Future AmigaOS GUI

[SimoAmi]

Staticman wrote:
The shell window looks fantastic... certainly makes working in the shell more exciting than just the plain gray windows we have at the moment.

You may notice formatted results in the shell screen.
The idea here is to have an html capable shell engine, where commands can return html tables as aalternative. Would be original and user friendly!

[SimoAmi]

iamaboringperson wrote:
im not much of a fan of gui mock ups

i cant see why people are getting all excited about(fake) guis
and not background OS funcioning and efficency

i like good OS's and fast compact GUI's

I would replace "(fake) guis" with "new GUI concepts".

I respect you opinion but GUI has become an undeniable part of any operating system.

OSX, XP, GNome...etc.

[xisp]

This GUI is visually very pleasing. Those widgets on
the titlebar are interesting.

Looking at it I found something that under some
perspective could be considered a flaw.

"Workbench" is called like that because that's
what it wants to represent. Is the metaphore
used by AmigaOS to provide an easy to learn,
easy to use visual user interface.

"Workbench" is different from "Desktop" in that
it represents programs as a set of "tools", they
are stored in wooden or metal drawers as in a
real technician's workbench.

Workbench has drawers, not folders. Programs
differentiate visualy from data in a clear way:
A program is a hammer or a screwdriver.
A data file is a nail or a screw.

Each kind of data has a one or some tools that
can operate it.

It would be a good thing to try to extend this
metaphore and use it everywhere in the system
with the coherency it deserves. It may be
simply a convention, but Amiga creators chose
it because of the kind of apps are run on Amiga.

Olaf Barthel was talking in an interview about this
and suggested it was nearly the time to re-invent
the Workbench with modern ideas to make it
better. Didn't specify if it should be done from the
ground-up, or only a slight improvement.

Trying to renew the Workbench when creating
concept-drawings like that is a good thing,  
let's try to achieve some sort of coherency too.

[iamaboringperson]

SimoAmi wrote:

iamaboringperson wrote:
im not much of a fan of gui mock ups

i cant see why people are getting all excited about(fake) guis
and not background OS funcioning and efficency

i like good OS's and fast compact GUI's

I would replace "(fake) guis" with "new GUI concepts".

I respect you opinion but GUI has become an undeniable part of any operating system.

OSX, XP, GNome...etc.

sure, im not really anti-gui :-)

but i see that sort of thing as more art(which is fine) than  'puters :-)

[SimoAmi]

@xisp
You brought an good point here.

I used drawers in one of my older designs, but didn't think the metaphore.

I think it mostly affects the wording/structure.

[SimoAmi]

This would do fine then!

[iamaboringperson]

what about a mac os style of tree?

[that_punk_guy]

That looks great, it would be nice if we could have something looking that good and hopefully still keep it efficient and responsive.

I particularly like the narrow font you've used in the tree of the Amiga "explorer", great for long file names.

good work  :-)

[Dagon]

[Rodney]

Well, the only question to ask now is, when will we be able to obtain a skin that does that? And when can we get the icons?

Surly, if this was developed into a skin, i'd think most people would use it

[jeffimix]

Well, since OS4 will be skinnable, if I bought an A1w/ OS4, I'd download it, maybe if it came with like a hundred others I'd even pay for it!

[KPK]

Here is my immidiate reaction on that mockup gui..

* Very pretty

* Too Control Panel'ish like on the Palette Preferences. The Tabs are just glowing look-at-windows-and-draw-amiga-version.

* Too Win Explorer'ish on the Amiga Browser... Although I admit win32's explorer is quite handy. The button bar is just waste of screen space though.

* Too much details in the scroll bars. Simplicity is gone in your scrollbars..  The dark grey doesn't fit in.

* Too much theme-like in the windows titlebars. (Gradients, text outlines)

* Too much stuff in the titlebar - but I suppose you wanted to just show what should be possible..

Overall, it's very close to my vision.. But it does look a little like a theme and not a default look.. :-)

It's very nice - I am amazed I missed this one...

Keep up the good work and send it in to everyone (A inc, Hyperion)... If you make a descriptive text why a certain thing would be done this way and that way I'm sure you will make one or another designer come up with some idea even remotely related and by that you have make your contribution to the next GUI.

Peter

[teo]

@simoami

im confused, im not sure where i recall the info from, but i was under the impression you were having some input into the new look and feel of OS4's gui???

Comparing this shot to the OS4 pics that have recently appeared in the news here, your gadgets and esp the screen title bar are definitely far better. Id love to see someone implement configurable docks on the title bar as it would be a big plus above the normal window/screen based docks we have. i can only see a couple of things i would change. The window borders look too linux (maybe a hybrid linux/macx look would work, who knows?) and the tabs as shown in the palette preferences would look nice merged with the sheet connected perhaps? (eg remove the barrier pixels)
 

[SimoAmi]

@TeoTwin

Well, I didn't get my hands on the new intuition system yet. That would have given me a chance to come up with a preset.

I was thinking Hyperion would send me a beta release once they make one.

I agree the Tabs aren't the best. It was a quick and early design that I was supposed to rework.

Feel free to make changes! I know you have nice skills ;-)

 

[HammerD]

Unfortunately this is what OS 4 *should* look like.

I am sorry to say I was not at all impressed with the new OS 4 screenshots. It looks very much like OS 3.9.  Same icons.  

The screenshots shown didn't have any "wow" factor.  The mockup you made did, and I probably would immediately plunk down the required cash for OS 4 plus an AmigaOne if it was going to look like that.

Hyperion should definately re-think what they have while there is still time and give your mock up serious consideration.

HammerD

[KingTutt]

I just posted in another thread congratulating the new OS4 look, but after further observation, I really am beginning to think that its a very dated OS3.9 lookalike.

If OS4 looked anything like SimoAmi's contribution then I would order OS4 in an instant, as would others who are not Amiga savvy users (newcomers). Unfortunately this is not the case and the Hyperion may lose alot of ground and potential customers because of their apparent disregard for todays very competitive GUI standards. A GUI doesn't make an OS, but it sure sells the idea of one. And that cannot be denied.