Is the TNG LCARS close to any actual OS?

[Mark_Nguyen]

As a work of art contributing to the futuristic look of the show, arguably LCARS has little actual ergonomics behind the layout, for example in how it includes large areas on the screen with little apparent use, and has little apparent ability for text input (as is being discussed in another thread). We know that it was created to look futuristic - but does that mean it's believable from our point of view? Frankly - is the LCARS interface dated and irrelevant now that almost EVERYONE has a touchscreen they use daily? In 1987-2000, anyone who used a computer had a keyboard, monitor and eventually a mouse. But if Trek is to look suitably futuristic, should it have more than touchscreens everywhere?

We have Windows 8 officially out this month, and IMO its tile-based Modern UI is very relateable to the "look" of LCARS.

Then there's iOS and Android, sharing similar icon-based looks. LCARS doesn't really have that feature, although Android's widgets present information in a similar way

And the standard Windows and OSX desktops we all know, have arguably the least to related to TNG computer interfaces.

I know I'm missing Blackberry, WebOS (heh), and I'm sure some other UI types that are open-source or whatever. My question is - are any UIs closer to the LCARS style interface we see in Trek? Is there anything comparable?

</brain dump as a result of all the tablets and stuff revealed in the past week>

Mark

[DEWLine]

Ohhhh, but we're going to have fun arguing over principles of infographics...