Finally we are the last installment of our journey through the history of the GUI, with this post we will see the 'evolution from 2001 to present.
Mac OS X (released in 2001)
In 2000, Apple announced the new Aqua interface and in 2001 the company released it with their new operating system called Mac OS X.
The default size of icons became 128 × 128 (previously 32 and were 32 × 48 × 48) with the characteristic of being semi-transparent and anti-aliasing.
There were a lot of criticism as a result of this release, users apparently were not ready for this big change, but soon many of them are adapted and the new style is now in all Mac operating systems
Windows XP (released in 2001)
Microsoft tends to completely change the GUI to any release "higher" operating system and Windows XP is no exception. In this version, the GUI is fully customizable, users can change the whole look and feel of the interface. The icons were of size 48 × 48 pixels, and rendered in millions of colors.
KDE 3 (released in 2002)
Since version 1.0, "K Desktop Environment" had major improvements.
She was given a nice "polished" to all the graphics and icons, standardizing the whole "user experience".
Windows Vista (released in 2007)
This was Microsoft's answer to the competition. You have added a lot of 3D animation. With Windows Vista gadgets are released, and is further improved the functionality of the Active Desktop.
Mac OS X Leopard (released in 2007)
With their sixth-generation Mac OS X from Apple once again is improved graphical interface. The base is still Aqua with its scroll bars of type "candy scroll". The new 3D graphical interface provides a better experience with the 3D dock and lots more animation and interactivity.
GNOME 2.24 (2008)
Big effort to improve the themes and "artwork" in version 2.24, with the aim to give a more pleasing to your computer.
KDE (Jan. 2008 v4.0, v4.2 Mar. 2009)
Version 4 of "K Desktop Environment" has introduced many new enhancements to the GUI as a regular and efficient management of the animated windows and widget support for the desktop. Icons are easily adjustable in size and almost every design element is much easier to configure. Some of the most noticeable changes are the new icons, sounds and themes, which are provided by the Oxygen project, these icons are more photorealistic. Kde can also be run on Windows and Mac OS X platforms.
Enlightenment DR16 (2008)
The Enlightenment window manager, also known simply as "E", is a lightweight window management computer program (adjusts the number, position, size, overlap) for the X Window System, and is a free and open source software that can be used alone or together with a desktop environment like GNOME or KDE. It has a rich list of features, including a satisfactory support for themes and enhanced graphics without having to sacrifice a good speed. As such, Enlightenment is often proposed as a quick substitute for a typical full desktop environment.
Sources
Guidebook for the continuous work on GUI design .
Nathan Toasty's graphical user interface gallery .
I hope you have enjoyed these five post, made more out of curiosity without any pretense of historical accuracy! Tell me what you think and Notify any inaccuracies you find, that I will provide to correct them!
Posted under Technology
This post was written by admin on May 15, 2009
On MacOSX we would have to say that Apple actually tried to run it long before, a preversione called Rhapsody came out in 1997 only for developers and it had a gui very similar to that of macos8 perhaps some improvements in some icons ... was to be officially launched in 1998 but it was not backwards compatible with older macos and then had another set of bugs that could limit their success and was redesigned almost everything from scratch including the kernel ... in the 1999's an early version of MacOS-X Server ... its gui remembered that of macos8.5 ... but this one had both these characteristics are not optimal ... preMacOSX two versions were then quickly set aside when the truth came out and then their MacOSX server versions of Jaguar (10.2) for the Xserve in 2002.
Enlightenment: the photo that you put it is the 0:17?
I asked you a snapshot of e16 from my PC, can be found here:
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7281/e16.png
Ciccio Thanks!
I replaced the image!
Sorry nothing to do with the function 'based on gnome ... but there were also the devastating effects of compiz, and those views are only 3D effects, but are not 3d. You think that having a closer look is the best (!?!?)
A nice roundup, however, especially made me almost cry the first parts.
Since there was talk of Enlightenment, it was worth mentioning also xfce and lxde. Anyway, a good article, well done.