Monday, December 11, 2006

Desktop of the Future?

A Fantastic Desktop


This nearly 7 minute long video shows a new kind of 3-D desktop interface, for organizing, sorting and handling files.

It's kinda cool, but it's also more complicated than what I'm currently using. A 3-D GUI like that must take up gobs of memory and processing resources. I think I would rather save the computing power for other things, and stick with a simpler interface.

I've noticed with Linux that 3-D desktops are becoming popular, but I stick with the 2-D ones for the same reasons. They get the job done, without wasting system resources.

Of course, in a few years time, all the new computers WILL have mega resources, and this kind of interface might become a standard by then. That's why I thought, "Desktop of the Future".

I find it interesting, but I'm not sure I'd want to use it. What do you think? Is it appealing?

The source page on YouTube is here:

YouTube: A Fantastic Desktop
     

4 comments:

Joubert said...

Right now the video is missing.

Chas said...

Must be a YouTube glitch, it worked last night. I've reposted it with the code from the source web page (which was slightly different than the code YouTube automatically gave me) and it seems to work now.

Anonymous said...

It looks "cool" but is it really practical? If you have hundreds of files, you could spend hours going thru all the "piles". What I like about my computer is that I can find files easily. My desk is a mess and finding something can take a while. Why would I want to move that to my only organized place?

Chas said...

Cheezer,

You make some good points. I don't see any real advantage to having "stacks" of computer files. It has a feature I think, where you can spread the stack contents out in a grid to look at it. But my 2-D desktop does that already, without ever putting anything in stacks.

I think it's just a gimmicky thing, making all your files act like 3-D objects. Quite unnecessary, if you just want to organize your files. There really isn't a NEED to recreate the messiness of a real life desktop, with files scattered about and stacks to shuffle through.

I remember, back in the day, when PC's didn't have graphical user interfaces. The first PC program I learned to use was Word Star. I worked in an office where I ended up using Word Perfect 5.1, pre-windows. You had to navigate through directories without folder icons or any of that, just arrow keys and pull down menus. And it all worked just fine.

I'm not saying I hate GUI's, I just remember before they became popular, and how we got by just fine without them. This "3-D object" desktop seems to be offering entertainment value.

I don't want to be too critical; perhaps if I used it for a while, I might see advantages, but offhand I don't really see any. The movements are done with a light pen touching the screen, making it seem like you are interacting with objects. Perhaps that has some appeal for computer newbies, making it seem less abstract?

Like it or not, I have a hunch that this or something like it will become the new standard in the not too distant future.

There was another copy of this video on YouTube, where it was described as the MS "Aero" desktop. I expect we will be seeing more of it, in some form or another.