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Blog.phpwnage > The Future of Your Desktop A blog by Kevin Lange, UIUC Class of 2013
  The Future of Your Desktop Nov 4, 2008 - klange  
  Or more specifically, the future of X, booting up, logging in, and compositing.

Let's get something out of the way first: This is a brief article I'm writing because I'm bored and want to spill my opinions and vision on the future of such things as GEM and DRI2, Plymouth, "graphical login for GDM", input redirection, and XInput2 - amazing open-source technology that are all happening right now.

Independently, these aren't as big and important as you may think:
Plymouth gives a pretty boot - who cares? XInput2 means I can use multiple mice, but that doesn't matter if my window manager doesn't care about them. DRI2 has amazingly been left untouched outside of the developers - yet the difference the framework makes for Intel graphics users is amazing. Input Redirection has no effect on a normal user unless they're using a patched Compiz.

But, let's throw these together, shall we?
Mix a pretty boot with proper mode setting and we get instant transitions from our boot splash to our login. Graphical login means, at the very least, fading from the prompt to the desktop. GEM and DRI2 mean compositing really can be a default in even the most conservative of distros, and means that running Compiz will be even smoother. Input redirection means Freewins and other such plugins for Compiz have a purpose - you can now rotate windows around, and even move them in 3d space. And Compiz has MPX support, too, so you can use two mice to resize windows, and all those other cool things.

Yet, Input Redirection isn't going anywhere in X. It's been ignored for quite a while, and only a few months ago was it revived and put to use in Compiz. But will these patches ever make it into X? Probably not. There goes one piece of innovation.

XInput2, thankfully, is part of X already. But it was delayed an entire release!

DRI2 was scrapped twice, once for general use, then for inclusion in X. Luckily, it's now back and better than before. If anyone can find a GEM/DRI2 video that isn't from the old version, I'd be much obliged to see it.

Plymouth is being fought by the fools who think we'll be seeing 5 second boot ups on old Pentium 4s in the next year, which is ridiculous to say the least.

Ahh, well, at least we're getting a number of new innovations in the coming months...

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klange What's with this obsession some people seem to have with Visual Studio? It's really not a very good IDE, it freezes often, crashes sporadically, and doesn't offer a number of important tools unless you pay outrageous amounts of money for the full version. I'll stick to MonoDevelop and coding-by-hand, thank you.
Guest Now if I could only run Visual Studio 2008 in Linux w/o a VM ....... ;)
Guest I know **** about Linux stuff.

All I know is that since I use it for surfing the web my problems ceased.

May Bill Gates die a slow and painful death.
klange Where am I lacking credit? 5 second boot may be great, but it won't happen on old, weak hardware that's being put to use as a full desktop. 5-second-boot systems are hyper streamlined and lack a significant number of services and backend applications that are crucial to Ubuntu.
Guest Give credit where it's due - the 'five second boot' work that has been done by the Intel guys is a fantastic improvement to the Linux environment.

In combination with the other innovations you mentioned, you get a killer, beautiful desktop which boots ridiculously fast! Fantastic, I say.
klange Read this article here
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