Technology! More specifically, my new Vaio laptop running the prettiness of Vista (which isn't as bad as I expected it to be) and the likes of little third party apps like Rainmeter, Rainlendar and Rocketdock. I played around with Samurize on my work laptop but didn't like it so much. Rainmeter much more slick, and the coding is easier to work with.
Yesterday, I stumbled across a wonderful site about the amazing Cairo project.
http://cairoshell.com/2007/07/26/cairo-a-windows-shell-alternative/
This guy, along with a team of designers and developers, are trying to put together a whole new way to interact with Windows. Of course, the underlying structure is all the same, but the look and feel is completely fresh and innovative. Hopefully, Microsoft will take a leaf out of this guy's book and collaborate with him for Vienna, but that's simply too much to hope for.
Here is a stacked applications concept. No more taskbar and Start menu, although that would be the underlying architecture.
Another concept that Microsoft has reportedly already been playing with: pie menus.
The taskbar/Start menu configuration has been around Windows from the very beginning, and it is high time to overhaul the boring old concept. Hopefully, that's what Windows Vienna will do, but I have to admit I'm getting very excited about this new shell development. Eye candy to say the least.As for the future, I really think a big step forward for user interactions would be a 3D environment on the desktop. There are 3D desktop environment in rough sketch mainly for Linux users but those are simply putting application windows in a 3D "street", like you're window shopping or something. Not the most convenient, in my opinion. Who knows, maybe in the future we won't have flat computer screens anymore. Maybe we'll have desktop "spaces" where one can step into and control the desktop all around. That would be nice.
More pictures of my pimpified desktop to come.
