Chris Egerter

[K.I.L.E.R]

Not everyone is going to like using 3D desktop in Longhorn.
I will bet the majority won't use it. When I want to play games, I don't need half my VRAM eaten up (I assume it will be cleared when I am getting into the game, unless M$ do their fancy thing and screw it up ), I don't need over 256MB of RAM eaten up by my OS either.

Do you really think that people will use it after the hype dies down?

Thanks

 

[Himself]

Foghorn Leghorn, Longhorn's cousin.

Navigating in 3D for a desktop gui hasn't been done successfully to date, I don't think it will take the first go from MS either. You want minimal user movement to control the display, not tedious movements that will get old really quick. If they just use it for aethetics, then I think it could be popular among people who like to stare at their desktop. Maybe in 5 years the API for it will be consistant and sensible, just before it becomes obsolete and absent from the OS, seems to be the way things work.

I think what makes people upgrade Windows is some vague hope of things working better and easier with computers in general. Seems to me that MS goes out of it's way to change behaviour and increase the learning curve. As an option it's not a bad idea for a new gui, but options tend to become limited to the latest thing over time in Windows, like it or not.

Now what would really be cool is a real 3D desktop, using those stereo displays or shutter glasses or even red/green glasses. I don't think lots of movement in 3D space should be part of a desktop gui, but it could enhance the look quite a bit, imagine a desktop where you could tell that one window was in front of another because the display was 3D.

 

[Anonymous]

I think that real 3D will be a just a novelty as long as you need special hardware for it (like glasses). However, it'd be nice to have stereo support as standard. Direct3D doesn't support it, which I guess shows what Microsoft thinks of its usefulness.