Get Smart about Business SpendingComments on: Novell seeks to boost Linux graphics
The company behind Suse Linux tries to bring eye candy to the open-source OS. But will it make anyone more productive?
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gains are already clearly there.
Regularly switching between Mac and Windows, I find myself
missing the Expose feature from the Mac more than anything
else - it's one of those incredibly small but significant
productivity boosts - certainly more so than the features they
push like the Dock and Widgets. It just doesn't seem so
interesting in demo.
I'd similarly love to see XGL's desktop switching on Mac and
Windows - it's something common on most flavours of Linux- I
can have a 'coding' desktop, an 'office' desktop, a 'leisure'
desktop, even a desktop for specific projects that would show
the applications and documents I'm working with for that project
- this reflects the different modes in which we use computers,
and replacing the need to create folders to hold applications and
documents by category - and returns some use to the original
desktop metaphor.
I don't use Linux myself, but I can see it's a powerful innovation.
(It can be achieved on Windows and OS/X, but only by third party
software).
The key point is that neither of these aren't graphical
technologies - they are desktop UI technologies - but they rely
on a graphical core to make them viable.
I'm just surprised a technology analyst can't see the productivity
benefits in them.
Xgl's only contribution thus far is to make it practical to, in real-time, update the window appearance in the pager. This was possible before, but it required too much CPU to be desirable.
Xgl will provide considerable other eye-candy too, but principally stuff you already get from the X composition manager extension (Xcompmgr) which bears more similarity to Apple's engine.
The best feature of Xgl is its adoption by Cairo. GUIs are still principally 2D in nature, but video card manufacturers really abandoned 2D for 3D long ago. By making use of the newer rendering model, they go a long way to accelerating the GUI and keeping GUI work off the main CPU. I hope that Qt also takes advantage of Cairo soon for the same reason (and because I personally find KDE more feature-rich).
Nothing but Linux for the last four. So, I'm
no Windows fanboy. But, having looked at Windows
Vista, I think that the nail in the coffin has
been driven for the Linux desktop. I think
Microsoft has probably managed to put a minimum
of five years between itself and Linux (in as
far as the desktop).
Of course this doesn't mean that this is the
end of using Unix for intensive graphics
applications. But there is a difference
between development of graphics applications
and development of a user desktop. One has
very little to do with the other.
Using KDE for reference, 3.5 though not a "major" release provides a great deal of updates to the DE and makes it run wicked fast. Also KDE 4 concepts and alpha work have looked, for lack of a better word, awesome.
HAL, DBUS...xorg progress...add all these to the mix and figure in the time before vista is released and I really don't think vista will be 5 years ahead like speculated.
Nothing but Linux for the last four. So, I'm
no Windows fanboy. But, having looked at Windows
Vista, I think that the nail in the coffin has
been driven for the Linux desktop. I think
Microsoft has probably managed to put a minimum
of five years between itself and Linux (in as
far as the desktop).
Of course this doesn't mean that this is the
end of using Unix for intensive graphics
applications. But there is a difference
between development of graphics applications
and development of a user desktop. One has
very little to do with the other.
Using KDE for reference, 3.5 though not a "major" release provides a great deal of updates to the DE and makes it run wicked fast. Also KDE 4 concepts and alpha work have looked, for lack of a better word, awesome.
HAL, DBUS...xorg progress...add all these to the mix and figure in the time before vista is released and I really don't think vista will be 5 years ahead like speculated.
intimately, but know that Microsoft is
better/winning/whatever". I call BS. I think
you're Microsoft shill posting fake opinions (as
one can see on any big site nowadays). Your
claim that Vista will put Microsoft 5 years
ahead of Linux is completely unbelievable. Vista
has just been delayed, again, and Linux desktops
can show technologies that Vista only
"promises". So, where's the 5 years, i do not
see it.
What is more, you claim to have "looked at
Vista". What does that mean? Did you read the
press claims by MS, did you see screenshots from
MS blogs, and, did you ignore that everything MS
promises- Linux already has.
Bah, you're just a fake. Or very, very ignorant
of Linux.
intimately, but know that Microsoft is
better/winning/whatever". I call BS. I think
you're Microsoft shill posting fake opinions (as
one can see on any big site nowadays). Your
claim that Vista will put Microsoft 5 years
ahead of Linux is completely unbelievable. Vista
has just been delayed, again, and Linux desktops
can show technologies that Vista only
"promises". So, where's the 5 years, i do not
see it.
What is more, you claim to have "looked at
Vista". What does that mean? Did you read the
press claims by MS, did you see screenshots from
MS blogs, and, did you ignore that everything MS
promises- Linux already has.
Bah, you're just a fake. Or very, very ignorant
of Linux.
gains are already clearly there.
Regularly switching between Mac and Windows, I find myself
missing the Expose feature from the Mac more than anything
else - it's one of those incredibly small but significant
productivity boosts - certainly more so than the features they
push like the Dock and Widgets. It just doesn't seem so
interesting in demo.
I'd similarly love to see XGL's desktop switching on Mac and
Windows - it's something common on most flavours of Linux- I
can have a 'coding' desktop, an 'office' desktop, a 'leisure'
desktop, even a desktop for specific projects that would show
the applications and documents I'm working with for that project
- this reflects the different modes in which we use computers,
and replacing the need to create folders to hold applications and
documents by category - and returns some use to the original
desktop metaphor.
I don't use Linux myself, but I can see it's a powerful innovation.
(It can be achieved on Windows and OS/X, but only by third party
software).
The key point is that neither of these aren't graphical
technologies - they are desktop UI technologies - but they rely
on a graphical core to make them viable.
I'm just surprised a technology analyst can't see the productivity
benefits in them.
Xgl's only contribution thus far is to make it practical to, in real-time, update the window appearance in the pager. This was possible before, but it required too much CPU to be desirable.
Xgl will provide considerable other eye-candy too, but principally stuff you already get from the X composition manager extension (Xcompmgr) which bears more similarity to Apple's engine.
The best feature of Xgl is its adoption by Cairo. GUIs are still principally 2D in nature, but video card manufacturers really abandoned 2D for 3D long ago. By making use of the newer rendering model, they go a long way to accelerating the GUI and keeping GUI work off the main CPU. I hope that Qt also takes advantage of Cairo soon for the same reason (and because I personally find KDE more feature-rich).
- please incorporate GLX!!
- by freq April 25, 2008 12:01 AM PDT
- remote displays rock. I would like to see some unification amongst the various technologies.... like VNC and GDM.. and GLX...
- Like this Reply to this comment
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