Xfce Forum

viewtouch

Member

Registered: 2012-11-28

Posts: 1

Xfce as a network touchscreen desktop

I have been developing touchscreen point of sale software since 1985 and have been selling POS systems since 1986.  I have been using Linux & Debian in my POS software since 1999.  I am a user of Xfce on Debian for about 10 years.  I have adapted my Xfce desktop to become a touchscreen desktop and it works quite well, especially with launchers and custom icons on the Panel.  My web site is viewtouch.com.

I would like to help turn Xfce into the best touchscreen desktop in the Linux and FreeBSD worlds.  Most touchscreens these days are HID compliant and run quite nicely under Linux & FreeBSD, either because of patches to the kernel or because of enhancements to X.  Touchscreens don't have to be multitouch to be useful, of course.  I am not a programmer but my software can rightly be considered to be a graphical programming tool so that is the environment in which I work and contribute. 

I think that this is the perfect time and opportunity to extend the usefulness of Xfce, of Linux & FreeBSD and of applications which work better as touch-driven apps than as keyboard or mouse-driven apps.  If you could let the Xfce developers know that I would like to work with any of them on this then I would appreciate it.

The world has adopted my designs and ideas for point of sale systems over the past 27 years and you can see them in most any restaurant you visit anywhere in the world.  If you haven't heard of me then that is only because I didn't become fabulously rich for having given the world what I did give to it and because I don't work for any organization - I'm self employed and don't have a PR department.  I did spend 15 years traveling the world to restaurant and computer shows to demonstrate my software to countless people, however, and ran clinics for many companies which freely copied my designs and ideas.  Now that touchscreens are moving into more general use, and into virtually every vertical market, I don't think there's any doubt that Linux should be leading this trend instead of being absent from it.  Can we turn this around and have Xfce lead users into the new world of touchscreens and touchscreen software?  I know how to use my software to quickly build software apps that make use of touchscreens.  I hope some of the Xfce developers share my interest in this and will consider making Xfce the premier touchscreen desktop and applications framework in the world.

Gene Mosher
ViewTouch
Eugene, Oregon
gene@viewtouch.com

PS: Because of X, everything is network transparent.  In a world where most people don't understand the value and usefulness of this, it is great surprise to them to discover its advantages.  If Xfce were not just a touchscreen desktop but also a network transparent touchscreen desktop then that would be even more exciting.  The touchscreen buttons can execute C, C++, as well as any script, or anything typed on a command line.