I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the new version of X, X11R6.8. Some of the new features – like Damage Extension and Composite Extension give the Linux UI new abilities. Such as? Check out the screenshots for some translucency, transparency, and drop shadows. (FYI, I am aware that I could build this from CVS right now; but for my production laptop at least, I need to stick with stable builds.)
Eye candy isn’t all that material to enterprise decision-making, of course, but nor does it hurt to have something (particularly during demos) that looks “pretty.” This is well illustrated by the omnipresence of Sun’s Project Looking Glass – a sweet piece of eye candy if ever there was one – at every event that they run.
Pretty may not mean much on an RFP, but as any implementer knows – users like things that look good, and as result, looks do count.
UPDATE: Great interview with freedesktop.org’s Daniel Stone at Ars Technica here with explanations for most of the above. You can get the scoop straight from the horses mouth, as it were.
