LiveCD Lets You Try Out Project Looking Glass
remember_beos writes "Sun created Project Looking Glass (LG3D) as a 'proof of concept' not long ago. It is an environment for Linux, like KDE or Gnome, but with some really great 3D functionality. More than just eye-candy, LG3D provides functional use of an extra spatial dimension on your desktop. Now there is a LiveCD for us all to try it out."
Here is a link to the video: http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/demo.xml
fuvoo: watch something
I have been licking the same screenshots on suns site for the last few months. Now I get to play with it! I cant wait to download it tonight!
Good Karma, Bad Karma, doesnt matter to me... I'm still going to say whats on my mind!
To me this says all show and no productivity. I'll get a live CD and play with it, but I doubt it'll be worth using to actually get something accomplished.
Isn't it rough on the video card to have it 3D rendering at any point the the OS is loaded?
From what I understand of this project it is very cool. With that extra spatial dimmension you will take what is already a cluttered desktop and make it mess in 3D. Now my computer can look more like my apartnemt.
In all seriousness though this is really a neat concept. I use a lot of space for my video editing programs. They require a title program, an animator, a sound mixer, a couple of editors, etc. Now this will take my ordinary 15 inch screen and give it dimenssion which will make my life a lot more producitve and a lot oless facinating.
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
Maintenance notice: Saturday, 3/5 noon - 1 pm PST, maintenance to our hosting center could cause interruptions in site access during this period.
What speed are you guys getting at the moment? Looks like the "maintenance" has come early.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/details. xml
Check it out, very cool looking
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
I tried something similar for Windows XP some time ago, I didn't really see any advantages over using a normal, 2D interface. Perhaps this 3D interface is different, but the whole thing seems pretty gimicky to me. Kind of like having a 3D interface, just to say you have a 3D interface, not because of any inherent benefits of using it.
Also, is this a window manager akin to Gnome or KDE, or does it run on top of either one? The window decorations and stuff look pretty fugly IMHO.
The site is already slashdotted, so I can't RTFA, but does anyone know how this works? Does it have drivers ready to go from nVidia, ATi, or the DRI project? Is it a full Knoppix like system, or can I just load the 3D environment on top of an already running Linux installation? Will it also work with Solaris for x86? I simply must have answers.
The site just loaded and I'm am too lazy to use my backspace key, so I'll share what I can see before it is completely slashdotted. It uses GamesKnoppix and let's you pick between KDE and lg3d, the looking glass 3d environmnet. Also, the ATi drivers are crap, but that's to be expected.
This is what Microsoft is trying to achieve in Longhorn. I'm sorry Bill, somebody just beat you at that...
fuvoo: watch something
every time sun convinces me to never go back they do something that sounds cool and i have to give it a try.
a plague upon your servers, sun!
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
-Oscar Wilde
It looks like looking glass is gonna be slashdotted... heres the ISO link.
http://66.194.210.2/lg3d.iso
Not going very fast... torrent anyone??
Yes. And your OSX apps as well. They're twice as lickable in 3D!!! Even better you can use this over E17 for a thrice lickable win32/linux/osx environment tour de force. K apps have a little trouble sometimes though. Sorry.
Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.
I want to install it on my computer.
Can I do that? I can't find any information about doing just that.
A LiveCD is good, because it shows people what a properly set-up environment can do, but why not let us set it up, ourselves?
Licensing issues perhaps? Whatever the reason, a note on the page would be nice.
If someone can get their hands on it I will mirror it. The University has a 200 megabit pipe to lay to waste, but we're on I2 so edu connections will fly. (I've done this in the past for /.ed things)
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
Does anyone get the impression that there is some subtle but real competition going on between Sun and Apple? Apple seems to be moving in on the server/blade market, and Sun is attempting to do cool GUI tricks. I wouldn't mention this but Sun has made so much of Project Looking Glass that it's kind of hard to not wonder if one of their primary targets here is not Apple and the users who are using it as their preferred UNIX OS.
