Graphics Archive

Gnome 2.6's recent switch from navigational to spatial mode within Nautilus was highly controversial. As probably most of you know, "navigational" means browsing through folders in the same window, just like it works in Windows 2000/XP or in Konqueror. "Spatial", on the other hand, is a very different concept of managing your files. Not only does each folder open in its own window, but the windows also memorize their exact position and size on the desktop.

The major competition of visual skins for Windows, the GUI Olympics, has ended. The site has now an all-around article showing the best themes from the competition. "The Last Order" icons look sweet.

I had to reread Bulia's email three times. It was one of those nigh-mythical events that you read happens in Open Source projects, but never see in person. Yet, amazingly, here it was, and I knew Fred's patch would instantly double Inkscape's utility.

Already available for the Windows and Macintosh platforms, the new Macromedia Flash Player 7 for Linux is available for download and will be automatically bundled with the next batch of Linux systems distributed by Novell, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and Turbolinux.

Jono Bacon believes that all DEs should include a utility that reminds the user of taking a break every so often, in order to escape RSI. Workrave (with the cute sheep mascot) is a good example.

"Look at the first desktop screenshot at left. It looks like a Mac OS X machine, right? Wrong. It's a Windows XP box made up to look like a Mac. Look closely, and you'll see that its creator has done a very good job; although the machine is running Windows XP, the interface is almost indistinguishable from an OS X machine. Notice the dock, desktop background, menus, system font and icons for applications and folders. Even the keyboard shortcuts belong to the Mac OS X." Read the rest of the article with screenshots at Wired.

Here is a japanese tool called Madotate that performs similar to the prosposed Microsoft Task Gallery to be included in longhorn. More info and screenshot at NooFace.

One place Stardock sees things moving in the future, especially as Longhorn nears and Windows XP becomes more widespread, is the concept of Micro-Shells, says Brad Wardell of Stardock. In the old days, programs tried to replace the entire shell (explorer). Micro-Shells instead extend pieces of the shell. Stardock is particularly interested in extending in the future is the folder views.

John Gruber replies to Eric Raymond's usability rants on Free Software, and we extend John's view to a more broad analysis.

Computer graphics have long been dominated by bitmapped images. However, the free software community has taken an innovative lead by adopting scalable graphic formats on its desktops. Inthis article I cover the history and rise of scalable graphics on the desktop from my angle - as a proponent of its use in the GNOME platform. This article mostly focuses on SVG's progress from a GNOME point of view, both because GNOME has progressed the furthest and because I am most knowledgable with GNOME's efforts. I will however mention major landmarks in other projects where appropriate.

"If you don't have oodles of usability people, up front design by a good designer provides a lot more bang for buck than using that same designer to do usability tests" says Red Hat's Seth Nickell.

I've made a document based on an idea I had that might be good for some desktop innovation too. I've made some diagrams and screenshots to illustrate it, have a look here.

Steve Capps, co-designer of the Finder and much of the Mac's graphical user interface (as well as one of the folks behind the Newton OS), doesn't find much to excite him about either the Mac or Windows user interfaces these days.

"Windowing environments are in their third decade, and they still do little more than open and close. There's no reason windows can't be more sophisticated", Daryl Blakeslee writes on NewsForge.