Next-Gen X Window Rendering For Linux

Bytal writes "Seth Nickel, a GNOME hacker, has an extensive treatment of the next generation Linux graphics technologies being worked on by Red Hat and others. For all those complaining about the current X-Windows/X.org server capabilities, things like 'Indiana Jones buttons that puff out smoothly animated clouds of smoke when you click on them,' 'Workspace switching effects so lavish they make Keynote jealous' and even the mundane 'Hardware accelerated PDF viewers' may be interesting."

"Hardware accelerated PDF viewers'' ?

[Neil Blender]

And only a few days ago we were asked, "Where have all the cycles gone?" Sheesh.

But why do they need their own...

[jpellino]

oh. sorry. parsing error.

I read that as "Next Gen-X Window Rendering for Linux"

Cool

[M3rk1n_Muffl3y]

I am sure the new Linux desktop will make OSX look like Windows. And then the entire creative department will rush out and buy Linux based laptops just to look trendy.

Don't get too carried away now

[cronius]

Windows that shrink scale and move all over the fucking place with cool animations

Yes, sounds... nice. And easy to work with.

What next...

[GillBates0]

'Indiana Jones buttons that puff out smoothly animated clouds of smoke when you click on them.

...a paperclip that bats its eyelids and talks to you when you click on it? We could call it Xlippy.

Re:All this, and yet....

[Per Wigren]

Hey, this will get you "Windows that shrink scale and move all over the fucking place with cool animations". What more could you want?

Re:Don't get too carried away now

[bestadvocate]

"move all over the fucking place with cool animations"

Like duckhunt for your x-windows?

Nice quote

[SpyPlane]

"Windows that shrink scale and move all over the fucking place with cool animations"

Fuck yeah mutha fucka... watch those cool animations fucking fly... wooohoooo

Re:Inevitable comment about bloat

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I think that th e"bucket of snakes" progress bars will advance usability by 20 years, or so.

I also like the well-placed use of the word "fucking" in the descriptions.

Re:Finally?

[Gob Blesh It]

True... but even System 6.0 was a paragon of usability compared to the state of Gnome and KDE today. Even the constant crashes gave you a dialog whose buttons were action verbs (not to mention a cute little bomb icon). Hard to hate something like that.

E17 is the next generation X desktop!

[Anonymous Coward]

Enlightenment E17 [enlightenment.org] IS the next generation X desktop! It has the fastest gfx libraries on this planet and it's veeery smooth! It's already released as developer version (DR17), but should be released for masses soon.

Re:Finally?

[snuf23]

Hard to hate something like that?

You have go to be kidding. It even got worse when System 8 would chastise you for "not shutting down properly" when you were forced to hard reset the locked up bastard. Gah! Nothing like that smiling little MacOS face telling me I've been a bad boy and to be more careful next time. YOu! YOU! Be more careful! You don't overwrite other programs memory space and trash my work!
Oh yeah and the crash dialog boxes may as well have been labeled "Fuck me" for all the good they did. Force quit? Yeah that worked well. Should have been labelled "Finish Crashing".

Re:Yet more eye-candy...

[Just Some Guy]

Y'know, I saw Hackers [imdb.com] a few nights ago. The fact that I (still) can't type "mess with the best, die like the rest" in flaming letters on my RISC laptop really peeves me.

Go, X.org! Lead us to The Gibson and beyond! Give us our translucent Pac-Man viruses and melting death heads! Oh, and Angelina Jolie while you're at it, OK?

yadda yadda Apple is better yadda yadda ...

[Sweetshark]

Hardware-accelerated PDF viewers, huh? Aqua beat already does that.
Well and before Aqua beat there were "hardware-accelerated postscript viewers" - but they were normally just called "printers".

CLICK HERE FOR A FREE MAC-MINI

[TheLittleJetson]

You know you want one!

Re:Inevitable comment about bloat

[bitflip]

I know a few people aren't keen on eye candy

I gave up eye candy when I found it was causing a cavity between my ears.

Re:"Hardware accelerated PDF viewers'' ?

[Sepper]

My thoughts exactly. When was the last time you viewed a PDF while playing Quake?
Even if half of the new apps gets hardware support, it's kind of a good thing: the GPU was MADE for this very reason...

I can already see the future spec for cards:
"Get 2356FPS for rfc2616.pdf! "

Re:"Hardware accelerated PDF viewers'' ?

[Positrix]

You don't expect something to happen when you press the Control key alone, right ?

actually, i expect it to fire my rocket launcher...

This is great!

[rnturn]

I can't tell you how many potential Linux/UNIX users I know that have told me they're waiting for something like buttons that disappear in a puff of smoke and, until Linux has that, they'll stick with Windows.

Darn it! I forgot the "sarcasm" tags.