Yod'm 3D cube

May 30, 2007 2:12 PM

Imagine your monitor as one side of a cube. Yod'm (download) is an incredibly simple and intuitive desktop manager application that allows you switch between different sides of said cube. For those of us stuck on one monitor, it's an elegant solution that eases the pain a bit. (DirectX 9 required)
posted by ODiV (35 comments total)

Thank the lord they've invented OS X's fast user switching at last!
posted by veedubya at 2:16 PM on May 30, 2007

Beryl rip-off! Now, where's my neck beard comb?
On preview: beaten to the OS war pissing match opener!
posted by Abiezer at 2:19 PM on May 30, 2007

I've had this with Virtue Desktops (and Desktop Manager before that) for at LEAST three years now on OS X.
posted by mrbill at 2:21 PM on May 30, 2007

Yeah, not as exciting as it could be considering the effect is already in OSX. That being said, it is stupid that OSX hasn't developed virtual desktops that function like this. So, even though it is not breaking a lot of new ground, I give this person credit for at least taking the concept to an even more useful dynamic.
posted by qwip at 2:21 PM on May 30, 2007

Now, where's my neck beard comb?

This may be a long shot, but... have you checked your neck beard?
posted by ODiV at 2:22 PM on May 30, 2007 [12 favorites]

Can't go rooting around in there 0Div, the owl's get me.
posted by Abiezer at 2:23 PM on May 30, 2007

And Beryl, in case you don't know.
posted by Abiezer at 2:25 PM on May 30, 2007

Yup.
posted by Muddler at 2:30 PM on May 30, 2007

it is stupid that OSX hasn't developed virtual desktops that function like this.

Coming soon in OSX 10.5: Spaces

Apparently they've been building the framework for this into the OS since 10.3 - VirtueDesktops actually hooks into a lot of the "hidden" stuff in 10.3 and 10.4 that was there in preparation for Spaces in 10.5.
posted by mrbill at 2:34 PM on May 30, 2007

Hey, this X has is already in Y, and it's still not as cool as Z!
posted by signal at 2:38 PM on May 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

couldnt get by without virtue, having come from solaris/hpux where virtual desktops have existed for... oh i dont know, 15 years? more?
posted by joeblough at 2:38 PM on May 30, 2007

damn... signal beat me to it.
posted by joeblough at 2:39 PM on May 30, 2007

I remember seeing something that did this exact same thing for xp, maybe 2 years ago. Did yod'm used to be called something else?
posted by juv3nal at 2:39 PM on May 30, 2007

Why don't you just buy a bigger monitor? Geez...
posted by mazola at 2:45 PM on May 30, 2007

as a current Beryl user, it's surprisingly nice but the useful effects are really subtle and hard to control. i can see why apple is taking a while to implement this sort of thing. the cube is kind of stupid, the hard thing is to manage depth cues and transparency so you don't get disoriented flipping between all these windows on different screens...
posted by geos at 2:52 PM on May 30, 2007

Why don't you just buy a bigger monitor? Geez...

At home I have two very nice monitors. At work though is another story.

Since I seem to be behind the curve on this whole thing is there any freeware I should know about that is mindless to install, unobtrusive and feels like it would be indispensable within a week?
posted by ODiV at 2:56 PM on May 30, 2007

Why not just have multiple desktops, one of which is displayed at any given time, and a simple little panel that lets you switch between them with a single click?

Like Gnome, and probably every other halfway decent desktop UI, has had for, oh, ever?

The "cube" thing just seems like an excuse to add eye candy. Eye candy that would get old fast.
posted by Flunkie at 3:18 PM on May 30, 2007

I remember seeing something that did this exact same thing for xp, maybe 2 years ago. Did yod'm used to be called something else?

oops, nevermind, found it: sphere xp. sphere, cube, where's my freaking toroid ui?
posted by juv3nal at 3:24 PM on May 30, 2007

The "cube" thing just seems like an excuse to add eye candy. Eye candy that would get old fast.

