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http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/07/18/opendoc.resurrected/

OpenDoc resurrected on Windows

updated 12:30 am EDT, Wed July 18, 2001

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Apple's ill-fated OpenDoc project is being resurrected on the Windows platform by a company called Stardock. The company's new technology, DesktopX, "was inspired by Apple and IBM's efforts to create an OpenDoc based desktop in 1995-1996," according to company officials. The tool is purported to "let corporations and end users alike take OpenDoc parts and build custom desktops that were specific to the user rather than the generic one size fits all design we see today."

by MacNN Staff

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07/18, 12:32am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Typical

Apple does it again!

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07/18, 12:34am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Hmmm

Is this something Apple can sue or cease and desist due to infringement of some sort?

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07/18, 12:40am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Re: Hmmmm

Why it failed for apple let anothr company take that idea. anyways its not an apple idea persay... what do you think dll are... unix apps are based on that idea use smaller appes that are good at one thing to make bigger apps.

Wee need OpenDoc under X

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07/18, 12:40am | report spam | close Reply | delete
OpenDoc?

Was OpenDoc open source? If so, then no lawsuits probably.

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07/18, 12:53am | report spam | close Reply | delete
opendoc was...

...a great idea way ahead of its time, much like the Newton, speech recognition, and Vicks Vapo-Rub. But man, could I use something like that today...Photoshop has been growing horns lately, and there's got to be an antidote out there somewhere.

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07/18, 12:54am | report spam | close Reply | delete
opendoc was...

...a great idea way ahead of its time, much like the Newton, speech recognition, and Vicks Vapo-Rub. But man, could I use something like that today...Photoshop has been growing horns lately, and there's got to be an antidote out there somewhere.

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07/18, 12:55am | report spam | close Reply | delete
opendoc was...

...a great idea way ahead of its time, much like the Newton, speech recognition, and Vicks Vapo-Rub. But man, could I use something like that today...Photoshop has been growing horns lately, and there's got to be an antidote out there somewhere.

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07/18, 01:21am | report spam | close Reply | delete
tried that

I tried windowsBlind (seem to be made by the same company). really buggy. My desktop was acting strangely afterwards. Not stables and not that great. Windows is still behind Mac OS X desktop even with Windows XP.
Is it me or Apple done it again. Everybody seems to be using "X" in there products.

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07/18, 02:46am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Photoshop's Horns

So many horns you had to post not twice, but three times?

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07/18, 03:00am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Stardock

Stardock initially started with OS/2 products. OS/2 used OpenDoc, so I'm guessing that is where Stardock got their experience in it.

They made a great product called Object Desktop for OS/2. WindowsBlinds came after that, since OS/2 wasn't making them enough money. Object Desktop was great, but very very buggy too.

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07/18, 04:29am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Not only Apple

OpenDoc was developed by a consortium of companies, including Apple. It and CORBA were developed as a non-Microsoft alternative to COM.

All these technologies are built around the prinicple of interconnected components - where applications consist of suites of plug-ins instead of monoliths like 'office'.

Unfortunately, open standard component technologies compromise the dominance of large companies while favouring smaller ones, so now, Microsoft, Adobe and Macromedia all have their own component tech. Too bad.

Dropping OpenDoc will turn out to be one of Apple's most stupid decisions. It was a bad move to chose a suite of internet apps (Cyberdog) to illustrate the concept just as the browser wars were heating up.

CORBA is still going, popular with some Java developers, but only just. .NET will be the last nail in the coffin, unless the anti-MS folks get their finger out.

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07/18, 04:32am | report spam | close Reply | delete
NOT the same as dlls

DLLs are not as clean as component technologies like OpenDoc. An end user can't constuct a hybrid application using dlls, which is one of the advantages of components. DLLs require programmers to be involved to do the linking.

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07/18, 04:44am | report spam | close Reply | delete
OpenDoc was great!!

