X graphics get a boost (NewsForge) [LWN.net]

X graphics get a boost (NewsForge)

Posted Feb 8, 2006 15:51 UTC (Wed) by hein.zelle (guest, #33324)
In reply to: X graphics get a boost (NewsForge) by elanthis
Parent article: X graphics get a boost (NewsForge)

The point is that for people who don't understand virtual desktops, it makes their use and function a little more obvious. To many people it just seems like a way of hiding windows. With this, it is obvious that it changes the workspace entirely.

Although this is probably true for a new linux user or one that comes from a windows background, the concept of desktop switching should take about 3 minutes to explain and get used to. In my opinion the problem is not to get people to understand what happens, but to get them to try it out in the first place. I see a lot of new linux users that simply don't realize the feature exists, and I doubt a visualization of desktop switching is going to improve that, given that they don't switch desktops period.

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for what it's worth

Posted Feb 9, 2006 8:20 UTC (Thu) by niner (subscriber, #26151) [Link]

You don't need XGl for nifty 3D desktop paging. I've used 3ddesktop for that for years: http://desk3d.sourceforge.net/
I bound it to Alt+Esc, so when I want to impress some friends who are not familiar with the multi desktop aproach, I can use it quickly. Explains it instantly what I am talking about. And sometimes it could even be useful, since I recognice the desktop I'm searching for a little faster than with the window list I normally get.

But I'm curious how it'll look like when videos still run while paging and such stuff :)