The cube analogy is also used in Mac OS to manage 4 desktops at one.
Reproducing that demo is entirely doable by someone with the time to install and config all the goodies.
It DOES take some CPU crunch (a good dual core and at least 2GB (I recommend at least 3) of memory depending on how much you give the XP VM) and an nVidia graphics card is mandatory as well.
This is getting ridiculous: I was just randomly thinking about that starting music in the last hour. (It's the underwater theme from Donkey Kong Country.)
The 10 years I spent in translation supervision I would not have traded for anything, but I do regret having been away from the programming trade for long enough that I slipped irretreivably behind the curve. Now all I can do is peer through the windows and drool...
Stop drooling (it's a shock hazard ;-) and dual boot Ubuntu and just start playing with it.
Google will have the answer to 99% of your questions so you'll be self sufficient and armed with one heckuva "roll your own" Swiss army knife of a tool at the end of the day.
I have my Xfce desktop set up with six virtual workspaces (though no compiz fusion for me, due to Intel graphics bugs), and when I really get into working on projects or assignments, I really do use all six of them.
Looks to me like it's pretty much the video card doing all the 3d work, which is mostly just fairly basic texture-mapping; the UI is just designed to use those 3d capabilities in an unusually clever way. It's certainly an awesome trick, isn't it?
Judging by the flickering horizontal lines, though, I think the video card is struggling a bit to keep up with all that. (Actually, my own limited experience with Linux suggests very poor support, if any, for 3d acceleration. Then again, that was a few years ago. Seems they've got it mostly working now.)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-12-13 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-13 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 02:35 am (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 02:21 am (UTC)The cube analogy is also used in Mac OS to manage 4 desktops at one.
Reproducing that demo is entirely doable by someone with the time to install and config all the goodies.
It DOES take some CPU crunch (a good dual core and at least 2GB (I recommend at least 3) of memory depending on how much you give the XP VM) and an nVidia graphics card is mandatory as well.
CYa!
Mako
no subject
Date: 2009-12-13 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 02:22 am (UTC)CYa!
Mako
no subject
Date: 2009-12-13 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 02:24 am (UTC)Code authoring in one screen, compiler and tools in another, test VM running the code in the 3rd and your toys (music etc) in the 4th.
This is a highly common setup here in sillycon valley....
CYa!
Mako
no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 03:28 am (UTC)Google will have the answer to 99% of your questions so you'll be self sufficient and armed with one heckuva "roll your own" Swiss army knife of a tool at the end of the day.
CYa!
Mako
no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 05:26 am (UTC)It's almost enough to make me use eight... ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 07:21 am (UTC)CYa!
Mako
no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 09:26 am (UTC)(maybe I should try downgrading the Intel driver to the one supplied by the previous version...)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-13 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 04:28 am (UTC)Judging by the flickering horizontal lines, though, I think the video card is struggling a bit to keep up with all that. (Actually, my own limited experience with Linux suggests very poor support, if any, for 3d acceleration. Then again, that was a few years ago. Seems they've got it mostly working now.)