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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Project looking glass
From:       Segedunum <segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2004-07-02 20:17:24
Message-ID: 200407022117.34469.segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk
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Fri, 2 Jul 2004 10:10:18, Paul Pacheco wrote:
> I just installed and tried project looking glass. 

What kind of machine did you install it on?

> and I have to say the future has been shown to me. It is still not usable 
> because it crashes a lot, and has several other problems.

Well, you may think it is the future, but it is just not practical at all for 
several good reasons. The big one is that there is no hardware around that 
can cope with a pure 3D accelerated desktop environment at the moment, that 
will also allow people to use many everyday applications, at the same time, 
and let people run stuff like games with acceptable performance. Under no 
circumstance should you believe those Jonathan Schwartz presentations. What 
kind of hardware do you think is behind him there?

There is no way the hardware today, or even sometime soon, can cope with that. 
People are touting Linux desktops as a way of reusing old desktops, so there 
is no way you can push a desktop environment that can't even be run on the 
stuff of tomorrow.

> You can zoom out (smooth animation here), see all the virtual desktops and 
> zoom in in another desktop. What is more intuitive than that?

Not only have I seen zoom added to the desktop mix, but I've also seen the 
concept of moving windows around as if they are in a 3D space with a mouse. 
This is a definite no, no usability-wise, because if you are talking about 
businesses taking this up people can just about get by on a 2D desktop as it 
is. A mouse is just not a good peripheral for doing 3D movements.

> It is also clear which window has the focus because you can see some shadow 
> around the window (the all famous drop shadow :) And you see the window as 
> being closer to you than the other ones.

You can do that now, without the overhead of a total 3D desktop.

> It is clear when you bring a window to the foreground because it literally 
> moves forward and the current window moves back.

It is clear when you bring a window to the foreground in a 2D desktop, because 
you can actually see it.

> Moving the windows to the side and letting you see the title on the side of 
> the window relates to books on a book shelf. It saves space and it lets you 
> see every window that is available.

That is quite a good idea, as you don't have to consciously go hunting for the 
application you want to go back to. More organization of windows in the 
taskbar would be good, but you don't need 3D to do it.

> The minimized windows have the minimized contents in them, even video. It is 
> much easier to figure out what window to maximize, because you see a 
> miniature version of what you want.

Hmm, not really. This should be possible with thumbnails when you put your 
mouse over. KDE has that with thumbnails in Konqueror, and it's quite cool 
and very useful at the same time.

> Modal dialogs are displayed by fliping the window over and showing it in the 
> back of the window. This makes it clear which dialog relates to which
> window, which could be confusing in other window managers.

I fail to see how this is a step forward. You have to flip a dialogue around 
to see what window it relates to? That has absolutely no practical usage at 
all, and would probably be a step too far for a lot of users out there. 

People just about get to grips with a 2D, one-side-to-every-window desktop as 
it is. There is still a lot more work to be done on that before you start 
throwing 3D everything into the mix. 3D features and SVG could be used where 
they make some sense, but a total 3D desktop is just not on the cards.
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