“For some time now, I’ve been working with members of In Situ team to integrate their Metisse software in Mandriva Linux and it is really exciting. Mandriva will announce very soon (today or tomorrow) Metisse will be part of Mandriva Spring 2007 and is also available as a Live CD based on Mandriva 2007.0 and GNOME right now so everybody can try Metisse right now and report bugs.”
This looks like an underpowered beryl or compiz. Although im sure there is some nice new features, wouldn’t it be better to just make a plugin for beryl? Although it is not stable yet, it is maturing quickly.
Maybe it’s not as dependent on the video drivers, which would allow it to work out of the box on much more hardware.
I watched their videos and they insist that it’s not a 3d desktop…
The copy/paste and view of all virtual desktops seem pretty neat. But rotating the windows toward the side of the screen makes them quite impractical. And the mirror function seems plain useless…
Im sorry, you appear to have not read the article. Did you see the “not a 3d desktop part?”
Im all for branching out and investigating new avenues! Compiz is one approach and Metisse is another.
Hopefully both will converge and the best parts will make it into Metacity and Kwin.
I particuarly like the page curl as text is copy and pasted
This is the first time I’ve seen some desktop effects that look like they could be genuinely useful above and beyond “cute”. The copy and paste and placing two windows side by side is pretty cool!
I’m sorry, but after watching the videos it looks like it’s taking some useful but unoriginal ideas (Zoom/Tile = Expose) and some new but useless ideas(Mirrored windows) and making a window manager. My other concern is that if it doesn’t utilize the 3D extension of your video card, won’t it just be a CPU hog?
>>My other concern is that if it doesn’t utilize the 3D extension of your video card, won’t it just be a CPU hog?<<
No you guessed wrong. This is clearly stated in the FAQ.
Do I need a high-end 3D graphical card to use metisse?
No. Metisse uses basic openGL commands for most of its feature and can run on entry level 3D graphic cards. For instance, metisse is able to run (slowly) on PIII 450Mhz with TNT2 graphical chipset.
“Do I need a high-end 3D graphical card to use metisse?
No. Metisse uses basic openGL commands for most of its feature and can run on entry level 3D graphic cards.”
OK, so it is a 3D desktop. It may not look like one, but if it is using the 3D extension of you video card to do it’s magic then it is.
No. Utilizing your 3D card doesn’t make your desktop a 3D desktop. However, letting your desktop behave as a 3D desktop makes it.
<brewmastre: I’m sorry, but after watching the videos it looks like it’s taking some useful but unoriginal ideas (Zoom/Tile = Expose) and some new but useless ideas(Mirrored windows) and making a window manager.
You don’t have to be sorry for being confused. The bird’s eye function is a full-screen desktop switcher, not a task switcher, with added functionality for app preview. I’m not quite sure about the usefulness of the mirror function but i guess you can get it without extra effort from the rotating function, for which i *can* see uses. Your other concern has already been addressed.
I haven’t seen the copy & paste function yet, DailyMotion seems to choke.
I apologize for making an incorrect comparison to Expose…I should have said Spaces. Still not an original idea.
Honestly, anything that is being worked into Mandriva is going to fail. Just like if it were being built into Yellow Dog. Two Red Hat/Fedora distros have have done nothing but get slower over the years.
I saw a video of it where you could move buttons out of any toolbar and place it in another floating toolbar.
I remember using this a couple years ago; just installed in on a whim after hearing about it (I think on a gentoo forum).
It was usable, though watching videos wasn’t an option, and I just couldn’t find a justifiable use for rotating circular windows.
I did, however, really like the ability to “peel” back windows and see what’s below. Might have to give it a go again.
I love that song.
A boom boom bâ
X 4
Kélé, filla, saba, nani, norou
A boom boom bâ
Can you hear my heart beat in this world?
A boom boom bâ
Do you know that behind all these words
A boom boom bâ
Lies a deep desire Kamélé hé?
A boom boom bâ
Mé kouman mé fora y bamê
Are my dreams to be all I can do?
Lay o lay above, lay o lay below
And you said “I knew we should find a new way”
Mé kouman mé fora y bamê
Kélé, filla, saba, nani, norou
etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfhwPlE47JU
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3530822107858520614
the mirror effect looks particularly… useless!
maybe on a tablet pc with one guy at each side hm ? not
too bad that dailymotion fails to deliver some videos though (they’ll work tomorrow as usual)
Time and again it occurs to me that when it comes to graphical desktops, screenshots are meaningless. The look, yes, but the feel, you can’t communicate that by screenshots – nor videos.
I’ve seen a couple of AIGLX/XGL Beryl/Compiz screenshots videos (it’s hard to avoid them in any case) and I thought the cube and wobble stuff was crap, and the Expose effect was unstable as compared to OS X. When I did try it (after finally discovering there was an open driver for my ATi card), it was (felt) much better than it looked on the internet, because of the way “Expose” actually worked on my computer, even from a live cd.
Still don’t like the cube though, but also the Alt+Tab, and the look of the window lists are quite nice.
Maybe we should ban all screenshots.
in a real 3d desktop, you’d navigate your system like a FPS game. You might have a ‘house’ and you’d have stuff in each room. You’d have ‘real’ wallpaper and hang pictures on the walls.
You could rotate the icons and see different shadows and reflections from the background.
or 3d wallpaper. imagine that XP field wallpaper is really 3d and you move around it for another view.
Edited 2007-01-25 22:29
The key difference between metisse and beryl is – in metisse, application windows are still fully useable in their transformed state.
I think this is a huge useability advancement when compared with the other 3d enhaced desktops out there. As far as I know, this is the first implementation that allows this.