What If All Software Was Open Source? A Code to Unlock the Desktop

What if all software was open source? Anybody would then be able to add custom features to Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, Apple iTunes or any other program. A University of Washington project may make this possible.

“Microsoft and Apple aren’t going to open up all their stuff. But they all create programs that put pixels on the screen. And if we can modify those pixels, then we can change the program’s apparent behavior,” said James Fogarty, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering.

His approach hijacks the display to customize the user’s interaction with the program. He will demonstrate his system April 14 in Atlanta at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

“We really see this as a first step toward a scenario where anybody can modify any application,” Fogarty said. “In a sense, this has happened online. You’ve got this mash-up culture on the Web because everybody can see the HTML. But that hasn’t been possible on the desktop.” Continue reading

Hola! Looking for an answer to a question but did not find it? Then surf on over to the Questions & Answers section. It's a brand new addition to our site, and we are waiting just to answer your question(s).