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Looking-Glass Based Distro Reviewed
mymaxx writes "Tuxmachines.org has a review of LG3D, a LiveCD distro using Sun's Looking Glass technology. It looks very promising for the future of desktops, but it still has a ways to go." Tuxmachines also has a few screenshots for your viewing pleasure.
- 3d-Desktop,
- SphereXP
It's not very useful and only looks great for like 10 min. of playing around withCoding projects blog - Code Slim
I've been wating for something usable since January of 2004 and even earlier. However, I will say that Looking Glass has been very influential. That new feature in OS X Tiger that allows you to see 3d widgets has the same "flip over for options" feature that was demoed with LG3D.
Will this ever become a usable project? I don't think so, but every time a profound new innovation like this appears it affects the other products that came out in later years. There is some good stuff here and I suspect we'll see it pop-up in very unusual places.
I can't wait to see where.
Never heard of the word update? Or how about the phrase, 'more information?'
It's very cool. However, it has some problems. I was going to make this post inside it, but it got terribly unstable and crashed. Also, it was somewhat slow, but I blame that on the ATI drivers. Overall though, the interface is much more intuitive and actually workable than other 3d interfaces I've tried out.
but its awkward at first.
I just got done playing with the lg3d live cd (based on popcorn slax). Hardware wise its ineffecient, but nowhere near to the point of Microsoft Windows(tm).
However, after 10 minutes of playing with it, i got to be pretty fast at running 5 apps at once (Its a live cd, normally i power task dozens of applications/windows). You can use an app even after it has been shunted to the side of the screen, by mousing over it. (It gives it a sort of half focus) Middle clicking a window immediatly puts it aside, and moving the mouse into to clean space makes all windows transparent. Doing this allowed me to read irc, while having firefox up directly over it.
The only problem i really saw with it, is that it was a bit non-intuituve to use, and in some points did not repsond/spawn windows/refocus windows the way i thought it would. Its still beta, but i can honestly say i look forward to this type of technology becoming mainstream.
I tried this out over the weekend and I will admit its still a bit too buggy to use as a main desktop. That aside, it's a great start. I really didn't like the mouse pointer. That is a bit nit-picky though. For a LiveCD it was actually one of the faster I've seen. I imagine it would run very nicely if it were installed instead of running from a livecd. I like eye-candy myself. Most of the really cool eye-candy for Linux is still very beta though, such as Enlightenment DR17 and this Looking Glass Project. As much as I use my computer, eye candy is something I look for. That may sound strange to some but it's my personal preference. That doesn't mean I don't know how to use the CLI. It just means that when I'm using a GUI I want it to impress. Weird though that I didn't like the XP bubbly look. I prefer to use the classic look in Windows. I guess it's because the "XP" look isn't really all that innovative if you ask me. I tend to feel like my desktop is cluttered if I use it. I like a slick non-cluttered desktop. Drop Shadows and transparency to me make using my computer more enjoyable. If it slows my computer down, I'll break down and buy some upgrades.
Beer! It's what's for breakfast!
No no no!! I was hoping against hope that somehow the looking glass guys were involved, not that it would make any difference in a desktop, but still.
So you are not alone. However, since I posted this anonymously, it probably will never get modded up and of course never read. So nevermind.