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    <title><![CDATA[Discussion on Esfera: A fascinating UI concept for window management in Ubuntu ]]></title>
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        <title><![CDATA[RE: Esfera: A fascinating UI concept for window management in Ubuntu]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3275795]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Imagine  http://www.financeandmarkets.net/ you have a new control on your desktop windows. This control accepts gestures that can do various tasks. One of those tasks would be to flip the window over giving you a new space to use. This space could be used for]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3275795]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Hernab]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:10:09 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Not change, but Extend (left handed saws)]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3272053]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Good word choice - 'Extend'.  Extending capability so others may use it better. Needs drives improvement, and broadens the ability for more to use.  Another example - power saws for left- and right- handed people  (Lefties - have you ever had trouble using a standard circular saw?).  Traditional power saws are made with a right-handed perspective. Adding a handle on the front of the saw makes it a 100 times easier to use from a left-handed profile, while not taking away from any standard (righty) use.   The addition extends usefulness to more people, leaving the choice to them. For GUI --- simply extend abilities allowing customization to better serve one's individual needs.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3272053]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[rwparks.it]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:47:52 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Mice never die - just morph]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270768]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Odd how I see folks at work and in cafes with the latest note/net book with a touchpad... and a mouse plugged in.   I have worked with several touch screens on notebooks/tablets and standalone monitors, as well, as a dozen or more PDA/HPC/phone devices.  I have found that the bigger the screen, the more fatiguing it is to use for any length of time.  There are issues with support for the scribing hand (esp for us lefties), and for shoulders (and even backs) with all that reaching if we have any joint problems to begin with.  Our physical &quot;configuration&quot; and limitations dictate certain &quot;classic&quot; interface solutions such as keyboards and mice (although I prefer a trackball if I can find one with just the right layout, and durability, and/or a Trackpoint instead of touchpad when I am traveling mouseless).  To each their own.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270768]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[aroc]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:08:43 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[There's An Option for That... (true for most Windowing Stuff)]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270765]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I agree wholeheartedly about The Ribbon (of insanity), however I did find out about the Quick Access menu/bar, that lets the user customize their own 1-bar set of favored controls.  It can take some time to learn which of the many controls are the ones you want handy all the time, but it is worth the time and effort to tame that Ribbon-beast.I would hope any new windowing innovation will follow M$'s &quot;lead&quot;, and always provide options to customize the interface (not really new with them, but just a little prod there .  No one size fits all.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270765]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[aroc]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:58:54 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Flawed Analogy]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270750]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Why are we not in caves anymore?  Because of women.  Men are always satisfied with good enough, women are not.  Ever modern advancement has been for women.So why are we not advancing the OS as well? Why bother, its good enough, and there is almost no women to tell us otherwise.  The small advancements that do happen, all have female influences.And that's my nugget of BS for today]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270750]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Slayer_]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:40:29 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Key idea of future interface development]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270737]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[New interface designers are looking at creating interfaces that work the way we work. If you want to turn a sheet of paper on the desk, you grab a corner and flip the page. This gesture would emulate that to a degree. Much like the touch screen interfaces in our lives today, gestures are becoming less of an exception and more the norm. While this would be an example of a mouse gesture, and not a touch screen, we need to begin somewhere. A foundation must be created to build improvements upon. The blue button is merely an IDEA. Click here, make a movement and get the desired result. It is a concept in draft form. Perhaps it may end up as a simple little circle in the vein of the existing navigation design. Maybe a triangle. In the end what this little ball represents in positive change is far larger than just the little ball. If the final result IS a blue ball, then it's still better to have SOME improvements, then no improvements at all.In invite us all to look at the possibilities rather than looking at something minimal in the draft that does not meet our expectations or approval.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270737]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[PhotoIT]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:25:18 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[and meanwhile...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270733]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[If neither you or your wife change in life, much less improve yourselves, life would get very boring and you would rapidly fall behind society. The world will continue to move forward through change. That is just the way it is. If the world is moving forward and you are not, then you are essentially moving backwards. The same is for all technology. Move forward or hit a premature EOL. If we as humans did not embrace change, we would still be living in caves and grass huts. The apple OS has successfully implemented the controls on the left of the screen for years. 10.4 has already moved those controls, except for a minimise menu button.  Why not take advantage of the unused navigation area to make usable and useful improvements. Just because you or I many not embrace the suggested change, does not equate to most people not embracing it or having a need for it. Heck, applications have a help menu. One that a large number of users never seem to see or use (based on the number of help calls I receive that are easily resolved via the help menu). Shall we remove the help from the menu because countless thousands don't use it? By your incessant need to pushg your limited vision for the future, I wonder if your comments are made out of intelligent analysis of information or simply out of fear of something new that is born of a process you were not part of...I'm sure this thread just can't wait to hear what you post next.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270733]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[PhotoIT]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:12:19 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[not really new in some ways - sounds like Sun's Looking Glass]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270570]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[See http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/ for more info]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270570]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[SteveDowe]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:46:19 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[UI Concepts]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270314]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[The &quot;back&quot; of the window concept is nice; for one, I'd love to have a layered HTML editor that had a WYSiWYG view that I could look behind at the underlying HTML.  I view it more as layers, so there might also be a DOM layer.  Transparency on the presentation view to see the mark-up and/or document structure is just one area that his might be useful.  