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139 Comments
- 3242130193, on 07/06/2008, -8/+88I love compiz - it's not just eye candy, it makes your workspace so much more efficient. example: I use application switcher to change between windows on the current desktop and ring switcher to change between windows on all desktops. It makes my life so much easier to navigate.
There are tons of other things that you can do with it too, I absolutely love it! - Kelmon, on 07/07/2008, -17/+50Don't get me wrong, I can see what makes Compiz Fusion exciting. What drives me nuts, however, is the insistence that what it can do today is great and that somehow Windows and OS X should be jealous. Compiz Fusion shows great promise but the implementations shown in the article are, with the exception of the Ring Switcher, frivolous eye candy with no real benefit. While rotating cubes are very exciting, they don't actually add anything useful except indicate that a change to another desktop has taken place. Dissolving window/menu animations, again, add nothing. Interestingly, the article makes mention of the OS X Genie minimize effect. Here's where Compiz Fusion needs to take note. While I am certain Compiz Fusion can generate a better effect than the Genie, the Genie serves a purpose by showing the user exactly where in the OS X Dock the window has been minimized to. This is form with a function. Any graphical effect that you introduce needs to do something useful that makes things make sense more. If the effect is just eye candy then, frankly, it's not useful and it shouldn't be there. The groundwork has clearly been laid to make Linux very attractive but now the developers needs to consider how to put that power to use to make computing on Linux easier for the end-users.
The article's author could also use a grammar checking application, although I suspect that English is not their first language. - Kral, on 07/07/2008, -1/+24Your rant is clueless - CUDA for GPU processing is /already/ available for Linux, and Intel's latest revisions of the GMA architecture support GPU processing, and Intel has Open Source drivers produced for Linux for the GMA architecture.
Secondly, making sure this stuff works on less powerful hardware is important. The Asus EEE PC 901 has a hardware accelerated 3D desktop in Linux because of this, but the Windows version of that device does not. All the mini-notebooks are stuck running XP because Vista has such poor backwards compatibility while Linux gets to shine in 3D on them.
As for the author's writing, how many languages do you speak? He took the time to translate something into a non-native tongue so you could read it. Don't be such a douche. - serenityflexed, on 07/06/2008, -2/+25Jesus, "compcomp"? I had no idea. I think I would rather have stuck to an outdated, and nicely named, Beryl with it's ruby icon.
Compiz Fusion rocks, all of it ... even the name. - snuggl, on 07/07/2008, -1/+23They aren't the same people really.. the conservatives still complain the same over compiz as they did over osX's GL-interface. (also, osX qualifies as a *nix product so your post doesn't even make sense)
- srg13, on 07/07/2008, -1/+16Not to mention that there are the accessibility plugins like the desktop zoom, negative, colour filter, ADD helper etc.
- platykurtic, on 07/07/2008, -1/+16I disagree that the desktop cube is useless. I've been using it for years, and I find that having a physical representation of where my windows are located helps me remember where they are. For example knowing that my media player sits on the left side of the cube is a lot more natural than remembering it's on desktop number 3 or whatever. It lets me tap into my spacial memory for that sort of thing. I actually use a six sided cuboid, since I like the extra space and I find the sharper angle of the cube too jarring when rotating
- wonderbriefs, on 07/07/2008, -6/+20Same feelings here. I mean, I'm in love with "the idea" of Linux. I've used it plenty, and Compiz Fusion was amazing. But I could only use Linux all the time if I was purely using it for office and internet. People try to claim that Linux has some form of software equivalent to anything you use in Windows, but it's mostly all really sub-par. Anyone who works professionally with Photoshop would never get the same functionality with Gimp. The same goes for Audacity over Sound Forge or Goldwave.
Give me a Linux distro that accurately supports Windows software and 3rd party hardware and then I'll be happy. - Kral, on 07/07/2008, -1/+15Audacity isn't meant to replace those apps, you want Ardour. If you want accurate support of Windows software, you want Windows. If you buy hardware that doesn't support Linux then complain it doesn't work on Linux, you want a clue.
Many of us already run the same apps on Windows as we do on Linux, so have no problem at all switching between the two, and get the benefit of higher performance and a much more user-friendly and productive desktop environment for free. Those of you still anchored to a particular Windows-only app will have to wait. - Philluminati, on 07/07/2008, -2/+14I've used Compiz Fusion since it first saw an article when I joined digg almost 2 years ago. (It was called Beryl then and had only just split from Compiz).
I'm now running 7.6 and the cylinder desktop is really nice. The curved expo and multiple desktop wallpapers are both great plugins as well.
Compiz Fusion Rocks! - p3ngwin, on 07/07/2008, -2/+14that's what i was thinking too.
