Make Your Computer Desktop Do Your Bidding With Étoilé

Typical Linux desktop options like KDE and GNOME  limit the way computer users interact with the applications and programs on their systems. There's not much to do beyond opening and closing an app, and moving or resizing a window. The development team behind Étoilé is building a desktop interface that aims to stand that idea on its head and let users create workflows that work best for them.

The GNUstep-based environment is built with lightweight and modular components that allow users to combine project- and document-oriented activities (or, services, as the Étoilé team calls them) more easily.

Some of Étoilé's goals include:

* Light, focused applications, cooperating together to provide a rich user experience, using GNUstep services and our own Services model

* Fast, simple data sharing between tasks and documents without involving lot of contex
switches (between applications, windows, selection, etc.)

* Facility provided by default to composite, layout unrelated elements in first-class objects like documents, folders etc.

* Workflow based on project inspired management (versioning, indexing, sharing etc.)

* Easy communication/collaboration among users, where users are first-class objects in the environment

* Assistant technology similar to the Newton's approach.

Currently Étoilé has two types of services available, user and private. The former functions the same way as traditional applications, while the latter provides the behind-the-scenes foundation of the user experience. Three versions of Étoilé are available at the project's Web site, depending on whether you want to take it for a test drive, use it as your primary interface environment, or just poke around the code a little bit.