3D Desktop Widgets or themes

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

Hello, all. I have been into Ubuntu since Dapper and have loved it every step of the way. I use Jaunty Jackalope currently.

I do quite a bit of 3d modeling in Blender (OpenGL) and have always wanted to create a 3d Operating System or desktop environment for an existing OS. I decided since I love Linux and it would be in the spirit of the GNU Project, I would like to develop for Linux.

My question is how would I use my 3D modeling skills to make a desktop environment? I have some programming experience if that is necessary.

What I was aiming at was maybe a 3D widget or set of widgets that existed on the desktop that you could interact with, say to open files or manipulate icons and such, and it could lay on the backmost layer so windows would be on top and it wouldn't get in the users' way.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[fela]

Hello, all. I have been into Ubuntu since Dapper and have loved it every step of the way. I use Jaunty Jackalope currently.

I do quite a bit of 3d modeling in Blender (OpenGL) and have always wanted to create a 3d Operating System or desktop environment for an existing OS. I decided since I love Linux and it would be in the spirit of the GNU Project, I would like to develop for Linux.

My question is how would I use my 3D modeling skills to make a desktop environment? I have some programming experience if that is necessary.

What I was aiming at was maybe a 3D widget or set of widgets that existed on the desktop that you could interact with, say to open files or manipulate icons and such, and it could lay on the backmost layer so windows would be on top and it wouldn't get in the users' way.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not a developer, but wouldn't this require a major rework of the current GUI API?

+100 for your willingness though :)

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

Well, I have never coded anything near an OS, but I would think you should be able to create this effect as a simple application.

I have seen many people code small programs that are capable of calling up other programs in an OS, such as a custom dashboard-like program whos window is a mere taskbar-looking object with buttons where when you click them, they open up a text editor or a music player.

I am not sure if what I want would require GUI/API work, but I would be more than willing to learn all there is to learn about Linux in order to create this kind of functionality.

I just don't know where to look in order to learn these things.

[fela]

Well, I have never coded anything near an OS, but I would think you should be able to create this effect as a simple application.

I have seen many people code small programs that are capable of calling up other programs in an OS, such as a custom dashboard-like program whos window is a mere taskbar-looking object with buttons where when you click them, they open up a text editor or a music player.

I am not sure if what I want would require GUI/API work, but I would be more than willing to learn all there is to learn about Linux in order to create this kind of functionality.

I just don't know where to look in order to learn these things.

I think you should first study how to code GTK applications (assuming you already know C well).