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Concept
Project Looking Glass
Summary
Project Looking Glass is a now inactive free software project under the GPL to create an innovative 3D desktop environment for Linux, Solaris, and Windows. It was sponsored by Sun Microsystems.
Looking Glass is programmed in the Java language using the Java 3D system to remain platform independent. Despite the use of graphics acceleration features, the desktop explores the use of 3D windowing capabilities for both existing application programs and ones specifically designed for Looking Glass.
There is a Live CD available from Project Looking Glass. The Looking Glass environment is also included on a Live DVD (FunWorks 2007 edition) from the Granular Linux project.
Looking Glass was first developed by Hideya Kawahara, a Sun programmer who wrote it in his spare time on a Linux laptop. After demonstrating an early version to Sun executives, he was assigned to it full-time with a dedicated team and open sourced the project. It was demonstrated by Jonathan Schwartz at LinuxWorld Expo 2003 in San Francisco.
After the demonstration, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called Schwartz's office and told him that Apple would sue Sun if they moved forward to commercialize it – Jobs felt the project infringed Apple's intellectual property.
Regardless of the threat, Sun determined that the project was not a priority and decided not to put more resource to develop it to product quality. The project continued in an experimental mode, but with Sun's finances deteriorating, it became inactive in late 2006.
One of its most notable features is the creation of reversible windows. This capability can be used for features like allowing the user to write notes and comments on the windows' backs, or displaying application dialogs without risking their being detached from the application they relate to. All windows start by looking like a normal 2D or 2.5D window, but can be manipulated as thin slate-like 3D objects which can be set at any angle or turned completely around by the user.
Official source
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