But this is an application model, not a desktop model.  If the desktop toolset provides an easy way for the compositing of several views into a single display window, and the default (absent the desktop extensions) simply creates a window per layer without the application having to support a separate model for each, then this may be a good thing.Mouse gestures are difficult for some people to master; I have trouble with them mostly because I'm a motor dyslexic.  There should always be an alternative way of triggering any action that you assign a gesture to.When I was working on a new GUI design in the days before the X project at MIT, or even the original Macintosh was released, we had a rather different set of operations; you could resize a window so that it showed more of the document, resize a window so that it showed the same portion of the document in a larger size, and resize the contents of a window to zoom in or out.  We had scrollers and pagers; the scroller was like the scroll bar today, the pager moved between pages within the document.  All operations that could be done with the mouse (or any other pointing device) could be done from the keyboard (though not as easily) by using chords of the arrow keys and a few modifiers and other keys; it was a distinct mode.  We supported multiple locator devices, either joined or separated; you could use a mouse or trackball for UI operations and a tablet for drawing and they did not affect each other's pointer location.  These are all features I'd like to see in a desktop UI.  I believe that this might require extensions to the X windows system messages, it should not be impossible.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270314]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[filker0]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:10:45 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Easily confused?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270311]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[The location of the &quot;buttons&quot; on the title bar is configurable; if you don't like where Ubuntu has them, change the default.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3270311]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[filker0]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:51:31 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[At least the exit button hasn't moved]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269929]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[It's been in the same place for both mac and windows for the last 20 years.  People have come to expect it.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269929]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Slayer_]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:27:15 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Well its new and strange, or old and familair]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269928]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Perhaps you prefer to venture around, pick up a few STD's and say its a fact of life, but I prefer to stay home with a single woman who ages gracefully.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269928]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Slayer_]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:26:13 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Change is a fact of life]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269872]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Everything changes, including by the way, Windows.Just because they moved a button, I'm not going to run crying back to M$.  It's your life, do what you want, but the idea that a UI change will cause lots of people to go back to Windows makes no sense to me.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269872]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[davidsaintamour@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:11:37 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Concepts]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269821]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Don't switch users however.  Actual delivery does.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269821]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[The 'G-Man.']]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:34:54 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[RE: Esfera: A fascinating UI concept for window management in Ubuntu]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269792]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Almost all these are possible with compiz already. But I guess this is still relevant as Gnome 3 will not support compiz and will be the default of Ubuntu 10.10.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269792]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[hariks0@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:47:53 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[are you nutz?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269720]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Windows doesn't change and confuse users?   Have you seen the &quot;Ribbon&quot; in MS Office 2007?   It drives me nutz and there is no way to turn it off and have ordinary menus that I have been using for a couple of decades.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269720]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[ron.carlton@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:25:20 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[YES! YES! YES!]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269665]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Given a decent GUI on a server would have me converted yesterday.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269665]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[terry@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:50:04 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Three parts twaddle, one part very interesting]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269664]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Rotating 3D objects makes a lot of sense but why rotate 2D objects (because you can)? Semi transparency...well???But flipping the window and making notes, that is great. The audience agreed.As a developer two, or even, three screens is very useful. Maintaining those EASILY on one physical monitor would be great.A desktop free of clutter is good.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269664]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[terry@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:47:13 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Been there, done that - REDUX]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269623]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Um...have I walked into the Twilight Zone here? &quot;There is nothing new under the sun.&quot; With nearly ANY window manager (Gnome, KDE, XFce, etc etc etc) and Compiz, this has been done already - time and time again. Unfortunately, no one has completely incorporated all of this &quot;pre-configured&quot; in a &quot;first install&quot; basis. This is just a melting pot of already existing feature.I truly do send kudos to Ubuntu/Canonical for this concerted and unified effort - however I do have to remain cool about it all as I've been doing it since the advent of Compiz, so there is really nothing special here.On this note, though, I have to state that this is one of the draws towards GNU/linux that I've been able to use for my clients in migrating them away from Microsoft-based environments, or from &quot;dogmatic dependence&quot; - especially those powerusers that CAN make use of multiple desktops and window enhancements.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269623]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[YankDownUnder]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:20:28 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Been There, Done That]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269606]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Fluxbox and other window managers have had the ability to tab windows together for years, and (Fluxbox, at least) to script things like &quot;if you open this program, open these other programs in a tabbed window&quot;.  Tadah!  All of that &quot;grouping&quot; junk, without the extra shiny doodads.  I agree that the desktop metaphor is getting old, but I think that the real UI revolution is going to be dropping the mouse in favor of touchscreens, and creating new window management and application GUI styles within that paradigm.  RIP, rodent.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-328298-3269606]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tidux]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:45:25 -0700</pubDate>
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