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=lg3d-live cd.dev.java.net
.iso.
http://lg3d-livecd.dev.java.net was running Apache on Solaris 9 when last queried at 2-Mar-2005 21:56:28 GMT - refresh now Site Report
Try out the Netcraft Toolbar! FAQ
OS Server Last changed IP address Netblock Owner
Solaris 9 Apache/2.0.50 (Unix) mod_auth_svn/0.1 SVN/1.0.1-dev mod_jk/1.2.0 mod_auth_mda/2.0 DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.0.50 OpenSSL/0.9.7b 2-Mar-2005 64.125.133.206 COLLABNET
however.. i think there might be a problem with the bandwith given to the server with the
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Oooh, shame on you! I had my hopes lifted for a moment, before being ripped to shreds by cruel reality.
Damn. RIP, Looking Glass Studios.
And having their own servers Slashdotted sets a better example?
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
wget -S https://lg3d-livecd.dev.java.net/
would do the trick.
----
I couldn't get the video, but from the screenshots and other stuff I've seen I don't see anyone making a compelling case for this. I admit it has promise, but I don't see any examples of actual utility that cannot also be found in just having two or three monitors. Right now it just seems like eye candy and an interesting concept the developers are waiting for someone else to capitalize on, not a viable alternative to the current 3D (e.g. stacked windows) desktop paradigm.
This is not the greatest sig in the world, this is just a tribute.
After reading about 15 requests for a torrent, I got to thinking about the /. effect and bittorrent.
Wouldn't it be a decent idea to set up a torrents.slashdot.org and if possible, before releasing a story with a large 'attachment', set up a torrent for it?
Then again, I don't know how hard this would be logistically, considering that one must obtain a copy of the file ahead of time. However, IMHO I think it's worth a shot.
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
So the post is redundant because the first link contains info about the demo movie and the screenshot link.
Coincidentally, with the passing of Jef Raskin recently, there is fear that the concepts of his Humane Interface will go largely ignored and unnoticed, despite there being a desperate need to simplify the user experience while being intuitive without being intrusive, and still allocating the option of low-level interaction demanded by hackers.
While drawing the connection between Raskin and Project Looking Glass may seem distant, it is surely a nice example to see such a major organization funding open revolts against the norm and doing so in a public arena.
If you're half as beautiful naked, you'd be 4 times as beautiful with twice as many clothes on.
Sweet jebus, put up a torrent tracker and post the link!
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
is counter-productive.
Managing their rotation axis and depth is more waste of time.
Windows should either be auto-maximized or auto-tiled by the windowing system, with the user and application cooperating to define which parts in the visible output of the application are important to the user at every given moment so that those are automatically displayed to the user. Simple example: Newly created messages about errors or events should not be placed on top of some text I am reading, but on some of the all-gray or all-white area that the screen almost always contains. For this to happen, it must know that text is more important than "dead" areas that contain nothing.
This silliness of attributing physical traits to non-physical entities is counter-productive, even if it is very visually appealing.
Lets let go of the overlapping windows crap and solve the division of screen-space problem in a more intelligent way.
There is a big issue with cheaper systems in relation to video cards with 3d. At a school I once attended they had a bunch of really fast, but really cheap desktops. They all intergrate video cards. Once after playing counter-strike for about an hour artfacts would appear. This would be even scarier with your windowing system. I would predict most PC sold today would have this issue. There is a big problem with being "too hard" (aka not enough cooling) on the video of cheaper systems. I would say the issue isn't with the normal slashdot user since most of them would likely have atleast cheap gaming video cards that have atleast some sort of cooling. I attest almost all of the video cards I have bought would be able to handle playing long hours even overclocked.
mnewberg.com
What's wrong with RealOne BBC edition? No spyware there. Also the Linux and Mac OS X version of the standard non-BBC edition seems to lack the advertising you find in the Windows version.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
This is getting silly.
Seriously, if anyone here has downloaded the iso, torrent it pronto.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
If you get the latest public build, WinHec 2004 4071, and enable the DWM (Desktop Window Manager) and then use Atl-Tab, all your windows stack on top of one another and tilt away from you.h 4074_6.jpg
http://www.stardock.com/video/june2004/longhorn/l
Thats about the only 3D effect thats in Longhorn, you must be thinking of the Task Gallery research project or SphereXP.
