Lots of news from the first few hours of the PDC. First off, in the first CTP of Vista, the sidebar has been revived. "The Sidebar will be populated with "gadgets" and will feature an open platform for developers to create their own mini-applications. Sidebar gadgets can be dragged onto the desktop, and interact with standard Windows applications." Also, "Microsoft Max lets you make lists of your photos and turn them into beautiful slide shows to share with your family and friends. Max is the codename for Microsoft's flagship application based on WinFX and Microsoft's new user experience." Images from the PDC here, and you can watch Bill Gates' keynote here. Also, MS released beta 2 of Monad.
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Member since:2005-09-02
"More on topic: why have a dedicated sidebar area for the widgets if they can be positioned anywhere on the desktop? Are there any restrictions on what else you can do with the screen real estate owned by the sidebar?"
Good point! Well in previous version then called Longhorn the side bar was meant to be a good thing that allow quick access and useful stuff. But with the sidebar vanishing for a while have MS re-invented the sidebar again? if not then thats ok im sure it can be changed to something else. If not then you can turn off the side bar and you get the text bit of space for something interesting.
But do note within a few years 23-30 inch monitors etc will be standard etc so you wont miss that much screen space.
Member since:2005-06-30
I'll refrain from commenting about why I'm skeptical about your claim that large monitors will be standard with regards to even desktop computers since more notebooks are being sold than desktops these days, and it should be fairly obvious to anyone that 23-30 inch monitors aren't going to be standard for notebooks any time soon. I agree that screen real estate is precious for the vast majority, and it will remain so even if some are able to upgrade monitors for their desktops.
The way that I could see some of this changing is if laptops had the option to wirelessly "dock" to a large high definition telivision as a monitor when not traveling. Until that becomes an option I think that concerns about screen real estate are valid especially for laptop owners.
Member since:
2005-07-08
"Without implying anything, I just noticed that the gadget-system seems quite similar to what KDE wants to do with Plasma
"
No, it isn't. This "gadget" system is a lot more like the WindowMaker dock or the Fluxbox Slit than KDE Plasma. Plasma's design goal is to use the desktop as a high-level task management interface. It isn't about borderless mini-applications with non-HIG-compliant interfaces that you can drag around the screen. It's about making sense out of the categories of tasks for which users commonly use their computers.
More on topic: why have a dedicated sidebar area for the widgets if they can be positioned anywhere on the desktop? Are there any restrictions on what else you can do with the screen real estate owned by the sidebar?