Thanks for greeting me
Here is the grand scheme of things...
What do you mean "3D operating system"?
Imagine playing Quake. You move from room to room in a 3D environment. The rooms are gorgeous and have a large bay window with an ocean view. In one room you check your email. In another you write a document. In another you create some graphics. You move from room to room instead of moving windows around.
Would there be menus?
There would be no menu bars. If you want to do something, you would use a tool to do it. Just like in video games you have a set of tools that help you get through the game, in this 3D operating system you have a set of tools that help you do your work.
How would you copy and paste?
Just like in games where you pick things up, there would be a hand tool you would use to copy things by grabbing them with your hand. Then you would see what is copied in the hand at the bottom of the screen. Wherever you put it, there it "pastes".
So how would I copy and paste things between my email and a text document if they are in different rooms?
When reading your email, you would copy whatever section you want to put into the text document and walk over to the text document and plop it down.
What if I want to drag and drop?
There would be a tool for that too. The tool would be the "drag and drop" tool. It would have a left side and a right side. When it is on left, you click where you want to drag from or to, and then on the right you click the other. When you are ready it would present the left and right to you and you can perform your drag and drop from one side to the other.
What if I want to copy multiple items?
There would be a tool for that too. It would be the bag tool. If you "copy" something by picking it up into your hand, you can place it into a bag. It at that point would be persisted to the hard drive. Then you can pull it out of the bag and put it wherever you'd like.
It sounds like there will be way too many tools. How will you make it easy for the user?
You would initially start without any tools. You would have a home and near it there would be a marketplace. In the marketplace you can "buy" whatever tools you thing you'd use. "Buy" is in quotes because all the tools are free - all the ones that come with the operating system. Also, you can build your house any way you'd like. So if you never use a certain application, you need not create a room that has it in there. Thus you can customize your house to be whatever way you want and your set of tools as well.
Customization causes issues when the user of one system becomes familiar with the way they are doing things and tries to use another system which is completely different. How will you mitigate this issue?
Your house and toolset preferences can be stored into a file. That file can be put on a flash disk or on the web so that when you are on another computer, you can download that file. When you open it on another computer, it creates your home as a neighbor. When you enter that home, your toolbox and house settings will all match what you are used to on your own computer.
What happens if you have paid for an application on your home computer and it isn't available on a friend's computer?
That room has the door locked and a message indicating why.
Would there be folders?
There would be no folders. Each file would have an x,y,z coordinate. Instead of organizing things into folders, they would be organized by tags. Any file can have as many tags as it needs. Each tag would work like a column in a database. You can make up whatever tags you like. There then would also be no need for aliases or shortcuts.
How do you get two files with the same name?
Files can have the same name because there would be no unique constraint on the name anywhere.
How would you replace a file?
There would be a tool for that.
How would you delete a file?
There would be a tool for that too.
How would you ftp a file?
Ah! Well, there would be a tool for that!
But how would you put your file into the FTP?
Pick it up with the hand tool, like a copy, and put it into FTP.
What about web browsing? Could you download firefox or google chrome?
2D applications would still work on the os. They would go on one wall in a room. Their menus would show up like menus and still work just like the 2D application you are used to. Each new window, however, would show up on a different wall in the room.
What happens if you run out of walls in your room?
You have too many windows open. If you really do need more windows, you build a larger room that has more space for more windows.
But how will the 2D application install if the OS is so different?
There's the beauty - the OS isn't so different. Everything Red Hat has is still there. You can even open up a terminal on a wall and access everything just like you can now.
How do 3D applications work differently than 2D?
Because they are using openGL and mipmaps, zooming into and out of the application comes native with the os. Zooming in 2D applications will cause the pixilization common to 2D applications.
Wait - you said there would be no unique constraint on files and Red Hat has a unique constraint per folder. How will you get around that?
The files in the 3D Operating System have a unique constraint on their x,y,z coordinate. Therefore, the x,y,z coordinate will be the folder name for which the file is placed. All files for the 3D Operating System will live in one folder aptly named 3D Operating System
How would you put the computer to sleep?
There would be a room for that - with a bed.
What happens during a power failure?
All the 2D applications would behave just like they do today. All the 3D applications, including the 3DOS, would remember their state.
How would a flash disk work?
When a flash disk inserts, it would get added as a neighboring house.
How would you copy file between flash disks?
There would be a copy tool which would make a copy of a file. When you walk it from one house to another, it would automatically delete it from the one hard drive and place it on the other.
How do you save a file?
There would be a new file save dialog box which lets you name the file, tag the file, and drops it in the x,y,z space you are current at.
What other tools are there?
There will be a teleport tool that will teleport you to whatever place you want it to.
There will be home building tools that will you
There will be a document finder that will help you locate your documents
There will be document opener to open a document and transport you to the appropriate room
Wouldn't this be so new that people would have a hard time adjusting from other operating systems?
Most people that play video games are already familiar with this type of operating system. They find it enjoyable.
So, the 3D background would just be a way to start small. I was thinking have an ocean and a sky and have it animated. It would stop animation if the CPU went too high or the computer went to sleep or if some other app wanted 3D full screen access. The background picture would have to be replaced with a GLCanvas. This of course would only be if they went to the desktop background control panel option and chose 3D background.
This was probably way too much information but better more than less?
Thanks!
Matt
On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 5:17 PM, Lailah <lailahfsf@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oh, welcome! Glad to see you here. I would like to know a little more about your project of making a 3D desktop...
Regards,
Lailah
El jue, 11-10-2012 a las 09:59 -0600, Matt Whittle escribió:
Hi everyone,
Here is a little about me.
My name is Matthew Whittle and I currently work as a senior application developer at VSP (Vision Service Plan) - it is eye insurance. I have a lovely wife and no kids (yet!). We live in Sacramento California in the US and I heard about this project through someone at JBoss at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco. At my current work I develop backend services for our membership using Java and Websphere and for fun I develop games for the iPhone (I have about 8 out now). I have been using Fedora at home for about 5 years now.
I joined this group because I have a desire to build a 3D operating system. By tomorrow. Just kidding. Yes I know that is a huge task but I thought I could start small by making a 3D desktop background... or maybe I should start even smaller. But at least you know my short and long term goals.
My IRC handle I believe is MattWhCaUs (it is the nickname I used)
Cool beans - looking forward to hearing from y'all.
Cheers,
Matthew Whittle
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