Zaskoda
February 23rd, 2009, 05:27 PM
Maybe this exists or - at least - someone has already talked about it. If so, I apologise as I wasn't able to find anything. Also, if it does, please link me to it =)
I was playing around with some desktop effects the other day and I realised that I don't want to assign key combinations to this stuff - I want specific hardware on my house and/or keyboard.
Simple idea = one button to go into expo - a button that does nothing but go into expo... put it on the mouse. This one is easy enough that, with the right mouse, you could do it right now.
More complex idea = virtual desktop interface. Imagine a couple of buttons to zoom in and out and a trackball to rotate the desktops. Even crazier, imagine a small touch screen showing 4 virtual desktops and you can switch between them or move apps between them with a touch screen... might be cool on a laptop.
Ok, not mind blowing ideas... I know... but with all the nifty possibilities in compiz, I bet we could do some really gnarly stuff if we could build custom hardware to interface with it. I mean, honestly, the mouse and keyboard have not evolved much over the years.
I have to admit... I'm mostly motivated by this notion that Linux is a Windows alternative right now... and it shouldn't be confined to that... I just got a Dell netbook and was bent on the fact that Ubuntu could be customised a lot more than what they did... If dell was concerned about also supporting Windows on Netbooks, then they'd be free to do more hardware innovations for a custom build of Linux.
I'm rambling... Thoughts?
I was playing around with some desktop effects the other day and I realised that I don't want to assign key combinations to this stuff - I want specific hardware on my house and/or keyboard.
Simple idea = one button to go into expo - a button that does nothing but go into expo... put it on the mouse. This one is easy enough that, with the right mouse, you could do it right now.
More complex idea = virtual desktop interface. Imagine a couple of buttons to zoom in and out and a trackball to rotate the desktops. Even crazier, imagine a small touch screen showing 4 virtual desktops and you can switch between them or move apps between them with a touch screen... might be cool on a laptop.
Ok, not mind blowing ideas... I know... but with all the nifty possibilities in compiz, I bet we could do some really gnarly stuff if we could build custom hardware to interface with it. I mean, honestly, the mouse and keyboard have not evolved much over the years.
I have to admit... I'm mostly motivated by this notion that Linux is a Windows alternative right now... and it shouldn't be confined to that... I just got a Dell netbook and was bent on the fact that Ubuntu could be customised a lot more than what they did... If dell was concerned about also supporting Windows on Netbooks, then they'd be free to do more hardware innovations for a custom build of Linux.
I'm rambling... Thoughts?