Preserved Topic: Project Looking Glass

Check out Sun's newest project: http://wwws.sun.com/software/looking_glass/

Make sure you check out their sweet demo!

Jestah

Oh
Your
God

That is cool. I want one. Although the concept of a '3D Desktop' has been around for years now, I have to say that this is by far the best implimentation of it I have ever seen. I forsee open-source and community development drawing more and more people away from microsoft products when this finally comes in. That, and the fact that I also forsee microsoft getting into another law suit hwen they steal this technology and royall screw it up and introduce a whole entymological spectrum of bugs into it with their own twisted concept of 'development'.

Transparent windows? I honestly couldn't think of anything worse.... Do we all currently write, draw and print on transparent paper? Does a mouse made out of transparent plastic become more usable because you can see it's parts? Maybe it does, and maybe I should start wearing transparent clothes!

3D desktop? Nup -- so not going to happen. If it does no one will make decent apps for it. I honestly don't think we know enough about designing applications in virtual 3D environments to be moving in this direction yet. Sure, it works for games and some visualisation tools, but it just isn't productive or useful in a business environment, which is what the "desk-top" revolves around.

Hell, we still use mostly 2D graphs and illustrations to represent data in the business world. Not to mention that a screen is a 2D surface. If we had true 3D displays and we could interact with those displays in real 3D space, then yeah, a 3D desktop environment would probably work, but it'll *never* work on a 2D screen.

Don't get me wrong, I like sun, even been learning Java recently but this seems like little more than a misguided pipe dream.

quote:

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Sun is reinventing the way you think about desktop computing.

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Who said it needed reinventing?... Is there some obvious fundamental flaw with the current systems?

Bah, be carefull not to step in the big stinky pile of marketing.

quote:

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I honestly don't think we know enough about designing applications in virtual 3D environments to be moving in this direction yet

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But if we followed that philosophy, we would never have anything (not just new computer gizmos...I mean, we wouldn't have computers in the first place, or cars, or tractors, or axes, or clothes, etc, etc, etc.....)

If we don't start developing things, we will never learn enough about them to make them useful.

.

I think this step in computer technology is completely inevitable.



[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 01-24-2004).]

gotta agree with DL here. Or greatest "leaps" in technology have always been through trying out new off the wall things. And was usually always met with doubt or even opposition. I say if it works, bring it on. Leave the 2 Dimensional desktop for 2 Dimensional thinkers.

Demo needs Real Player.. I hate Real Player.. shame..