Cool 3d desktops!

OMG!

I thought this was a rendered advert, but its an actual realtime 3d desktop! Fading to crisper 2d when on a workspace.

Check this out, this looks awesome! :O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lawkc3jH3ws

This guys using a wiimote with it!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALqduQfm09c

Not sure if this windows one is a 'joke?' or if its serious, i really cannot tell :o)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG9ztjqG6Ak&mode=related&search=

A full list of effects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWXHpKl8sL0&mode=related&search=

I fear it will all be too much for my NvGFfx though :( time to upgrade i guess.

EDIT: !THIS IS NOT WINDOWS VISTA! - as there seems to be some confusion.

I've never really seen the point of these 3D desktops - other than being a substitute for a penis.

If I had Vista - the first thing I'd turn off (having initially had a play with it first) would be the 3D windows thing.

Its not vista or XP.

I probably would too(im not one for OS eyecandy normaly) Its really is impressive though. I would like to check it out to see how it feels, i may be pleasantly suprised.

Yup :)
Running it right now!

Phew, I thought you were posting about that poor Project Looking Glass! I was bracing myself for having to write a /very/ long post. (It's a cool idea, but why would anyone in their right mind create a desktop environment with JAVA?!)

I've managed to run basic Compiz with bouncy windows and alpha effects on a 500 mHz Celeron and integrated Intel Extreme Graphics video (i810 chipset; very old). (This was the Desktop Effects package in Ubuntu Feisty).
It didn't run well but it ran and I did manage to use it for a while. Amazing, considering what it is and how horrible that computer's specs are.

Unfortunately, besides live previews and the like that Microsoft says are "empowering" features, Compiz and Beryl (by the way, they're merging again soon) do not add much.

For a really cool desktop, check out the work in the Metisse window system. It's much lighter, but has some really cool features that help workflow as well as just plain look nice:
http://insitu.lri.fr/metisse/

Edit: Bah, the below two videos are pretty boring, actually, compared to the link for Mandriva Linux's Metisse stuff posted later. I'll leave them anyway...
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxsUKX6xXyE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT89IOci5FA&NR )

When my monster PC arrived a few months back, one of the first things I did was shunt it into Classic XP then turn off all the visual effects. Cyberpower were probably gob-smacked to see just how much of the XP shell I had destroyed in my attempt to squeeze every last drop of speed from the 8800GTX and the Core 2 Duo 6600.

Thx, ill take a look.

What attracted me to beryl though is it can be used with ubuntu it seems. Im really interested in the 3d spinner/translucency as i think that may feel good and be an acually useful feature. I probably wouldnt care so much for the bendy stuff and probably turn it off if possible, although its quite sweet you can peel the page back to see whats underneath, but it looks really performance eating (like cream cakes to health) :)

I've tried Beryl with Linux and it runs surprisingly well with old-ish hardware.

For a 3D desktop it actually has useful features. The one I found pretty cool was the way you could bend windows down to peek and see what was happening in the window underneath.

The spinning cube is also a visually nice way to flick between desktops and because it doesn't need an uber PC just to do it, it's quite a nice touch.

Hm... actually, those two videos of Metisse are pretty boring.

Here is what Mandriva Linux is doing with it (presented very nicely, of course):
http://www.mandriva.com/projects/metisse

Looks nice, note sure how helpful it is.

Lol I saw a guy using that at school and I thought thats what vista was.

In order to turn it off, you'd need to turn it on in the first place.

There's a 'switch windows' icon on the quicklaunch bar. When you click it, your windows appear in 3d so you can choose between them.

If you don't want to use this feature, then don't click the icon. However, when you have a lot of windows open its incredibly useful for finding the window you want quickly, without going through every one on the taskbar.

If you don't use it, you're missing out on a very useful and intuitive feature of Vista.

The videos above are not windows, vista or otherwise

eccept.. this one it appears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG9ztjqG6Ak&mode=related&search=
(Im sure this is a joke though and that vistas 3d system isnt really this bad.)

is it?!?

It says its XP.

His PC probably stinks if it can't even render a cube any faster than 3fps.

mabe,it must be the look like vista mod pack he's using(probably whats slowing it down, (it slowed down my 1.6ghz laptop w radeon mob. down by about 20-30%).