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BumpTop 3D Desktop Released for Mac

Xavier said:
I liked the concept. It is something new and different than the traditional 'Finder'.
Click to expand...

Me, too. I'm trying out the free version right now before deciding whether I want the Pro version or not. One thing I wished it had was 3D icon support. That way, when looking at one side straight on, objects on other sides/walls don't look flat.
 
Needs to be polished, but the idea is great.

I'll be watching this to see how it improves.

*NEEDS to work with GeekTool. Currently is obscures any geeklet unless it "Keep on top" is checked. This just places it over EVERYTHING and no just BumpTop.
 
Let's see...

I'll give the free version a spin...we'll see if it's worth keeping...
 
Ya know, the funniest part of Avatar for me was that the movie was basically heralding in a new age of 3d cinema, yet all of the interfaces in the movie were only subtly 3d, the icons and windows slightly popped out, the video feeds were in 3d, but that was about it...

I've still yet to see a 3d interface that does a single thing better than a 2d interface. Heck, I've seen some 2d interfaces with physics applied to the 2d windows that had more 'wow' value...
 
The video looks great but when you use it you notice that things like this are completely useless.

The metaphor we use to represent a desktop is quite old, but nobody has been able to replace it with an innovative and useful one
 
I'm surprised by the negative comments.

I find the idea neat and innovative. And it's a free app! I wanted it ever since the programmer introduced it at one of the TED.com seminars.

Using around 0.3% CPU when idle. Not hogging at all when used either.
 
I've been plinking around with interface replacements since Litestep for Windows 95 way back in the day. Litestep was neat, wasn't 3d but added a lot of unixness to the Windows desktop. Then I started playing with 3d desktop
replacements. I have come to the conclusion that ... after all these years...
they.. are... still useless.

If I WANT to play with Legos, I will play with those.
I remember the virtual operating system out of the movie "Hackers"...
Oh noes he's attacking the kernel!
ahahah
LOLS.
 
After a few minutes of use I shut it down again. Sounds like a good idea on paper but it doesn't stack up. Well it does stack up - but not that kinda way.:eek:
 
It's fun to play with and look at, and I feel with some refinements, it COULD be useful, but there's two big issues I have:

1) New files appear on the desktop right in the center by default, versus the corner. It's fine if you have NO Finder windows open, but odds are it's going to require you to move it.

2) Opening any folder or window just switches to the Finder anyway, so unless you leave everything on your Desktop, its usefulness is quite limited. If there was a way to stay inside BumpTop and use its interface to browse more than the Desktop, then they might have something.

Besides all that, the stacks are pretty cool, and I do like the variable icon sizes quite a bit.
 
I was using this to organize and play around with some stuff during lecture the other day. This one guy thought it was crazy and I got some weird looks from others. But it was probably because I kept switching between that and WriteRoom. So my MBP looked like it had an interface from 2015 one moment and 1985 the next with the green text display. Haha.
 
ValkyrieStudio said:
It's fun to play with and look at, and I feel with some refinements, it COULD be useful, but there's two big issues I have:

1) New files appear on the desktop right in the center by default, versus the corner. It's fine if you have NO Finder windows open, but odds are it's going to require you to move it.

2) Opening any folder or window just switches to the Finder anyway, so unless you leave everything on your Desktop, its usefulness is quite limited. If there was a way to stay inside BumpTop and use its interface to browse more than the Desktop, then they might have something.

Besides all that, the stacks are pretty cool, and I do like the variable icon sizes quite a bit.
Click to expand...

Your first point seems to me to be a minor tweak issue. But your second point really cuts to the quick of this issue. This is a desktop replacement, not a finder replacement.

I've played with a number of 3D interfaces over the years. I first got interested in them after reading a book called 'Einstein's Bridge' in which an advanced 3D UI is described. However, none of the Finder replacements that I've played with have ever held a candle to the functionality of the basic 2D Finder. Some have allowed the UI methodology to become so focused on creating a 3D user experience that it simply got in the way of getting other things done.

This, however, as has already been noted, is not a Finder replacement, but simply a desktop replacement. While it has some interesting functionality, the switch between working in the 3D desktop and the 2D Finder windows I find to be too jarring. Now, when they supplement this to make it a proper 3D Finder replacement, then I'll give it more serious consideration. Until then, it's little more than eye-candy and not worth the system resources to run it, IMO.
 
Cool, but a productivity killer, as well as a source of frustration. You need the patience of several saints and not be bothered about extra RAM and CPU usage to want to use this on a day to day basis.
 
I'm test driving it right now. Pretty cool concept, but when it comes down to it, a 2D interface is much more efficient than a 3D one. My desktop is pretty clean, so something like this doesn't do much except look pretty.

Uses ~130MB of RAM for me.
 
Installed, and removed within 15 mins. It maybe a bit more useful in a full touchscreen environment, but I find it useless with a keyboard/mouse setup. I don't need more "space" with the OSX features built in (spaces). I can see someone using a windows machine having some use for this with the windows lack of utilities, but for OS X it felt like I was using win 3.1 back in the early 90's.

A novelty item at best on a Mac.
 
bossxii said:
Installed, and removed within 15 mins. It maybe a bit more useful in a full touchscreen environment, but I find it useless with a keyboard/mouse setup. I don't need more "space" with the OSX features built in (spaces). I can see someone using a windows machine having some use for this with the windows lack of utilities, but for OS X it felt like I was using win 3.1 back in the early 90's.

A novelty item at best on a Mac.
Click to expand...

idk about feeling like win 3.1, but definitely a novelty. kinda looks cool but definitely wouldn't boost productivity.

stacks are cool, but not manageable
 
This reminds me of a Jurassic Park quote:

Dr. Ian Malcolm: "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
 
I agree. Cool idea but really useless. Go out and get something like Default Folder X and don't clutter your desktop. I installed it and found that the 3D w/ walls look was cheesy, especially since it couldn't actually 'spread' your wallpaper image out across the walls. If anything I would use it in the 2D mode and simply use the stacks aspect of it, but like I said, I keep my stuff organized in folders so I don't really have a use for desktop stacks or growing/shrinking stickies.

I simply can't imagine that the 'Pro' version comes anything close to having value.
 
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