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It's important to remember that this is on the way to being an MVP. It's not a finished, polished product. This is HN. Don't we like people hacking on startups

It's important to remember that this is on the way to being an MVP. It's not a finished, polished product. This is HN. Don't we like people hacking on startups any more? I think it looks like a really positive first step. Yeah, the resolution is too low but that's solvable with a better headset. It's a bit laggy, but that's probably due to recording video of VR being hard. The windows are weird sizes, but that might be user choice. Heck, I personally don't want to code things floating in space, but that's just a matter of choosing a different background. All those problems are solvable. There are loads more problems that are also likely solvable too. And maybe some that aren't. We don't know yet. I'm glad someone is working on the problem to find out. That's far better than not having, maybe, one day in the distant future, a VR option to use for work.

shaneprrlt 5y ago
Makes sense to me. This is going to be sick once it's ready!
amelius 5y ago
> It's important to remember that this is on the way to being an MVP. It's not a finished, polished product. This is HN. Don't we like people hacking on startups any more? It doesn't need to be a finished product. Just give FOSS developers something to work with, and the finished product will automatically emerge ;)
- amelius 5y ago
  And to add to this: hardware without software is a feature, not a flaw.
  - codezero 5y ago
    Sometimes true, but sometimes not, it depends on how the hardware is designed to integrate with software. The Leap Motion failed miserably (my opinion) at this by expecting software to figure out where it fit as a human interface device rather than having a strong opinion based on software/reference drivers.
    - amelius 5y ago
      Well, you know what they say: fail fast, fail often.
- toyg 5y ago
  > the finished product will automatically emerge "Finished"? No. Somewhat usable and constantly being updated or rewritten? Probably.
  - amelius 5y ago
    At least the software never deliberately works against the user, and never is defective by design.
    - crooked-v 5y ago
      > At least the software never deliberately works against the user I look at some of the Gnome 3 design choices and I start to question that.
      - simfree 5y ago
        What do you expect from Red Hat/IBM? We've all seen how poorly they handled OpenOffice.
ilaksh 5y ago
I think the conclusion is unfair. It IS an existing VR option for work right now if you have a compatible headset. No it's not perfect and many people will not want to stay in there for a long time with existing headsets. But that doesn't mean it's not an option.
- mekkkkkk 5y ago
  I think that viability of an "option" is assumed. It's not viable in general today. I'd be surprised if there is even a single person that has actually fully replaced their conventional workspace with a VR desktop like this.
  - MayeulC 5y ago
    I think you missed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28678041 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28678041 from a few days ago... To each their own. You might not be on the left of the S curve for that technology, that's all :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_life_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_life_cycle
    - mekkkkkk 5y ago
      Color me surprised then! I'm still not sure I'd call it viable in general. But I've moved from "convinced" to "uncertain". I'm at the tail of that S-curve for sure, so maybe I'm just get-off-my-lawning. Thanks for sharing.
efsavage 5y ago
Agreed, I'm happy to see people working on this, but with VR there are so many limiting factors/dealbreakers that I don't envy anyone playing in this space without massive resources to tackle them all. For me, the MVP for working in VR is replacing my fairly standard monitor setup (3x24-27", 12-14px text size, 60hz). I don't really care about virtual meetings or whiteboards or environments, I just want to make the transition to having what would be unreasonable/impossible in hardware (dozens of resizable windows I can easily rearrange and fill my whole FoV with. Nail that and I will gladly drop a couple of grand on it.

shaneprrlt 5y ago

Makes sense to me. This is going to be sick once it's ready!

amelius 5y ago

> It's important to remember that this is on the way to being an MVP. It's not a finished, polished product. This is HN. Don't we like people hacking on startups any more? It doesn't need to be a finished product. Just give FOSS developers something to work with, and the finished product will automatically emerge ;)

amelius 5y ago
And to add to this: hardware without software is a feature, not a flaw.
- codezero 5y ago
  Sometimes true, but sometimes not, it depends on how the hardware is designed to integrate with software. The Leap Motion failed miserably (my opinion) at this by expecting software to figure out where it fit as a human interface device rather than having a strong opinion based on software/reference drivers.
  - amelius 5y ago
    Well, you know what they say: fail fast, fail often.
toyg 5y ago
> the finished product will automatically emerge "Finished"? No. Somewhat usable and constantly being updated or rewritten? Probably.
- amelius 5y ago
  At least the software never deliberately works against the user, and never is defective by design.
  - crooked-v 5y ago
    > At least the software never deliberately works against the user I look at some of the Gnome 3 design choices and I start to question that.
    - simfree 5y ago
      What do you expect from Red Hat/IBM? We've all seen how poorly they handled OpenOffice.

ilaksh 5y ago

I think the conclusion is unfair. It IS an existing VR option for work right now if you have a compatible headset. No it's not perfect and many people will not want to stay in there for a long time with existing headsets. But that doesn't mean it's not an option.

mekkkkkk 5y ago
I think that viability of an "option" is assumed. It's not viable in general today. I'd be surprised if there is even a single person that has actually fully replaced their conventional workspace with a VR desktop like this.
- MayeulC 5y ago
  I think you missed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28678041 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28678041 from a few days ago... To each their own. You might not be on the left of the S curve for that technology, that's all :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_life_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_life_cycle
  - mekkkkkk 5y ago
    Color me surprised then! I'm still not sure I'd call it viable in general. But I've moved from "convinced" to "uncertain". I'm at the tail of that S-curve for sure, so maybe I'm just get-off-my-lawning. Thanks for sharing.

efsavage 5y ago

Agreed, I'm happy to see people working on this, but with VR there are so many limiting factors/dealbreakers that I don't envy anyone playing in this space without massive resources to tackle them all. For me, the MVP for working in VR is replacing my fairly standard monitor setup (3x24-27", 12-14px text size, 60hz). I don't really care about virtual meetings or whiteboards or environments, I just want to make the transition to having what would be unreasonable/impossible in hardware (dozens of resizable windows I can easily rearrange and fill my whole FoV with. Nail that and I will gladly drop a couple of grand on it.