LCARS Desktop Environment What is LCARS Desktop Environment? LCARS Desktop Environment or short lcarsde is an open source desktop environment for Linux systems. The main goal for this project is to create a desktop experience that looks somewhat like a LCARS interface.
The desktop environment consists of a window manager that is based on Xlib as well as a set of tool applications, which are a menu of active open applications, the status bar, a program selection and an application for logout, shutdown, etc.
It was also designed at a time when most of the population had never used a GUI on a computer. The show debuted in 1987, so the pre-filming work would have been happening a year or two before that.
Think about what the few graphical desktops on computers looked like in the mid 1980s… then recall that most people did not have a computer at home, and only used one at work if at all.
I’m not defending LCARs or anything - I am just trying to imagine what it would have been like to be a graphic designer in 1985, and someone comes up to you and says “We want you to make us what computer interfaces will look like in the 24th century.”
In terms of interfaces we see on Star Trek, I think the, mostly touch, interfaces we see in the TMP movies (the movies with the original series cast, for the non-Trek fans reading this) appear to be MUCH more practical.