I've posted before about Project Looking Glass from Sun Microsystems - it's a spanky-looking 3D desktop environment.
Anyway, Sun have now Open-Sourced it, and there's an interview with Hideya Kawahara, lead developer for Looking Glass here.
Clearly, I am a big fan of Mac OS X, but there is an interesting reference in the interview:
"Are you looking at integration with the popular windows managers, such as GNOME and KDE?"
"The issues with regard to GNOME/KDE and the profusion of desktop environments are really orthogonal to Project Looking Glass. For example, Mac OS X differentiates between various technology layers -- for example, BSD, Aqua, Cocoa: all are different layers in the overall environment. Similarly, Linux needs to evolve into a more complex environment with different layers. To keep Linux competitive, we need to think about how to move forward into the next generation. The goal here is not to introduce a new desktop model, but to provide the underpinnings for the next generation."
Now, if you saw Steve Jobs showing off Dashboard at the Apple WWDC recently then you'll have noticed how he span a clock widget around and made a change to settings on the back of the widget.
Kawahara mentions:
"As an example, our prototype window manager flips a window over to display a modal dialog on the "back" of the window that owns the dialog."
Now, is it me, or does this all possibly lead us towards a potentially interesting and exciting conclusion?.......
Anyway, Sun have now Open-Sourced it, and there's an interview with Hideya Kawahara, lead developer for Looking Glass here.
Clearly, I am a big fan of Mac OS X, but there is an interesting reference in the interview:
"Are you looking at integration with the popular windows managers, such as GNOME and KDE?"
"The issues with regard to GNOME/KDE and the profusion of desktop environments are really orthogonal to Project Looking Glass. For example, Mac OS X differentiates between various technology layers -- for example, BSD, Aqua, Cocoa: all are different layers in the overall environment. Similarly, Linux needs to evolve into a more complex environment with different layers. To keep Linux competitive, we need to think about how to move forward into the next generation. The goal here is not to introduce a new desktop model, but to provide the underpinnings for the next generation."
Now, if you saw Steve Jobs showing off Dashboard at the Apple WWDC recently then you'll have noticed how he span a clock widget around and made a change to settings on the back of the widget.
Kawahara mentions:
"As an example, our prototype window manager flips a window over to display a modal dialog on the "back" of the window that owns the dialog."
Now, is it me, or does this all possibly lead us towards a potentially interesting and exciting conclusion?.......