Compiz – Taking Linux Beyond the Shell
What have you heard about Linux? An operating system which is hard to learn with a shell for typing complex commands? Anyway, Linux was popular to be popular among geeks for decades and the general users were left aside when it comes to Linux. But amazingly, there are increasing number of layman computer users converting themselves from Windows to Linux nowadays. Most of the honor for this new trend should go to a few new developments of the area of desktop visualization such as Compiz and Beryl.
Compiz and Beryl was first introduced obviously for competing with the eye candy of Windows and Apple Macintosh. But in several ways, Compiz was way leading than Windows and apparently some critics say that Windows Vista release was delayed in order to incorporate some of the competitive features Compiz had. Now Compiz consist of some of the most amazing 3D visualizations computing has ever offered while it continues to enhance the desktop effects and the usability. These graphics are similar to the 3D design technology often utilized by engineers and architects.
Compiz is a composite window manager for Linux which uses 3D graphics acceleration via OpenGL. It offers various graphical effects and usability features on any Linux desktop environment such as Xfce, Gnome and KDE. Same as most of other Linux based software, Compiz offers the facility for plug-in. You can add new graphical effects for your existing Compiz window manager by adding simple plug-ins. Unlike difficult software installation in Linux, these plug-ins are easy to install and configure. Sharing the most powerful feature of Linux and open source software, Compiz is supported by a large community so; you will find plenty of forums on the internet that shares knowledge on this.
Since Compiz is designed for high-end graphics, it carries few disadvantages for users with relatively old or different hardware. Compiz is more effective and successful with the most recent NVidia and ATI graphics cards. Therefore, there are a large number of users who do not have the luxury of experiencing this eye catching windowing system yet. It especially, does not fully support Intel chip based graphics cards. So, most of the laptop users are waiting for someone to hack Compiz code and make the eye candy available for them!
Works great on my W7 machine
I've used Compiz and something I really wish they'd started doing is stop copying windows and OS X. I get all those fancy effects are just for fun but a window manager has to be useful more than fun. Compiz should take the best of both windows and OS X and then grow from there.
Excellent desktop,
I've had no issues with my old GeoForce card (16mb I think - that was a lot back when I bought it
, Mike
Yes its true that Compiz works on Intel x3100 and nVidia 64mb but does it give you all the functionality it offers you? I used Compiz with Ubuntu 7.10 on an Intel 945GM card but I didn't get some of the key features. Just go to Compiz settings manager and try enabling its features one by one and you'll see how many of them work for you and how many will freeze your desktop! Anyways Compiz is a great step forward for desktop Linux.
My laptop with an Intel 945G runs compiz beautifully.
I have Compiz-Fusion running on a nVidia 64mb card (hardly high end) and it works beautifully!
It works great with most Intel chipset based laptops, I have a Thinkpad x60s and it works great. Also works great on the Asus EEPC see here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUr7U7H7l-s&feature=related
I have laptop with intel x3100 and compiz sometimes slow down (in my work I have to use a lot of windows(not m$ just window
)).
compiz runs very well on my laptop with intel x3100 !
It is actually not true that you need high end graphic cards in order to run Compiz. It will run beautifully even on older cards. I have a very simple basic Lenovo laptop with a very simple onboard graphic card and it runs perfectly smooth. Here I found an interesting clip as proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qddueXkD8E
So for most (laptop) users out there... just try it, it will most likely work.