Project Looking Glass

Posted by Chris Thu 19 May 16:04 Computing, Thoughts 145 Views

If you don't know what Project Looking Glass is your either a Windows user or a Linux User who doesn't read too much Smileing

Project Looking Glass is a new 3D desktop environment being developed by Sun. It aims to bring inovation to the desktop without the confines of 2D. The project is open source and runs on Linux, Bearning in mind that this desktop environment is far from complete, a few weeks ago I set it up on my Linux box to give it a go so this post is a bit late coming sorry.

My first impressions were that it doesn't do a lot, it did less that I expected it too considering it's stable release is 0.61 at the time of writing. At first it seems like little more than a fancy looking desktop but you need to spend some time in it to learn what it can do as it's not very obvious. My favorite feature is the way windows can be shoved to the side of the screen and angled inwards. The DE also supports transparency and makes good use of it. If one was to have to windows open with one behind the other the one in the foreground would be solid until the mouse is moved off it, then it becomes transparent and you can see whatever's beneeth. Project Looking Glass also has an innovative way of using 3D looking desktops. The desktops are infact not 3D but rather a layer of images that float over each other to give the effect of 3D, if you think back to old Mario platform games where the background scenery passes much slower than the foreground this is the same effect.

There's no doubt Project Looking Glass has many cool looking features but what is the overall usefulness of them? Are they just eye candy or do they serve a purpose? I'm not so conviced they are usefull as I didn't see anything I can't do in a normal 2D DE. Of course it's early days and so I'll have to wait and see but I'll remain fairly sceptical about the use of the 3D DE for now.