[conspire] UTouch 'gesture' software (was: Unity on Wayland)

[Rick Moen]

I wrote:

> Actually, Unity is a multitouch-capable desktop environment wrapped
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> around Novell/SUSE's Compiz 3D-compositing window manager, and is their
> answer to the standard GNOME D.E. sofware suite, which currently is
> their D.E. wrapped around Metacity.  That is, Unity will (when
> complete) become Ubuntu's implementation of GNOME 3.0.

Just to explain that phrase, here's the August announcement about
'multitouch', in a Canonical press release published by _LinuxPro_
(http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/News/Mark-Shuttleworth-Announces-uTouch-Framework):


---<snip>---

Mark Shuttleworth Announces uTouch Framework
Aug 16, 2010

Open source gesture suite lands in Ubuntu 10.10.

Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth today announced the uTouch gesture
suite that will make its first appearance in the 10.10.10 build of
Ubuntu. The code is published under GPLv3 and LGPLv3.

"There's no reason why anyone else can't ship them as well,"
Shuttleworth said. "There's nothing in there proprietary to Canonical,"
he added.

Shuttleworth explained that UTouch goes beyond standard touch frameworks
by allowing users to chain a series of gestures into a sophisticated
series of commands known as "gesture sentences."

The window manager in Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition will fully support
the UTouch framework and thereby gesture sentences.

"Netbooks with multitouch will be able to switch applications,
potentially switch tabs within the application you're using or, using
gestures," Shuttleworth told Linux Pro.

Combining uTouch with Unity, Ubuntu's retooled desktop environment,
optimized for netbooks and tablets is a logical choice, but developers
will have to first create applications that take advantage of uTouch.
Updating from Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 to 10.10 will automatically
include UTouch and Unity. Shuttleworth said that Canonical will include
at least one application that has a rich touch interface.

"We're announcing the pieces now because we think developers will want
to get working on their own apps," Shuttleworth said.

Shuttleworth expects preinstalled uTouch-compatible devices to coincide
with Ubuntu 10.10. Ubuntu 10.10 won't be available until October. 

---<snip>---


Although I personally haven't to date had a lot of use (or patience) for
'gesture-based' input systems, they're quite the thing for tablet
computers, smartphones, etc. -- and of course everyone seems to want to 
get rich off whatever's the next big fad in embedded computing.