3D Desktop In Linux

Published on March 25, 2007 By MasonM In Misc

With all this time on my hands I decided to install the xgl xorg server and Beryl window manager to my Slackware system. It really wasn't that hard to do and the effects are great. I normally have four desktops on my system anyway, but now each desktop is on the face of a cube.

To switch from one desktop to another I simply use my mouse or keyboard to rotate the cube. It looks pretty damn cool. There are also a lot of additional window effects that add a cool touch to things, like when moving or opening a window the window "wobbles" and that just plain looks cool as hell. If I have applications running on different desktops I can also simply click the icon for the application I want to move to and the cube will rotate to that screen automatically. Very, very cool. Well, cool if you're a geek anyway. LOL

There are also some very nice themes that come with the Beryl setup and I really like some of them.

I took this screenshot with the cube half rotated between two desktop screens.

Comments

Dr Guy

on Mar 25, 2007

At this rate, you are going to break the nano-filament barrier on chip speed years ahead of Intel and IBM.

MasonM

on Mar 25, 2007

At this rate, you are going to break the nano-filament barrier on chip speed years ahead of Intel and IBM.

Dr Guy

on Mar 25, 2007

BTW - When I read the title, I said "so what?". When I saw the implementation, I said - DAMN! I Need that!

Thanks.

MasonM

on Mar 25, 2007

BTW - When I read the title, I said "so what?". When I saw the implementation, I said - DAMN! I Need that!

Thanks.

Yeah, it is pretty cool eye candy.

MasonM

on Mar 25, 2007

One really cool feature is that if you move your mouse pointer into the far upper right corner you see a display of all open windows on all desktops allowing you to select the one you want to move to. Just click the one you want and the cube will rotate to that screen and bring that window to the front.

MasonM

on Mar 25, 2007

While tinkering around with it I added a "skydome" which is an image that shows as a background when the cube is rotated. Very cool.

DrDonald

on Mar 25, 2007

gee, what's next? A tesseract? ...Better not, I don't want your head a-poppin' outta my screen!

Dr Guy

on Mar 25, 2007

Better not, I don't want your head a-poppin' outta my screen!

Well, if he could do Morgan Fairchild, or more recently, Reese Witherspoon, I would not mind.

MasonM

on Mar 25, 2007

gee, what's next? A tesseract? ...Better not, I don't want your head a-poppin' outta my screen!

Better not, I don't want your head a-poppin' outta my screen!

Well, if he could do Morgan Fairchild, or more recently, Reese Witherspoon, I would not mind.

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