Years ago, I really liked OpenDoc, especially with the CyberDog web browser. OpenDoc was the most advanced software concept within the past ten years. I hope Apple will reanimate OpenDoc soon with Mac OS X.

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07/18, 04:49am | report spam | close Reply | delete
The person behind this...

Is a mac guy, who's recent project was a mac-shell for windows based on OS 8, complete with top menu-bar and all. It's quite obvious he is a mac user / mac fan, because most of what he has done with Desktop X is inspired by Apple and it's GUI. It's even evident with the Placing of trash and harddrives in the screenshot.

The ideas of desktop X are really great, check out the pie-chart for the harddrive icon. UI at it's best...

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07/18, 04:56am | report spam | close Reply | delete
UI at its best?

Hardly. Just more garish screen junk. And WTF does this monstrosity have to do with OpenDoc, anyway?

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07/18, 05:19am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Ahead of time...

While OpenDoc carries a great idea and worse implementation there is still a strong "truth" in the concept.

So, if I have Photoshop installed and open a Appleworks document with a picture inside, why not show the Photoshop toolbar for manipulation. It's way more complex than this example, but the results should be tempting.

Unfortunately that means that for example one can install Photoshop and use FreeHand for editing vector graphics within PS instead of buying Illustrator. The marketing guys will bring it down!

And from what I remember OpenDoc was slow, buggy, too complex to program - even Apple failed to implement it on a wider basis.

Oh, yet another example: why do I need to enter addresses more than once!? I want an OpenDoclet for that.

my 2 cents
sp

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07/18, 09:25am | report spam | close Reply | delete
I liked it

The concept of OpenDoc, that is.

For those who weren't around... you take a "container" program that does very little by itself. When you want to "do" something (word process, code, push pixels, etc) you load an app inside the container. So... rather than buying brand-name apps, you are buying functions. As long as files were written in an open format that other mini-app writers could read/write, consumers are the winners. It's about performing a task to create your project, not using an app to create a Word file or a Photoshop file or a ...

See the difference? See why big SW companies would totally not love the idea? The small apps would be like plug-ins. Rather than compare it to dlls on PCs, I liken it to OLE which, when it works, is very handy.

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07/18, 11:16am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Moribund concept

Apple couldn't get significant numbers of its sophisticated user base on board with Open Doc. What hope does this company have, given that they are dealing with the techno-clueless masses that still use Windoze?

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07/18, 01:38pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
DesktopX

According to StarDoc's own web site, Desktop X is for creating completely customized Windows desktops with themes. OpenDoc was a framework for creating applications which DesktopX will not, apparently. Therefore DesktopX would seem to have little to do with OpenDoc (regardless of what "inspired" DesktopX) and more in common with desktop customizers like Kaleidoscope.

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07/18, 03:28pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Not.

This is component "skinning" for Windoze, and appears to have no resemblance nor relation whatsoever to OpenDoc.

Something was pointed out to me on the BeOS applications page that looked interesting the other day, though - a component application framework called GoBe. It didn't claim any OpenDoc similarity, but the description sure seemed to be going that way. Anyone looked at it?

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OpenDoc resurrected on Windows

updated 12:30 am EDT, Wed July 18, 2001

Typical

Hmmm

Re: Hmmmm

OpenDoc?

opendoc was...

opendoc was...

opendoc was...

tried that

Photoshop's Horns

Stardock

Not only Apple

NOT the same as dlls

OpenDoc was great!!

The person behind this...

UI at its best?

Ahead of time...

I liked it

Moribund concept

DesktopX

Not.

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OpenDoc resurrected on Windows

updated 12:30 am EDT, Wed July 18, 2001

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Recent Articles

Typical

Hmmm

Re: Hmmmm

OpenDoc?

opendoc was...

opendoc was...

opendoc was...

tried that

Photoshop's Horns

Stardock

Not only Apple

NOT the same as dlls

OpenDoc was great!!

The person behind this...

UI at its best?

Ahead of time...

I liked it

Moribund concept

DesktopX

Not.

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

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Most Read

10 Most Discussed

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