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Geek Culture / If you could redesign your OS of choice's UI, how would it work?

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 03:00 Edited at: 1st Jul 2009 03:00
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I've used a lot of UIs in my time and they all have their advantages and disadvantages and I've made mental notes over the years until a few minutes in Swish yielded this:



If you could make something in your OS's UI work differently or if you could completely reinvent it, what would you do? (as in functionality, not styling)

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Coach Shogun 20
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 03:46
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For Vista, I would remove the start bar. Everything would be accessed from the keyboard, using hotkeys. (alt+TAB for changing windows, the windows button, etc.) I can't imagine that being practical for most people though.

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Robert F
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 04:30
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Quote: "For Vista, I would remove the start bar. Everything would be accessed from the keyboard, using hotkeys. (alt+TAB for changing windows, the windows button, etc.) I can't imagine that being practical for most people though."


lol, I would die. I have used Windows 7 and what I would redesign in it is the task bar. I hate the new one. its just ugh.


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Agent Dink
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 04:48 Edited at: 1st Jul 2009 04:50
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I would allow for fully customizable placement of 'start'/ custom menu buttons, docks, and widgets and orient the OS around that functionality allowing users to create fast and integrated additions to the main UI.

Aditionally I would allow the user to set a custom screen area for maximized windows if they choose not to utilize the full monitor. Window snapping and a tiling feature with presets as well as custom layouts would be standard. Most of these controls would be in the titlebar for the window and if someone doesn't need a certain feature they can optionally hide any aspect of the non-essentials in OS.

My OS would be all about workflow and multitasking. No OS really quite cuts it without dual monitors and plenty of addons.

I would also probably implement a hot spot feature to the OS as well such as drag the mouse to the bottom right corner and 'user defined action' occurs, perhaps bringing up a clock or calender for instance.

Everything should be fluid.

Visually it would be open to any sort of customization, most likely similar to Vista in that you can choose any color for your skin, but also new user made skins readily available without hacks or extra programs.

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn Gorilda is lost!

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 05:38
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Agent Dink, I would buy your OS in a heartbeat!


Click to go to our website!
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 05:54
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Why thank you

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Robert F
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 09:04
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Quote: "No OS really quite cuts it without dual monitors and plenty of addons."


Why do you need TWO monitors?


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Jeku
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 09:09
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Quote: "Why do you need TWO monitors?"


Once you use it it's hard to go back to one

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 13:38
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I have a 23.6 inch and a 22 inch monitor side by side. It's amazing. I'll never go back to anything smaller.

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn Gorilda is lost!

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Mr Z
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 13:51
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I would make so that the user can modify the UI themselves. That is all I can think of now.

There is no greater virtue, then the ability to face oneself.
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Roxas
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 15:30 Edited at: 1st Jul 2009 15:31
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Quote: "I would allow for fully customizable placement of 'start'/ custom menu buttons, docks, and widgets and orient the OS around that functionality allowing users to create fast and integrated additions to the main UI.

Aditionally I would allow the user to set a custom screen area for maximized windows if they choose not to utilize the full monitor. Window snapping and a tiling feature with presets as well as custom layouts would be standard. Most of these controls would be in the titlebar for the window and if someone doesn't need a certain feature they can optionally hide any aspect of the non-essentials in OS.

My OS would be all about workflow and multitasking. No OS really quite cuts it without dual monitors and plenty of addons.

I would also probably implement a hot spot feature to the OS as well such as drag the mouse to the bottom right corner and 'user defined action' occurs, perhaps bringing up a clock or calender for instance.

Everything should be fluid.

Visually it would be open to any sort of customization, most likely similar to Vista in that you can choose any color for your skin, but also new user made skins readily available without hacks or extra programs."


I hate to say this, but many Linux distros can do this because of the Freedom they allow to user.

As for me, i can't think of anything Ubuntu gives me everything i ever wanted. It would be nice to see something like Altmit OS from .HACK//GU most of Altmit OS recreation project looks just boring. Or this the OS would be horrible, but the idea is cool nevertheless .

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 15:56
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Yes, Roxas, but can you run Photoshop without emulators?

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 16:08
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Well, it's not an emulator, it's an API layer...

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Roxas
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 16:49 Edited at: 1st Jul 2009 16:50
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Quote: "Yes, Roxas, but can you run Photoshop without emulators?"

