Comments on: Productivity Cubed

By: James Governor’s Monkchips » Booting Open Solaris in Upper Class

James Governor’s Monkchips » Booting Open Solaris in Upper Class — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:21:33 +0000

[...] a long time Compiz guy, but it was cool to see Open Solaris including things like the 3-d desktop Mr Tecosystems uses. I am hoping it will be new to him on Solaris. Seriously: if i can tell my [...]

By: Devdas

Devdas — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:24:42 +0000

Hmmm, I use WindowMaker with multiple virtual desktops. My preferred application layout format has been one desktop per application type for years (and in some cases, one per application).

So a full screen browser, IRC client and office suite (three desktops). One desktop dedicated to xterms with remote logins. One dedicated to my text editor. One for the rest of the stuff.

Expose is irrelevant, my keboard shortcuts for my applications are in muscle memory.

By: theSalmonFarm Blog » Blog Archive » How useful are 3-D workspaces?

theSalmonFarm Blog » Blog Archive » How useful are 3-D workspaces? — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:24:19 +0000

[...] a bit about segments of the computer industry that I might have otherwise been ignorant to. A recent post discusses the merits of various “cool” user interface enhancements. Most of these [...]

By: Glen

Glen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:44:09 +0000

It took me a little while to get compiz-fusion working (as I’m am still on 7.0.4). Still, I am quickly taking advantage of the cube (or in my case an octagon).

Like you, I dedicate a few desktops to like-tasked items. I tend to group by activity. For instance, when writing a paper, I have the document, diagramming tool, plus most of my references - wikipedia, google searches, etc. - all on together. I have my basics - email and IM - on a single desktop. Finally, I have a few full screen remote desktop connections to other machines - one per side of my octagon. This last one has dramatically reduced the confusion on my real desk as now I have one laptop running and my other machines are not relegated to the corners of my office.

By: Danno

Danno — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:01:14 +0000

The thing I don’t like about the cube metaphor is that it’s still tied to virtual desktops of old.

If dynamic window managers like XMonad, dwm, or wmii were the prevailing workspace management facilities, I imagine that the 3d graphical representations for them would be more like an infinite parabolic surface, with layout algorithms (beyond the focused workspace) based on usage statistics and user configured rules.

Actually, the fact that there aren’t any dynamic window managers available for OS X is one of the biggest drawbacks of Macs to me (which I’m otherwise in love with).

By: Mike Dolan

Mike Dolan — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:29:31 +0000

I’m actually using my 3D desktop in a very similar manner. By organizing ‘like apps’ into workspaces on the cube, I have “less clutter” in a single window.

I would like to see other integrations and innovations as they discussed on that podcast. It would be great to see what else can be done - having applications take advantage of these effects. If you think of the Office 200x “ribbon” menu as an advancement, what could you do in a 3D space? I think the best example out there of ways to ‘relook’ at apps is probably Sun’s Looking Glass project. Although it’s been understaffed, buggy, and ignored for so long, it at least changes how one might think of application presentation from the traditional 2D world.