3D Interface Extravaganza

This is supposed to be the year when modern, animated graphical user interfaces hit the mainstream. Apple popularized this idea years ago with MacOS X and Microsoft has big ambitions in this regard for Windows Vista.
A friend suggested that I try the Gentoo Linux-based Kororaa live-CD which incorporates an experimental OpenGL-based X server called XGL, combined with a powerful compositing engine called Compiz. Compiz has a modular architecture with a range of standard plugins that provide the following effects, and more:

• When switching between one of the four predefined workspaces, the transition is animated such that the current and new workspace both appear to be sides on a three-dimensional cube. It is also possible to manually rotate the cube in any direction using the mouse.
• Windows, when dragged, get an appearance comparable to that of a flag waving in the wind. The effect is proportional to the speed by which the window is moved. The result is a highly spectacular effect — I spent a long time just moving windows around and still have not grown tired of it!
• By holding a key while moving a window, the window can easily attach to one of the screen’s borders. This effect is remniscent of magnetism, and creates the impression that you almost have to “fight” the window when getting it to loosen its grip on the screen’s side(s).
• Alt-Tab shows miniatures of all windows on the current workspace, making it easy to select exactly the desired target.
• The F12 key temporarily shows miniature versions of all windows on the current workspace. When selected, a window immediately gets restored, focused and ready for input. This is essentially a more sophisticated version of Alt-Tab.
• Any portion of a window can easily be zoomed in and out of using the mouse and a special key combination.
• Using a key combination combined with the the scroll wheel on the mouse, the transparency of a window can be adjusted with great accuracy.

All of the effects are “live”, in the sense that applications continue to refresh their interfaces smoothly even as they are obscured behind partially transparent windows, or while the screen is rotated. Even movies continue to play uninterrupted!
Excited by the prospects of enjoying a smooth, animated desktop after having experienced the XGL and Compiz combination in Kororaa, with by far the most impressive interface effects I have ever seen, I installed XGL and Compiz in a recent Ubuntu Dapper daily — a remarkably easy endeavour when assisted by one of the many excellent on-line guides.


I’m hoping that some of the interesting features in Sun’s Project Looking Glass might eventually be incorporated in Compiz, such as the ability to turn windows around and scribble notes on the back.