My Ubuntu installation notes long! 3191

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, owl wrote on Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:58:18 +0000 (UTC)

Don't worry. Microsoft Windows Vista(tm) will have the most advanced interface on the face of the planet.

(FSVO "advanced", "interface", and "planet". There are times I think Microsoft Windows advocates -- or, for that matter, Microsoft -- are in their own little world. :-) )

Not quite that bad, I would think. The first (1984) Mac had all of 128k, a black and white 512x384 tiny screen, and 8 MHz. The first color Mac -- the Macintosh II -- was available in 1987, doubled the speed of the main processor (now a 68020) to 16 MHz, and ultimately went up to 68 MB with an upgrade kit, or 128MB if one swapped out the ROMS with a IIx variant, apparently.

Today's Macs have at least 16 million colors, and a lot higher system memory and display resolution. Even the poo-poohed mini has 512MB -- 4x the RAM the Mac II could ever handle. The Mac Pro can handle 16 GB RAM. I don't know if the Mac II had a *hard disk* that big.

But that's just hardware; apart from a "fisheye" icon browser, and a lot more colors, it's not obvious to me what a Mac can do that Windows or Linux cannot. Of course there's only so many ways to move a window around anyway, and a number of Linux window managers already have "resistance" (what *would* this be called?), where one has to push the mouse a little bit extra to move one window on top of another. It's subtle but very useful.

And the fisheye effect has already been duplicated somewhere.

XGL I regard as a plaything, but it does look like it could turn into something interesting, especially if manufacturers start standardizing on a 3-D protocol for rendering desktop objects. One could then envision silly things, like walking into a game of Quake4-Quake5, Unreal2007, or Halo 3, or whatever the current versions are nowadays. Graphs could pop out of the window, visually, if the window is turned slightly sideways. Cut and paste could be visually rendered as gauzy text-covered surfaces moving from one window to another. 3D CAD data could litter the desktop with things looking a bit like spider webs or scaled objects. All rather silly, but illustrative of the power.

More useful capabilities along the lines of CAD and CAM might be envisioned as well. Imagine what building designers (or game designers) could do, even if they're halfway across the planet, for example. I don't know if XGL can deliver on more efficient-faster development of buildings, roadways, etc., but it sure can promise them. :-)

Vista might be refreshing to those who don't know better, but it looks pretty stale now to those who do... :-)

-- Windows Vista. Because it's time to refresh your hardware. Trust us.