Fast Alpha-Blending In Your GUI

visnu writes: "I've been waiting for this for 2 years now -- a REAL glass-like windowing system. And yes, it's Microsoft to do it. Ever since W2k came out, and they included alpha-blending in the GDI, I was tempted to write a little tool to turn on any window's transparency, but of course I'm way too lazy to do that. These guys weren't though: glass2k runs in the systray and handles turning on any window's transparency. yes, here's a screenshot. I'm not too sure about the speed in W2k, but in XP w/ the newest Nvidia drivers and a somewhat recent video card, it's hardware accelerated, and yes, you should be drooling." Update: 11/26 19:00 GMT by T : Links updated, so hopefully you'll be able to actually get to the content again :)

Comments

Thanks,

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I need to stack *10* maximized windows in front of my porn when mom comes. If I put just one like I'm doing now she would see through.

it's vaguely interesting.

[matthayes]

Athough I can't really think of any practical reason for it - when I'm working / concentrating I usually minimise all but a couple of windows anyway.

And I think it could be a little dangerous while surfing at work. You know, the boss comes around and you swiftly alt-tab to your work window...to find that it is 90% transparent.

Does look nice, though.

Just a thought,
Matt.

Shiny!

[fhwang]

I think I'll design a desktop theme called "The Bedazzler". And basically what it will do, is it'll show the same windows and widgets that we've all been stuck with for twenty fucking years, only they'll be covered in rhinestones and glitter! You'll be able to customize your own rhinestone patterns, to say things like "Groovy!" and "Fan-tastic!"

And this is how we'll enter the brave new era of computing: Not by actually designing and using tools to make our lives more productive, convenient, and satisfying, but by slumping in our chairs and staring at useless eye-candy while we touch ourselves. I can't wait for the future.

Screensaver

[pacc]

If you don't use a screensaver, eventually your windows desktop will be burnt into your monitor with disastrous results

Pop-ups

[Ratbert42]

Maybe they could fix it so it makes all those porn/X10 popups transparent.

Re:Pop-ups

[Sax Maniac]

Yeh, 100% transparent would be best.

Re:Old hat - rubbish 'news' story

[dattaway]

Old? It doesn't matter that every precollege teen has tinkered with transparency windowing systems; I'm sure someone has been issued a patent for it and is about to IPO. Someone wants to own this now. Expect lawyers to follow.

Re:Glass windowing on Linux

[A_Non_Moose]

OOOooo, now that is the reason to have transparent windows!!!

Laetitia Casta should *never, ever* be obscured, IMO.

Awesome! Does it support 100% transparency?

[Mustang Matt]

We can finally make pop up adds truly disappear!