OS X "and" *nix?
but they both have the same heritage you moro....... - jimmoses, on 07/07/2008, -1/+12The flashiness is all well and good, but I find that it gets in the way of other 3d apps - hogging video card resources and destroying the frame rates of programs like Stellarium, Celestia and so on.
- Ph34rb0t, on 07/07/2008, -3/+14You must be so proud.
- RadonPL, on 07/06/2008, -5/+16Nice article with screenshots of the major plugins in action.
My favourite plugin is still Cube Atlantis from CF 0.7.6 :) - polywaffle, on 07/07/2008, -2/+12wow really?! thanks for telling me..i completely forgot about that *rolleyes*
- srg13, on 07/07/2008, -0/+10It was actually CompComm (for compiz community or something). It was never intended to be permanent though - just a temporary name to call the reunited project until they had a real name (which ended up being Compiz Fusion)
- paidhima, on 07/07/2008, -0/+10Wait, don't tell me: you're the Windows 95 guy?
- inactive, on 07/07/2008, -2/+11It's obvious that you haven't used Compiz as your desktop for a while. Before I tried it, I thought the same thing. But afterwards you learn that it is more than eye candy. I can't work without the cube plugin any more. It gives me so much more room to organized and allows me to switch tasks so quickly that I won't even go back to the old way.
- innovati, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9yeah, I'm here on OS X and I don't have that level of 3D desktop experience, so I don't know what this guy was referring to… Fusion looks amazing!
- snuggl, on 07/07/2008, -1/+10Is that something like the "Minimize"-plugin that shows exactly where your minimized windows goes on the dock/panel?
He only shows off the eye-candy stuff in the article, most plugins in compizfusion are not in that category but actually very helpful, f/e i use the desktop zoom daily to get fullscreen flash/web-movie clips - Induane, on 07/07/2008, -0/+9???
- sloppychris, on 07/07/2008, -4/+13It's a chicken / egg thing. People won't switch until vendors release linux versions, and vendors won't develop for linux until people switch. All I can say is the stability, ease of use (yeah I said it), control, security, and everything else make it worth learning new software.
Plus I use Photoshop CS2 in wine, and have a Wii to play games. - salmonmoose, on 07/07/2008, -1/+10Running Compiz/Aero IS faster, as they hand off work to the usually quite idle GPU/Video RAM freeing up the CPU/System RAM for more important tasks - if you haven't gathered that yet, you should be paying more attention.
If you don't understand why multiple desktops are useful, you've likely never used them - code on one desktop, firefox on another, or perhaps porn on one desktop, spreadsheet on another... take your pick. I opt for the Desk-wall personally as it lets me watch a bunch of tasks at once.
But that's the point really, you can do what you like. Some people want a flashy desktop, others want a snappy one, Compiz lets you do both. - RetepNamenots, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8But with Linux / Compiz they're still optional tools..?
- darkharmonics, on 07/07/2008, -2/+10More efficient code is a good thing, but the point of all those wasted cycles is that robots are not using the computers; people are. I find most of the effects pleasing to the eye and functional (My desktop is powerful enough that i dont have any slowdowns).
On my older systems i do leave it off because, as you stated, it makes things slow. Maybe not like a turtle, but i like a fast responsive desktop. If it cant produce these effects without very little disturbance to my experience, then it is not enhancing my desktop experience at all.
I do have to disagree that it is a waste of time though. Very nice and you can turn off the wobbly windows lol. - tf5bassist, on 07/07/2008, -0/+8I'm on day three of my brand new Ubuntu Hardy install, and I'm looooving it. I'd already found Compiz Fuzion before seeing this, but this util is helping me with my workflow so much, having easy ways to switch desktops, move windows from desktop to desktop, and replicate the OS X features I depended on so much for so long (hot corners for Expose, Dashboard, and Show Desktop, just for starters) with seamless integration is making me insanely happy. It was lame coming home from work and trying to throw the mouse into a hotcorner to pull up Expose on WinXP. Nothing happens heh.
CF is great, but eye-candy aside, it's insanely useful. I spent nearly half a day tweaking and hotkey binding everything to my liking. Now this new (to me) OS feels much less foreign. - cawpin, on 07/07/2008, -2/+9"lambasted the usability / productivity increases, or the hardware requirements."
Have you SEEN the HW requirements to use Vista'a eye candy? Compiz Fusion runs fine and dandy on a P3 500 with a 4 year old 128MB NVidia card. - Jareth86, on 07/07/2008, -3/+10"Compiz Fusion" you say? "Ubuntu", was it? Never heard of them. Dugg up for awareness.
