Xgl

Novell has announced that it’s donating the code for its Xgl graphics system to the X.org. This is an improved architecture for the X server upon which Linux (and other *nix clones) desktops are based. And it’s really quite exciting. They’ve improved the way it works and the way it integrates with graphics hardware in the PC, which means that it now does funky stuff like true transparency (see through windows to other windows underneath them). Also, they’ve…borrowed…ideas from Mac OSX, like animating the window minimise action (they zoom down into the task list and zoom up again, rather than just disappearing as at present) and the way OSX’s Expose feature works – to find a window on a busy desktop, it will shrink all windows down so that they fit into the screen, letting you pick the one you want before they all return to the way they were (and movies even keep playing while they’re shrunken). And even OSX’s “spinning cube” animation is now present – instead of simply replacing one virtual desktop with another, it maps them to the face of a cube and spins it. Hard to explain, but it looks very pretty. Go and check out the movies on Novell’s announcement page.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 11:11am on 08 February 2006
Category: Computers, Struggling, General