After four years of development, the MaXX Interactive Desktop 2.2.0 desktop environment has been published, which is positioned as the first alpha release of a project attempting to recreate the user interface of IRIX Interactive Desktop (SGI Indigo Magic Desktop) using technologies LinuxDevelopment is being carried out under an agreement with SGI, which allows for the complete recreation of all IRIX Interactive Desktop functions for the platform. LinuxInstallation instructions are prepared for Ubuntu, RHEL, Debian, Manjaro and Arch Linux.
The source code is published only for a part of the components, and the other part is developed in private repositories, available upon special request and including a mixture of proprietary code (in accordance with the requirements of the agreement with SGI) and code under various open licenses. At the same time, work is underway to open all the source code, rewrite the remaining proprietary code and transfer the project to a community-controlled development model. All new code and rewritten old code are published under the BSD license.
IRIX Interactive Desktop was originally shipped on SGI graphics workstations running the IRIX operating system, which peaked in popularity in the late 1990s and remained in production until 2006. A shell edition for Linux The desktop environment is implemented on top of the 5dwm window manager (based on OpenMotif) and SGI-Motif libraries. The environment is built using a modular architecture that utilizes microservices to separate the execution of desktop components. Among other things, it includes a subsystem for centralized system monitoring (MaXXmonitor) and a configuration management system that provides a command-line interface and API for integration with C, C++, and Java applications.
The graphical interface is implemented using OpenGL for hardware acceleration and visual effects. To speed up the work and reduce the load on the CPU, multi-threaded processing of operations and the transfer of computing tasks to the GPU side are organized. The desktop does not depend on the screen resolution and uses vector icons. Desktop extension to several monitors, HiDPI, UTF-8 and FreeType fonts are supported. ROX-Filer is used as a file manager (pcmanfm is supported as an option, and a proprietary file manager is being developed, which is planned to be presented in the next release).
Among the changes in the new release:
- Added an option to quickly switch between classic and modern desktop design modes.
- Added text rendering settings.
- Improved integration of Dumpster recycle bin with the desktop.
- Added new sound and visual effects that are linked to events in the file manager and Dumpster recycle bin.
- The 5Dwma window manager has been modernized.
- The package includes the OpenInventor 3 2.1.5D graphics toolkit created by SGI.
- Added support for displaying notifications on the desktop.
- Added task switcher using Alt+Tab key combination.
- Improved design in modern mode.
- The MaXXsettings configurator has been added and integrated with the desktop. Only the CLI interface is currently available for managing settings, and the graphical configurator is planned for the next release.
- Initial support for Freedesktop specifications (menus, .desktop files, etc.) has been implemented.
- A new window design style has been introduced, reminiscent of the IRIX OS.
- Added telldesktop utility for selecting desktop design style.
Source: opennet.ru
