On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, G3 wrote:

> Hard to say... how would Skuld lay out an OS?  I can see ice cream and
> little machines but dunno how they'd be arranged... it'd definitely be an
> intuitive interface, but what's intuitive for a mouthy 12 year old goddess?
> ^_-

Hmm... I sense alot of "bugs" crawling over the interface. ;)

> Hmmm... Linux being Open source they t the very least couldn't sue such an
[snipped]
> after one of you characters? ^_-

Most likely, it would be a lawsuit against the individual.. but then
again, there doesn't seem to be much "adversity" in the Manga/Anime field
with theme packs and the like. ;)

> In person the cube is interesting... especially things like the power button
[snipped]
> simple...  and it is... very simple...

Hmm.... eye candy in physical form. *shakes head* I think a "gel
light" cube which glowed would have been cool, ala their
"Quartz" theme. ;)

> At the moment Cobalt is suing Apple so I think you might want to watch out
> for them... 

Yeah heard about that. Interesting though. ;)

> (how they intend to avoid the fact that Apple now holds the
> rights to the NeXTCube I don't know...

The argument for defending against a Next Cube lawsuit is pretty much the
same as the argument against the Cobalt Qube lawsuit. Different
markets. Next Cube was a cube workstation with a display panal. The G4
Cube is a cube shaped piece of plexiglass workstation. The Cobalt Cube is
a standalone server.

But it should be interesting to see how it pans out.
 
> Personally I wouldn't piss Jobs off..

Personally.. and no insult meant to anyone except Jobs.. I think the guy
is a short tempered tempermental artist trapped in a marketer's body.

I mean.. *shakes head* 

> he's likely to counter sue and get their right to ship Qubes revoked for
> infringing on the NeXTCube...

It would be interesting to see that happen since they are in different
markets. But at the same time, the three cubes in question, aside from a
cube shape, bears no resemblance to each other. ^_^;; Might as well get
Sun involved with their half-cube shaped IPC/IPX/Classic/etc shoebox body
cases.

>  after all this is the guy that when ATI made a silly little slip up
> that Apple was introducing more power macs, striped all ATI info from
> his keynote and trid to strike up an agreement on the fly with a rival
> company (they wouldn't commit to anything in such short notice...)

Proves once again that Jobs prolly got his own eight legged white thingies
crawling around his brain stem. -_-

> back t the point though, aside from UI stuff what else would a Skuld
> Distribution have in it...?

Hammers. ;) But perhaps a large pool of water serving as the
background/desktop from which objects/applications "splash" out of? And
submerge when minimized or closed?

> Interestingly MacOS X Darwin being Open Sourced I suspect an x86 and PowerPC
> Skuld Distribution could be feasible...  but aside from UI what would set
> them apart?
> -G3

It'd be cool to see a Skuld distro. :) But the question is... would Jobs
really fully release the source? Or would he leave in something which
essentially makes it baited source? ^_^; Sorry, just seems like the kind
of thing he'd do.

But some of the other non-MacOS-X based configurable GUI's can be made to
do it.

For some reason, I'm thinking a translucent pool of water with caustic
light and ripple/wave distortion and surface reflection. Under the water
surface are minimized icons and other "background tasks". Bringing to the
foreground makes them break the water surface and drip a bit before
floating over the body of water, casting a soft shadow. Minimizing would
re-submerge it and/or shrink it down.

Windows float at various levels and related programs(parent/child
processes) have little "threads of fate" interconnected them which float
and drift a bit. So that there is an indication of what will die or be
affected when one program is closed. Zombie processes and other runaway
jobs might be indicated on the desktop as a "Bug" popping up and skitting
across the surface of the water like water mosquitoes.

Thoughts? :)

Wing.