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I guess it's somewhat objective and dependent on your hardware anyway but even with lots of programs open on my main machine I don't notice any slowdown... I think if linux is really gonna pull ahead of the pack they aught to take a gamble on a new, useful interface. Something like 10gui. The risk could even be mitigated by having a choice to load either type of desktop at the beginning with a quick video to demonstrate the difference. :)

Being able to quickly link arbitrary tasks/windows with hotkeys would be more useful to me, as such I proposed this:
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121349
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/DesignersPlayground/KeyboardShortcuts

Alt-tab allows quick switching between two active tasks, but is not as quick for more than two. In the end I gave up waiting, and actually wrote something to do that in Windows (my current workplace is a mainly Windows environment): http://sourceforge.net/projects/linkkey/

It's handy enough for me whenever I need to work with more than two windows. It doesn't work with all app windows ( e.g. those using the ITaskList_Deleted property ). But I think I'm the only user anyway. I guess everyone else is happy enough with "alt-tab" and clicking.

Lots of people get impressed with stuff like 10/GUI ( http://10gui.com/ ) but it would be slower if you actually need to use it for stuff, after all I don't see how it can even switch tasks faster than "alt tab". It's only good for Hollywood ;).

Thought-based interfaces are already appearing, so what would be a better UI than all that flashy animated 3D crap would be the ability to link "thought macros" to arbitrary actions or objects/items.

Then I would only have to think "command" (this would be a unique thought macro - not thinking of the word command), "recall", [thought macro of object follows] (object retrieved), "send to" [thought macro of Bob here], "confirm", "uncommand" (to get out of command mode).

Obviously making your screen the touch surface will never work, for exactly the reason you give. But that doesn't mean that the touch technology itself couldn't work for a desktop computer.

Look at this for example.

It's the same reason why I think GUIs should not borrow too much from "physical metaphors".

For example something like 10GUI might seem cool ( http://10gui.com/video/ )

But it is SLOW. Sliding windows around takes a lot more time than say "alt-tab". Or even a click on the relevant button in the taskbar.

If I'm trying to get work done and I know exactly what I want, for example a particular application window, I want to be able to get to it ASAP. I don't want to have to slide lots of stuff around. I don't want to have to go through zillions of fancy animations and wobbly windows. And I certainly do not want to walk through multiple rooms and corridors till I finally reach the window. And no I do NOT want to battle monsters ( http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doom/chi/chi.html ).

All that may be fine if I'm playing a game (subject to gameplay and "is it actually fun?" constraints).

over at PC World. Actually, I like the idea of the XO-3. Sure, it's totally blue-sky, but it's great to have at least one outfit taking a completely clean-slate design approach to mobile computing.

I like the hinged-panel XO-2 and MS Courier better, however. I think it's just more practical to have one part of the screen that can tilt up into the light. That said, the ring thingy of the XO-3 is interesting, too. I hadn't really thought about the mechanics of trying to hold a panel with one hand while touching with the other.

Remember 10/GUI, Clayton Miller's 10-fingered touch screen interface? Imagine a flexible 10/GUI touch pad that could be pulled out from under the XO screen. That might be interesting.

These guys make a decent point: 10GUI. The keyboard is a pretty nice thing -- we can express quite a wide range of things to the computer. The mouse, however, sucks. An entire hand and we're limited to a position on the screen and binary "clicks." I use an 11-button mouse to help with this, but most applications are not built to support such interaction, so I'm limited to setting them for global commands (back center is reveal, left and swipe is change desktop), save for some special cases (which is pretty lame). The overall theory is that once you establish a better system of interaction with the computer, your everyday tasks become easier. Ultimately, it would be best if we just wired our brains into the computer, but until that is practical, we'll have to work with what we have.