I dunno, for me a quick visual transition really makes me feel like I'm now moving into a new context: away from 'email' and into 'project X'; away from 'project X' and into 'playtime'. It puts my mind in the right place. Regular multiple desktop managers never really did it for me.
posted by chrismear at 3:26 PM on May 30, 2007

Multiple-desktop managers have existed for windows forever. In the old days they'd just hide all the windows on one and show all the others. This is nothing new, but I guess the effect is kind of cool.
posted by delmoi at 3:29 PM on May 30, 2007

You can get that same "cubey" type of effect inside Firefox with the Tab Effect plug-in. Whee!
posted by wendell at 3:29 PM on May 30, 2007

I ran Beryl for a about a week on my Ubuntu desktop and then turned it off. It was cute but no more useful than the virtual desktops that you get with Gnome and way too power hungry. Doesn't OSX have virtual desktops? I'm amazed that anyone can work without them, I have something like fifteen of them open right now, one for each project I'm working on, one for mail and one for browsing.
posted by octothorpe at 3:34 PM on May 30, 2007

Similar with me octothorpe, despite my messing about above. Looked nice enough, but I find the Gnome desktops enough for my needs.
posted by Abiezer at 3:37 PM on May 30, 2007

I've always wanted to browse through my programs the way I look at sunglasses at the drugstore.
posted by QuietDesperation at 4:10 PM on May 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

I have virtue desktops, and use the cube transition. I have slightly more than six sides, so it's not quite a true cube, but I have notices myself thinking about some of my applications and windows as being on the other side, or right next to my current window.

It has significantly increased my productivity, as far as I can tell. I await "Spaces" with glee.
posted by Freen at 4:28 PM on May 30, 2007

when I installed it all the sides of the cube show the same version of my desktop.

Also, isn't Beryl for linux or some other neck-beardy kind of OS? I hate it when something cool for Windows comes out, and all the dorks weedle their way out of the woodwork, squawking all this nonsense about how "I run this on my linux box with micro Xr2 and a flibberdegibbet bork bork bork."

I still haven't found a linux distro that doesn't require me to learn coding. And ubuntu almost destroyed my ability to do work on my laptop for two weeks.

This cube thing is cool and it works in linux. Just hafta figure out how to get it to stop showing the same desktop on every side.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 4:49 PM on May 30, 2007

linux windows
posted by Baby_Balrog at 5:01 PM on May 30, 2007

Because it's been mentioned but not linked: Desktop Manager, which gives you multiple desktops on a mac. Personally, I'm not a fan of the cube transition. I have mine set to just change the screen without waiting or any transition. There's no need to wait.
posted by Arturus at 5:24 PM on May 30, 2007

Baby_Balrog, it's meant to show the same desktop on every side when you start up. For example, you might start your email program and open Firefox to read Mefi on one desktop, and then switch to another and start work-related programs.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 5:51 PM on May 30, 2007

Mmm, ok. The idea is old. The execution... well I noted this effect was used on a site I visited recently. It was novel and fun for about 5 seconds. It didn't get annoying, but at that point it just became another way to tab.
posted by dreamsign at 6:37 PM on May 30, 2007

This cube thing is cool and it works in linux.
Baby_Balrog, you great jessie, throw away the razor and let those whiskers sprout. It's obvious you want to.
posted by Abiezer at 6:45 PM on May 30, 2007

I actually dislike Virtual Desktops. It's a cop-out for when you don't have enough management paradigms in your window manager. In XFCE I'm in the habit of using two, just because there's a lack of enough good metaphors for dealing with windows.

In OS X I have:

• Command - backtick (pages between visible windows of othe focused app)
• Command - tab (pages between apps)
• Application icons in the dock
• Hiding applications (you have no idea how good this is)
• Window minimization to the dock
• Expose (you can use it entirely with the keyboard OR entirely with the mouse depining on what your hand is on)

10.5 (the dev builds of which I use daily) adds Spaces, but I don't really use it, though I gave it an effort. It's certainly THE best implementation of the concept yet done, I just don't think the concept is that hot.

What would sell it for me is an implementation that let you switch between multiple virtual desktops on multiple real displays. The displays would switch desktops independently, and even mirror the same desktop. To my knowledge, this does not yet exist. I should see how hard it would be to write it as a Beryl plugin...
posted by blasdelf at 7:09 PM on May 30, 2007

Can you say Old News?
posted by KingoftheWhales at 7:23 PM on May 30, 2007

I'm with blasdelf on this; virtual desktops feel like an admission of failure (by the OS and/or user), and add yet another complication to the already somewhat-tortured desktop interface. Spaces looks well-thought-out, but with Apple already having added Dashboard and Expose, all these desktop layers are in danger of getting cumbersome for most users.
posted by malevolent at 2:56 AM on May 31, 2007

Metafilter: feel like an admission of failure
posted by blasdelf at 4:37 PM on May 31, 2007