Longhorn uses the 3D accelerator to render everything, Avalon the new presentation system is built on Direct3D, but so far theres not much actual 3D in the interface.
"Taligent is still pure vapor. Maybe they'll be the last who jumps up on Openstep... "
You're too late - somebody's already downloaded it
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
No we're down to a ? KB/s and an estimate of 80 days so I'm off for a world cruise. I'll send you guys a postcard:)
this is not a flame but a real comment, all videos I watched of this gave me nausea, the idea that the background move when my mouse does is very disturbing and not a good idea to locate items on the screen since everything moves not just the foreground or background. Each graphical element is way too big and actually nulify the idea, if you wanted more space out of this realize you don't because every object on the screen is now bigger, turning them aside doesn't provide much more space than windowshading does (the ability on the mac to collapse a window into its title bar), actually it provide less space because of the drop shadow and extra thickness, plus, now, you have too read from up to down instead of left to right, basically it is less usefull and more clunky than windowshade, but since it is a feature of a software that runs on Linux people will go nuts over it and call it usefull 3D even if its nothing but glitz and wizzbang...
Actually, Looking glass is like when you give Windows a resolution the display can't handle, it just shows you part of your desktop and now you have to scroll the desktop to go to each corner, imagine this concept in 3D, you have Looking Glass...
They're claiming this is "Java-based". Never heard of this kind of stuff running any way except as native code. A breakthrough in VM technology, or more abuse of the Java "brand"?
The Schwartz demo provoked lots of applause, but I was pretty underwhelmed. There are a few cool-looking visual effects, like turning a window over so you can write on the back. But no case is made for this making anybody's job easier. Just a lot of noise about "community computing" and other warm and fuzzy concepts that don't particularly relate. Oh yeah, and of course Microsoft doesn't have this and doesn't want you to have this! Please.
http://www.gcclinux.com/
Installation instructions for linux and windows xp in their forums.
They'd, I do believe, attempt legal action against the University. We're trying to keep our students from being sued (which would be fish-in-a-barrel easy - they're not all like you and I are with computers) and the University from being forced to give up the names of the students. Or be taken to court about it. We decided the nicest thing to do was to read the letter, write / call the student and say hey, don't share things like that on the I-net, then tell the organization that we told them to stop, please leave now. Worked just fine, just happened all the time so we blocked things, sadly enough.
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
http://www.titaniumforums.com/torrent/software/ind ex.php
Your welcome slashdot and thanks to http://www.x1communications.com/ for giving me the file.
Some one please mirror this file. Im sure this site will go down fast.
Here is the site that i found serching through the sun forms..
Get it while its up. lg3d.iso.torrent
Linux is like a teepee. It has no windows, no gates, and there's an Apache inside.
Found a torrent link on the java desktop forums. its pretty fresh yet, so get this thing cookin'!d ownload.php?type=torrent&file=lg3d.iso.torrent
http://www.titaniumforums.com/torrent/software/bt
What's your footprint?
The title pretty much says it all - even if the above link works you're going to spend the next 4 hours downloading a shiny new drink coaster.
Despite coming from Sun, the project is almost completely useless and goes in the wrong direction.
What they claim is efficient way to organise the workspace in 3D is a big fat lie. It's just an ugly and useless hack that doesn't even have the "wow" factor.
There are proven GUI technologies that work. These are
1) Expose
2) Virtual desktops, which you can switch between
3) Smoothly scrollable desktop, preferably with a zoom feature.
If someone implemented these (rather simple) ideas in one window manager, that would be almost a perfect environment, without any need for 3D (other than to use the 3D card acceleration and for cool visual effects). It doesn't make sense to rotate windows or workspaces, when you can zoom and scroll.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
http://javadesktop.org/lg3d/livecd-isos/lg3d-3-mar -05.iso.gz
Andrew