Wine stands for Wine is not a emulator. It translates Windows api calls to Linux calls and DirectX Calls to OpenGL calls.
You can even install Wined3d wrapper to Windows XP and replace your DirectX With OpenGL. And the cool thing is that Wine is getting DX10 support so you
could play DX10 games on Windows XP when it grows good as DX9/8 Support.

And yes Photoshop works really good under Wine. But i prefer Gimp.
There is lots of better Free alternatives for Linux than bloated software for Windows. But there is also lots of Programs that Linux lags. Thats where Wine comes handy.

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JLMoondog
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Posted: 1st Jul 2009 16:56
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Mine would be controlled with my mind! No more keyboards or mouses(is the plural form of a computer mouse 'mice'? ). The OS would just be a reflection of what I'm thinking and or feeling. With simple access to programs and features you'd normally find in an OS.


http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=151107&b=8&p=0
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monotonic
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 00:49
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I've always liked the idea of an FPS style 3D interface, where drives are represented by rooms and directories are boxes/chests stacked on shelfs and files will be PDA like objects. If you wanted to delete a file or directory you would pick it up, walk over to the bin and drop it in or to move a file physically pick it up and walk into another room and put it there. You could have little helper terminals or robots that you cam tell to search for files and they bring it to you. Of course this is very impractical and would become annoying as soon as the novelty wore off, but hey in my little world it sounds fun.

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 00:52
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Quote: "The OS would just be a reflection of what I'm thinking and or feeling."


Which would be great until you start thinking of some girlfriend you had years back and in your daydream she appears onscreen. Not necessarily dressed.

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JLMoondog
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 00:54
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monotonic:
Like Jurasic Park? The hacking scene was so embarrassing to watch.


http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=151107&b=8&p=0
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 01:16
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@Monotonic There's no reason you couldn't make this in DBP... just for fun...

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tha_rami
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 02:31
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It would work, that's all I need.


A mod has been erased by your signature because it was larger than 600x120
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Inspire
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 04:22
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I love Mac at the moment. I can't see any way to change it...not just being a fanboy, I really can't think of a way. Maybe just making every part of it skinnable...that would be fun, I'm sick of having to download software to skin my OS's.
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 13:13
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So the lack of an ability to resize from places other than the lower right corner of a window and the Dock putting running app icons next to one-click shortcuts to launch others with little differentiation (they could desaturate them, or make running apps bigger, or SOMETHING) aren't bad design?

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 15:03
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Quote: "Mine would be controlled with my mind!"


I'm just thinking, what if I was doing to some work on my laptop in a coffee shop and an attractive lady walks past, how would the computer react to my arousing thoughts?

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monotonic
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 16:14
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Quote: "Like Jurasic Park? The hacking scene was so embarrassing to watch."


lol yeah, do you remember the scene(s) in Hackers, at the beginning Zero Cool/Crash Override was hacking that T.V station and there was lightning bolts, radiation signs, skulls and various other things scrolling around the screen while he was typing like crazy.


Quote: "There's no reason you couldn't make this in DBP... just for fun..."


I've thought about doing it before, making it all procedural so that the surrounding change as you alter files/directories.


Quote: "I'm just thinking, what if I was doing to some work on my laptop in a coffee shop and an attractive lady walks past, how would the computer react to my arousing thoughts?"


Most probably the computer would start mincing it's words and stuttering, then the mouse cursor would grow at a very inappropriate time causing embarrassment and ultimately screwing your chances of getting with said women.

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Jeff032
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 16:48
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It would have built in virtualization, like Altiris SVS (except flawless, because it would be built in).

So each program would be installed in its own 'layer', where it is able to write files etc without actually changing the base os. The user could rollback the layer - undoing all changes made to that layer since installation, or delete the layer - completely removing the program and all changes made by it from the system.

I'm not sure I explained that very well though.

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Mr Z
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 18:11 Edited at: 4th Jul 2009 18:13
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Quote: "It would have built in virtualization, like Altiris SVS (except flawless, because it would be built in).

So each program would be installed in its own 'layer', where it is able to write files etc without actually changing the base os. The user could rollback the layer - undoing all changes made to that layer since installation, or delete the layer - completely removing the program and all changes made by it from the system.

I'm not sure I explained that very well though."


We are talking UI design, not OS design . Think you may find this interesting:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/os/singularity/

It sounds similar to what you mean to me at last .

There is no greater virtue, then the ability to face oneself.
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