I just came across a very interesting 10/GUI concept video. On the frontpage of their website it says:
Over a quarter-century ago, Xerox introduced the modern graphical user interface paradigm we today take for granted. That it has endured is a testament to the genius of its design. But the industry is now at a crossroads: New technologies promise higher-bandwidth interaction, but have yet to find a truly viable implementation. 10/GUI aims to bridge this gap by rethinking the desktop to leverage technology in an intuitive and powerful way.
Phoronix writes about Mohamed-Ikbel Boulabiar and his team at the Interactive Computing Lab in ENAC, Toulouse that have been successful in bringing native multi-touch support to Linux. While there is Multi-Pointer X in the mainlinue X.Org server (to be released with X.Org 7.5 / X Server 1.7), there is now multi-touch support to be able to handle gestures and other actions.
This multi-touch support requires the Linux 2.6.30 kernel. How this works right now is by reading the input events, translating them into multi-touch events using simple gesture recognition, and then sending D-Bus messages over to Compiz to produce multi-touch effects. Right now the code is deemed just a proof of concept, but they are currently working on a better implementation. More information on their current Linux multi-touch work is available through the project web-site. Below is a video they had recorded yesterday showing off some of their multi-touch work on Linux.
Microsoft is already light-years ahead in this area with their Surface product. Multi-touch has also been receiving a lot of focus in the development of Windows 7 and MS recently showed off a collection of multitouch-exclusive softwares and games collectively known as the “Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7“. I hope Linux soon will be able to step up to the competition - game on!
