote:
> > >I have no idea what good the wobbly windows are, but they look
> > >impressive, until you start to feel seasick ...

I wish to register a complaint - - "Hello, Miss?" - - "Sorry, I have a
cold".

T'was I who made the above statement.  ;-)
> 
> Xgl and the window manager support (wobbly windows, transparent
> windows, rotating desktops, and the rest) are features whose time has
> come, in my opinion.
> 
> Mostly they make the desktop feel much more natural, like making
> windows really act like sheets of paper.  Why shouldn't I be able to
> grab the top corner of a window, have a quick look behind it by
> peeling it back, then have it go back to where it was when I let go?
> Imagine you're working on a document on paper, and you're referring to
> other documents on the desk.  You'd do things like that all the time.
> 
> Transparency has already been useful for me, by making it possible to
> work on the source code of a program in the top level window with that
> window slightly transparent, such that I could monitor the progress of
> the previous version of that program in the window behind.  Text on
> text doesn't work well, but text on graphics does.
> 
> It used to be that you could maximise almost any window, and watch it
> redraw itself to the new size.  With machines getting so much faster,
> many windows now just snap to the new size with no visible delay. One
> way to view Xgl and things like it (Xgl is what I have experience
> with, but also Apple's effects, whatever they're called, and the stuff
> supposedly coming in Vista) is that is slows down this process and
> uses that time to provide useful feedback.
> 
> Some of the effects can be overdone, especially the wobbly windows.
> But others are just so natural, like having a window deform as I'm
> dragging it across the desktop.  I find myself wondering why
> everything is so static on desktops without Xgl now, and it's only on
> my laptop at the moment.
> 
> We finally have the graphics horsepower to make all this possible on
> many existing desktops, and probably most new desktop installations.
> Let's not ignore the possibilities because it's not what the desktop
> did last year.

I can't argue with any of the above - I was merely pointing out that the
wobbly windows weren't really productivity enhancers, but a couple of
people have pointed out that feek more "organic" and you seem to find a
use for them as well. I'm not a techno-Luddite - I love tech, and I
freely admit I've been wrong before.

The adjustable transparency and the rotating desktop are really snazzy,
I thought. 

Now if someone can find a use for the raindrops .... perhaps we could
sell it to the WA farmers - it seems all the rain they're getting this
year ....  :-(
-- 
Richard Meyer <meyerri at westnet.com.au>
There are II types of people - those who can count like Romans and
those who can't.

Linux Counter user #306629