Impress Your Friends With A 3D Desktop Pager

xiando writes "3D-Desktop is a window pager for Linux. It works with any window manager and the screenshots look very impressive. The idea is to allow you to look at all your virtual desktops in different 3D views."

Comments

Requirements + more

[viniosity]

This looks very cool - I wonder what the system requirements are besides accelerated video? Anybody using this yet that would like to chime in on it?

As much as some people like to bad-mouth eye-candy, it's one of the reasons I've been able to swtich so many people from Windows. First you 'Wow' them with the eye-candy and then you tell them about the stability and lack of viruses.. 9/10 times the next question is 'why don't more people use it.' Eventually they feel like they know a secret and buy a mac. Likewise, this would be a nice 'wow' for people looking to introduce the layman to gnu/linux.

Re:Requirements + more

[molnarcs]

This is quite an old program (I used it in Mandrake 9.0!). Worked fine for some time, than it became buggy - either the prog or Nvidia drivers. Oh yes, I had a TNT2 card, and it worked fine with it. Tried it once on FreeBSD since then, but had many crashed (that was before the recent nvidia driver update, and I have an FX5200 now).

This is an funny but accurate description of the port:

bash-3.00$ portell 3ddesktop
/usr/ports/x11/3ddesktop/pkg-descr reads:

3D-Desktop is an OpenGL program that lets you switch virtual desktops in
a seamless 3-Dimensional environment. Impress your friends, and slow down
your desktop... all at the same time!

WWW: http://desk3d.sourceforge.net
-Adam Weinberger <adamw@FreeBSD.org>

Re:Requirements + more

[molnarcs]

I have to add: you are absolutely correct about the advertisement value. I was (still am, but I have too little time to attend it) a member of a p2p forum. There was a "post a screenshot of your desktop" thread and I choose to show it in full 3D (looked best when I configured 3 desktops). I gimped an image that showed switching desktops - it had 3 rows and 2 images in each, showing each step, from zooming out from a current desktop to finally zooming in to another displaying the website of the forum in a browser.

Everyone was impressed, and wanted immediately the prog. I provided them with the link, but had some explaining to do afterwards (no, you won't be able to install it on XP) - including some positive things I had to say about Linux.

Sorry for the typos above. I should go to sleep now.

It's a UNIX system!

[T-Ranger]

I know this!

Re:well...

[jeif1k]

Except that that wasn't the first time. This kind of visualization comes from Xerox PARC and is called "perspective wall". The idea is that the tilted views off to the side give you some context without taking up too much space.

Looks like Apple is still getting their ideas from Xerox PARC, even 20 years after the "original" Macintosh.

Nice once and then you ditch it unless you like XP

[SmallFurryCreature]

This kinda thing is like the Windows XP skin. Removed in a few seconds by anyone who knows what they are doing. Why? Because it wastes time and desktop space. Those extra thick borders take up way more space and those scrolling menus take time to deploy wich if you are using your computer anywhere near serious is just a waste.

Same with this 3D pager crap. So now I got to sit and watch a 2-3 second animation each time I switch? Yippie!

Seriously who of the linux users really has the time for this? I am all for eye candy but not at the cost of either my working speed or taking up valuable desktop space.

I kinda like the way Enlightenment does it where you can drag a desktop over another and see them both at once partially although I have now switched the XFCE4 for its speed.

There may be a use for 3D on the desktop but so far nobody seems to have found it. About the only thing I can imagine is to go to 3D since you can then use the graphics cards power and offload the poor cpu.

The problem with most new gadgets including suns attempt is that they dare not break the current desktop design (because that would break all current application) and truly design a new interface.