- dcherryholmes, on 07/07/2008, -1/+8For all the people bitching about the author's English: I suggest you go crank out a 1000 word essay in a second language and then come back and criticize. I'm sure there are readers who can do it, but I doubt they are the ones playing grammar cop.
- Icecream, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7"Linux/Compiz on the other hand... seems to be going for 'hey look at me I can do everything you can do plus a bunch of pointless crap..." Blah.
Try it for yourself and you see if Alt-Tab still cuts it for you. - Myztry, on 07/07/2008, -1/+8Stick Windows inside Virtual Box then you have the best of both worlds.
- eThikas, on 07/07/2008, -0/+7Mirror, anyone?
- Kelmon, on 07/07/2008, -1/+7I'm glad I buried the article then. What you describe is, indeed, the sort of thing that I want to see, not the useless stuff that the author decided to show. If there are useful plug-ins for Compiz Fusion then the author did both the project, and Linux in general, a disservice.
- FireSlash, on 07/07/2008, -7/+13Yes, compiz looks good, ok; can I go home now?
- inactive, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6expose isn't some "recomposition of some images".
I'm not aware of any "recomposition of some images" that allows me to view playing video and other windows with constantly changing content like im ALL while viewing all of your virtual desktops.
did I also forget to mention that the virtual desktops are fully functional while in expose AND spaces (virtual desktop app).
functional features that rely on hardware acceleration, not some"recomposition of some images" - Kelmon, on 07/07/2008, -4/+10While I have posted a comment where I am not complimentary of the current state of Compiz Fusion, I will say that the example of its use that you describe is a good use of its power. There's no denying that there is a lot of power in Compiz Fusion but the plug-in developers need to get away from the eye candy and figure out more ways to make desktop computing under Linux easier to understand.
- innovati, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6when you deal with linux you're dealing with a global audience because it's very popular outside of north america. Be thankful he translated it into english for you.
I routinely talk to Finnish, Swedish, German, Afrikaans, French, Spanish and Portuguese people, all in english, and I'm glad they know it because I couldn't laern all of those. - mrtrevin, on 07/07/2008, -0/+6Did anyone else just waste an hour playing with their compiz fusion settings?
- greedz, on 07/07/2008, -1/+7you're a bit stupid if you think linux means flashy effects :)
- specialK16, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5I would say that Ubuntu comes with some sort of "lite" version of compiz. To enable all the fancy crap and to be able to customize it you need to install additional software.
- trollick, on 07/07/2008, -1/+6I'm also digging you down for being a dochebag who assumes that it's somehow a flaw if english is not your native language.
- dcherryholmes, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5Photoshop works flawlessly for me under wine. I think 7.0 was the last version I installed, so I can't speak to newer versions. Also, since you like Windows and obviously don't mind paying for software, Crossover Office is a measly $30 or so, and polishes wine a bit further with better compatibility and a nice GUI for point-and-click install of a big list of windows apps (iTunes, Office, Maya, Photoshop, etc). I'm sure there are still many applications out there that don't run well under wine, but if you really did like linux and it's just a few critical apps holding you back, it's worth checking out. You can download a fully featured trial version and use it for a month or so to see if you like it.
- iplen, on 07/07/2008, -0/+5no, you may not.
- prammy, on 07/07/2008, -3/+7Some people like the eye candy for the reason that it is eye candy.
Compiz has many plugins which allow it to be customizable. I have my preferred set of plugins which actually make me _more_ productive.
And no I don't have the rotating cube enabled. - Myztry, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4Off course they could. They have the resources. Unfortunately, such features are reserved for selling new versions of products. Eye Candy (especially of the Aero variety) may be in fact fairly uselss, but a lot of people pay money to be drip fed such things.
It may be a reflection on the consumer, but Aero is probrably the largest selling point of Vista. - jsully, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5To be fair, 3d acceleration works properly in applications even when using Aero. In order to play Urban Terror I need to switch back to Metacity first. I also get flickering and ~500fps in glxgears with Compiz enabled, instead of the smooth 2200 fps when Compiz is disabled.
- Rozza, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5...and igby goes down
- innovati, on 07/07/2008, -0/+4I think the unsung hero of usability here is really window tabbing and grouping. Yup, it's no eye-candy and nobody in the comments even mentioned it yet.
I would KILL to have window grouping and definable behaviours here on mac. I used to have it back in Enlightenment E16 and I rocked and no other WM has ever come close to what I had there. - m60dude5, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5no, he's still using DOS
- digginamish, on 07/07/2008, -1/+5Seriously, the guy took the time to write the article, so give him some credit; he wrote the article in English because that is probably the key language of his target audience, but it's not a grammar essay or a treatise on English.
Did you volunteer to edit the article for him? -
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