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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.
Here
Why can't editors add a sentence or two to stories or add a Coral Cache link?
/. FP
I mean, it's a small-ish site with screenshots and you're giving it
Think it'll really last?
If you "get" pointers add me as a friend (116)!
http://www.tuxmachines.org.nyud.net:8090/gallery/l g3d
The link is down before the FP!. xml
Here are some screenshots for Looking glass from Sun's site:
http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/details
Insert obilgatory slashdot comment: "if they were running [insert distro here] their server wouldn't be needing life support right now!!"
Every time we slashdot a small site god kills a kitten. What about the kittens?!?! (oh wait.. maybe that was masturbation...)
Here's the Looking Glass Live CD torrent
- 3d-Desktop,
- SphereXP
It's not very useful and only looks great for like 10 min. of playing around withCoding projects blog - Code Slim
LG3D is not a livecd. LG3D is a unconventional desktop environment that Sun Microsystems is developing. LG3D-livecd is a livecd for trying it out.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
I think I'll need to get the 3d working for my ATI card on my laptop before I can use this.
This story was first posted back on March 2nd:/ 201216&tid=189&tid=102&tid=106
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/02
I think 3D interfaces have a long way to go and need work on display and input devices to become as usable as our current 2.5D interfaces, but at least this is something to shut up everybody who wants a 3D desktop or wants to moan about open-source software.
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.
I wasn't aware it used Java, but if it does then Java + OpenGL (via JOGL) performs very nicely.
I stumbled across this liveCD two days ago on distrowatch and simply could not help downloading it, if only out of curiosity. I had thought LookingGlass to be defunct, but it seems theyre making quite some progress. The livecd is slax-popcorn based, boots in about two minutes with some (very) minimal hardware detection - though to be fair, it picked up on my video card and configured it for acceleration. When it loads into X, youre dropped into a plain ole minimal fluxbox desktop. At this point, I started poking around wondering when and where the Looking Glass would show up. But, never fear, its simply loading. Give it a little while and the java desktop will load in a window unto itself. Its a little cpu intensive, so you would benefit from a faster box with a decent amount of ram. The interface is rather slick..think aqua which has traded perfect eyecandy novel three-dimensional windowing (its still in development, so perfection is by no means expected - expect a few random lockups). If anyone does download and boot from it, I suggest clicking on the blue star at bottom right - it has information concerning the desktop's operation. At top left are three funky icons that are virtual desktops. The menu doesnt really work too well, but all things considered it does look pretty interesting. Window focussing and transparencies are rather well done as well. Concerning the innovative features and functions of the wm, you just have to see it; an explanation in text would not do it justice. The website is, of course, on its knees thanks to the slashdot deluge, but hopefully this little bit will help.
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.
The main page for looking glass: http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/ Video demos of the desktop environment and screenshots: http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/demo.xml
This is nothing particularly new as many people including fair newbies (such as me) have managed to get looking glass running in other distros. There was a nice faq/walktrhough for ubuntu. Although i've yet to try out this livecd I'm sure its a lot more stable than running lg3d in Hoary.
Nothing beats Enlightenment for eyecandy, and inovative window management... but I too would like to see more on light wieght GUI's. I have really been impressed with rescent develpement of XFCE.
No one here gets out alive
You think that looks silly you should see this.
Croquet http://www.opencroquet.org/
Basicly you get 3D desktop and web environments, and you exist inside of them (imagine being in a first person shooter.. and instead of shooting, looking at your computer. Now imagine this being a MMOG and instead of the person sneaking up behind you and shooting you in the head online; he is able to see what your doing and interact with you and your screen.
Web Developers: Celebrate to our roots! Animated Gifs and Tiled Backgrounds, dont let our history die!
you'd have a sort of room you could place windows in and move around in
That sounds like MS Bob.
It was quite useless and used too many resources
Wow, it IS Bob!
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
Little off-topic, but anyone with Linux, a nvidia card and x.org should test xcompmgr, it gives you hardware-accelerated translucency, ala OS-X. It looks gorgeus, and works with gnome and kde. A must have!
Disclaimer: Iam not related in any way to xcompmgr. Just a happy user.
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!
Every link is already slashdotted. Maybe they should call it "broken glass."
Are you...Are you some kind of genius?
No, ma'am, I'm just a regular Slashdot reader.
Well thank you fellow /.'ters.. I guess you all had the same intentions as me.. look at the pretty pictures first then maybe RTFA after? well be a sport, and please let me view the pictures, please?
/. is good for you.
Was I the only one who read the headline and hoped for a new Thief game?
I didn't really get into the post-LGS Thief III.
Cynicism, like dogmatism, can be an excuse for intellectual laziness. - Susan Shirk
Watch Executive Vice President Jonathan Schwartz demo Project Looking Glass. The video is kind of old but first time I saw it was pretty impressed relative to the desktop eye candy at the time:- 1312_forjds.mov
http://webcast-east.sun.com/archives/GSN-1312/GSN