Accuse me of blogspam and whatnot, but I saw this, it was really cool and I thought I just /had/ to share it with you.
Yes, I’m talking about that UI mockup on the front page of reddit today. Some of the stuff I saw there just made me think “Why isn’t some of the stuff there already in compiz today?”.
Granted, most of the effects show in the video are already in compiz (such as wobbly, dodge, etc) but it was the 2 at the end that got me. The first is where the user drags the window onto the taskbar and it minimizes. Makes. So. Much. Damn. Sense. Why have I been wasting so much time trying to reach for a little button on the window decoration when all that time I could have just used fitts law as we already do with the launcher menu, hotcorners etc to minimize windows. Why? The same concept is (rather neatly) applied to the workspace switcher as well.
This could all work out in the panel interface I’ve been thinking of but not really acting on at the moment. Sigh – internets, plz give me some developers to help me with this. kthx.
Alternative Fax 
Yes, this seams almost too obvious, so I really hope that it will get picked up for Gnome 3, so it really will be able to stand out, when Apples next OS will have a Compiz clone.
Apple have filed to a 3D desktop patent, in case someone didn’t read Slashdot =)
Actually, to follow up on things that are obvious, but no one have thought of?
Why have the window resize in the bottom right, and not in the top left?
It would free the Status bar, and not all all programs have the status bar, so the area you have to find is only a few pixels.
Having the resize button in the top left, makes it consistent for all programs, and it would be in the title bar together with all the others window buttons.
@Louise: Unless the window has specifically disabled it, you can use the decoration is a resize handle for any part of the window
@Louise: You don’t need to have a status bar in order to have a resize handle. In fact, as far as I can tell, the handle is always there on Macs (and I would argue that GNOME should insist on the same behaviour). There’s a good reason the handle is in the bottom left corner. Observe what happens to the window contents if you resize from any other corner: whatever you’re most likely to be reading moves!
As for the mock-up, the mocker-up has a more detailed explanation on GNOME-Look.
Gotta love YouTube comments:
“I wish you linux guys would get together and patent this stuff and say as long as it stays in linux, or you’re all paying royalties, it stays in linux.”
And:
“nah, use windowblinds, its better “
The ‘Intellihide’ in new GnomeDo is a tiny step, but still a step, in this direction I think.
“Intellihide” is cool, but I’m having second thoughts Gnome-do is really that innovative… non-geeks won’t use most of it’s features for sure.
Anyway, I really loved that video-mockup.
Avant-window-decorator had the “Intellihide” feature for quite awhile…
okay, what would it take for me to contribute to your panel idea? I’m interested (not an expert, but I believe I can help). (C++ please lol)