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Janne Pikkarainen Veteran


Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 1143 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 4:37 pm Post subject: A movie-like desktop - HOWTO (DRAFT) |
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Hello,
Whilst having a horrible toothache I got this idea about creating a desktop which would be familiar from scifi-movies. You know, the blinking lights and all the eye-candy stuff. Usually I'm using xfce4, fluxbox, Gnome or KDE, but this time I decided to give Windowmaker a try. So I created a toy-account (movie) to my box and let it roll. Just for kicks.
This is _very much_ work-in-progress, as I started this thing less than two hours ago, but decided to follow the golden "release early, release often" rule. Feel free to suggest how to make this thing more cool, how to make more programs support this, how to automate things I currently align & do by hand, how to make this under different windowmanager, or whatever you may have in mind.
So here we go, I won't write very detailed instructions before I've heard comments from you, fellow Gentoo-users. Please bear in mind that currently this is "optimized" for my 1280x1024 desktop and my Final Destination(tm) is to have a movie-like desktop which interface would still be at usable level. And also remember that usually I'm after usability, not eye-candy, so that's why this stuff is unusual to me. Just for change I wanted to try this, and I think this is a great opportunity to learn something new. Please help me with this!
A MOVIE-LIKE DESKTOP - HOWTO (DRAFT)
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Downloading & Installing required software
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1) Get Windowmaker: emerge windowmaker
2) Get Windowmaker-themes: emerge windowmaker-themes
3) Get rxvt: emerge rxvt
4) Get gkrellm: emerge gkrellm
5) Get root-tail: emerge root-tail
6) Download CoplandOS-theme from www.muhri.net (for gkrellm)
7) Unpack CoplandOS to your ~/.gkrellm2/themes/
Starting programs
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1) Change your theme to "Cold" by right-clicking your desktop and selecting Appearance --> Themes --> Cold.
2) Start root-tail with "root-tail -color green -g 80x50+0+100 -shade /var/log/messages" (or whatever logfile(s) you want to follow)
3) Start rxvt with "rxvt --inheritPixmap -fg white -fn fixed +sb" (I changed that to be my default rxvt via the WindowMaker control panel, the greenish icon on the right-hand side of your default WindowMaker-desktop)
4) Move your new window to position of your choice and after that right-click its titlebar & disable titlebar and all the other visible stuff via Options. Save. Apply. Enjoy.
5) Start gkrellm with "gkrellm"
6) Change your gkrellm theme to CoplandOS by right-clicking gkrellm and selecting Theme-->CoplandOS.
7) If you want, add some themes to your gkrellm: there are plenty of them available at Gentoo Portage.
At this point you are free to suggest how to continue with this theme, or if you are already created one, please point me to it.
Things I'm going to integrate with this toy (at least):
- 3ddesktop (for 3d switching between desktops)
- tdfsb (for 3d file browser, as seen in Jurassic Park)
- Some fancy applets... I'm not sure, but something like 3dload provided a rotating 3d object indicating the current system load - the faster the object rotated, the higher was the load.
- Some fancy background effects... ideas, anyone?
- Superkaramba-like more interactive background-desktop-stuff.
And if I'm taking completely wrong direction by starting with WindowMaker, please say it. This is gonna be a nice toy project... |
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oisch Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 17 Jul 2002 Posts: 130
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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hehe I like this idea!
But have you ever noticed that in movies all the good guys use apple and the bad guys are using windows? (Apple pays good money for this practice, as I've read)
At least I have never seen a movie with a Linux desktop. Or did I miss anything? |
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Janne Pikkarainen Veteran


Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 1143 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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Oops, sorry fellas - almost forgot to post a screenshot about what this pet project currently looks like. Please be nice to my poor server, as it's only a P166 MHz / 48 Mt / SLOW ide-drives oldie...
http://jaba.mbnet.fi/pictures/movie_theme.jpg |
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Janne Pikkarainen Veteran


Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 1143 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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oisch wrote: | hehe I like this idea!
But have you ever noticed that in movies all the good guys use apple and the bad guys are using windows?
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Yes, I've noticed that. In some old movies they're also using Amigas. And some recent movies (Matrix Reloaded nmap scene) could be anything...
oisch wrote: |
At least I have never seen a movie with a Linux desktop. Or did I miss anything? |
Right now I don't have any links to movies with Linux desktop but I'm pretty sure there are already some of those. And you never know, maybe those fancy-looking UI mock-ups are already created with Linux, since modifying and customizing everything up to your taste is very easy with Linux. |
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SmackMyBishop n00b

Joined: 22 May 2003 Posts: 24
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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Antitrust.
The good guys, and even the bad guys I think all used Gnome desktops.
It was a cool movie to boot. |
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TGL Bodhisattva

Joined: 02 Jun 2002 Posts: 1978 Location: Rennes, France
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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Any idea for a "Jurassic Park"-like desktop? Remember, in the first movie, the young-but-brilliant-intelligent-à-la-Spielberg girl looks at a screen full of 3D boxes and she exclaims "I know this system, it's Unix!"
Maybe 3DFM and 3Dwm could make this possible
Oh, and also, does somebody remember what is the hacker's desktop in "The Score"? When I've seen the movie, I've thought it might be Enlightenment, but I was not sure... |
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carambola5 Apprentice


Joined: 10 Jul 2002 Posts: 214 Location: Madtown, WI
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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TGL wrote: | Any idea for a "Jurassic Park"-like desktop? Remember, in the first movie, the young-but-brilliant-intelligent-à-la-Spielberg girl looks at a screen full of 3D boxes and she exclaims "I know this system, it's Unix!"
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I remember someone telling me that the program that was shown in that movie was actually a legit security package created before the movie. We all know the movie came out when computers weren't all that great at on-demand 3D stuff, so it must've been a pretty uncommon piece of software suitable only for big-time corporations.
But yeah, the girls exclamation is most definitely stupid. _________________ Get Firefox!
Proper Web Development
I'm done at 999. |
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snakü n00b

Joined: 28 Jun 2003 Posts: 23
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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That Jurassic Park desktop actually was/is a real desktop for SGI's version of UNIX, IRIX.
check here:
http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html
you can download it, but the site says that its only for IRIX 5.3 and below. |
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bssteph l33t


Joined: 26 Feb 2003 Posts: 651 Location: Wisconsin
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:39 pm Post subject: |
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http://fsv.sourceforge.net/
Linux compatible clone. Makes for decent show-off material to all your Windows friends. |
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OneOfOne Guru


Joined: 28 May 2003 Posts: 368 Location: Alexandria, Egypt
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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i'm currently using kde-3.1.3 but wouldn't e17 by the closest to those movies? (i havn't used it myself)
just a thought
good work, i'll try it tonight
peace |
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viperlin Veteran


Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 1317 Location: UK
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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for a virual 3D filesystem i like to use TDFSB |
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Janne Pikkarainen Veteran


Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 1143 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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jesterspet Apprentice


Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 215 Location: Atlanta
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Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2003 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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I don't know how it was done, but a former co-worker of mine had his winamp visualisations running in the root window of his Gnome desktop.
It looked like his desktop was animated. Pretty cool effect. If someone knows how this is done in Gnome (or can be done in WindowMaker), I think you could be a bit closer to your desired Movie-OS effect. _________________ (X) Yes! I am a brain damaged lemur on crack, and would like to buy your software package for $499.95 |
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Janne Pikkarainen Veteran


Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 1143 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2003 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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jesterspet wrote: | I don't know how it was done, but a former co-worker of It looked like his desktop was animated. Pretty cool effect. If someone knows how this is done in Gnome (or can be done in WindowMaker), I think you could be a bit closer to your desired Movie-OS effect. |
Hey, thanks for the idea! I think that in WindowMaker this could be accomplished by starting xmms, selecting a nice visualization plugin, run it in a window, resize window to some cool size & move it to desired position and then remove all the window decorations, titlebars and stuff via WindowMaker menus. Will try it soon. |
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TGL Bodhisattva

Joined: 02 Jun 2002 Posts: 1978 Location: Rennes, France
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Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2003 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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jesterspet wrote: | I don't know how it was done, but a former co-worker of mine had his winamp visualisations running in the root window of his Gnome desktop. |
This can also be done with any screensaver, which is also cool...: Code: | /usr/lib/xscreensaver/xmatrix -root |
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Janne Pikkarainen Veteran


Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 1143 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2003 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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TGL wrote: | jesterspet wrote: | I don't know how it was done, but a former co-worker of mine had his winamp visualisations running in the root window of his Gnome desktop. |
This can also be done with any screensaver, which is also cool...: Code: | /usr/lib/xscreensaver/xmatrix -root |
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Thanks for the tip! This thread is already a great learning-experience.  |
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koala Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Posts: 91 Location: Barcelona, Spain
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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TGL wrote: | jesterspet wrote: | I don't know how it was done, but a former co-worker of mine had his winamp visualisations running in the root window of his Gnome desktop. |
This can also be done with any screensaver, which is also cool...: Code: | /usr/lib/xscreensaver/xmatrix -root |
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For kicks, do this with the Real Slick Screensavers.
I think "The Score" (Edward Norton, Robert de Niro, IIRC) had what looked like an X11 desktop, but I don't remember now. The 'hacker' was shown playing Q3 too... |
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TGL Bodhisattva

Joined: 02 Jun 2002 Posts: 1978 Location: Rennes, France
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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I didn't know this screensavers, some are really splendid. (For those who wonder if it is in portage, answer is yes. The package is called "x11-misc/rss-glx".)
About "The Score", I've watch the divx again, but I don't really know what the desktop are. There are several, probably real, X11 desktops, which are all different. But the only one we can see full screen is much more simple, probably a fake.
And there is a Tux mascotte one top of one of the computers.  |
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jesterspet Apprentice


Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 215 Location: Atlanta
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 3:04 am Post subject: |
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Just found something that my be interesting for the Movie-OS.
http://electricsheep.org
Fractal images generated by distributed computing displayed as a screensaver.
Combining this with the desktop root window idea, I think it may have some great geek potential! _________________ (X) Yes! I am a brain damaged lemur on crack, and would like to buy your software package for $499.95 |
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red_over_blue Guru


Joined: 16 Dec 2002 Posts: 310
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 4:04 am Post subject: |
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Another cool effect is using mplayer with the --rootwin option, thus playing the movie on the root window.
This looks especially cool with a matrix reloaded trailer running with --loop 0 (infinite) as your background.
This only works with certain -vo options, such as xv and x11 (man mplayer for more info) _________________ All your code are belong to us. |
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charlieg Advocate


Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Posts: 2149 Location: Manchester UK
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 12:53 pm Post subject: |
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Another incredibly cool background is XPlanet.
With this you can have rotating planets with orbiting satellites as your desktop.
[img:da451ea04b]http://xplanet.sourceforge.net/Images/IoFromMercury.png[/img:da451ea04b]
[img:da451ea04b]http://xplanet.sourceforge.net/Images/EarthFromMoon.png[/img:da451ea04b] _________________ Want Free games?
Free Gamer - open source games list & commentary
Open source web-enabled rich UI platform: Vexi |
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charlieg Advocate


Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Posts: 2149 Location: Manchester UK
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 1:02 pm Post subject: |
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Just to follow up to that, you can add cloud maps and weather notes, as well as recent volcanic activity... it's pretty versatile and very cool.
Note to self: must upgrade computer to be able to have xplanet running all the time. _________________ Want Free games?
Free Gamer - open source games list & commentary
Open source web-enabled rich UI platform: Vexi |
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Janne Pikkarainen Veteran


Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 1143 Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks again for all your suggestions. I will try these tonight! _________________ Yes, I'm the man. Now it's your turn to decide if I meant "Yes, I'm the male." or "Yes, I am the Unix Manual Page.". |
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tukem Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Jun 2002 Posts: 114 Location: Tampere, Finland
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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Why this topic is in "Documentation, Tips & Tricks"? |
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rezza Guru


Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Posts: 434 Location: Edinburgh, UK
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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hmm... using /usr/lib/xscreensaver/xmatrix -root doesn't work for me... neither does any other screensaver... anyone have any idea why not? the terminal i tried from just sits there doing nothing 'till i ^C it. _________________ screenshots
blog |
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