Compiz can quickly get you the desktop you deserve: a desktop with a very high degree of customizability, on top of being faster than the default GNOME Shell, and (as far as I can tell) faster than Mac or Windows.
The best part is that it takes no time at all to get up and running! I’ll show you how to transform Ubuntu into a desktop that is functionally similar to Mac.
I doubt any of this is news to many OSAlert readers, but it’s still a nice introduction into the functionality offered by Compiz.
Some days a flick of a cube or a wobbly window is the only thing getting me through the day. I realise many bemoan the overhead, but productivity comes from more than just clock speed, threads and processor load.
Day after day the machines tick along, predictably, often boringly, humans are the biggest variable.
Compiz and it’s bit of sometimes mindless bling gives us something to stay interested!
Edited 2018-12-13 05:47 UTC
“overhead” even a Radeon 7000 can render basic cube + wobbly windows.
Might be nice if there were settings for Immediate/Snappy/Smooth/Slow/OMG level’s of animation instead of having to tune everything. That said, I also dislike not being able to tune specific things when I do want to.
Edited 2018-12-14 14:51 UTC
Compiz had serious fame by the Time it was New to desktop computing.
I seriously think any game dev studio put a small effort on UI FX and have Really Good Looking results.
Nowadays GUI are barely used ans replaced by custom UI and graphics effects.
Its Been more than a decade since Compiz was out for any linux distro.
Whats next ??
You want bling? Enlightenment desktop + compiz.
I’ve been using Compiz for years, ever since it was first introduced on AIGLX back in the day. I admit, some of the effects were over the top but some of the more subtle effects really dressed up the Gnome 2.x and KDE 3.x of the day. Recently I switched back to KDE plasma and was pleased to find many of Compiz effects baked into Kwin.
I prefer the security of wayland. I don’t think I can go back, whatever the merits.
I realise this will be heresy to some, but for a few years now I’ve been using Linux Mint Mate with Compiz enabled to bridge the learning curve when trying to get staff across to Linux platforms. I was gaining ground when the security issues that hit really put the boots into my efforts, you know because those in the know tell me MacOS doesn’t get viruses or trojans!
As a business in the way we managed implementations and releases we were never at any real risk, but it gave some people the excuse to push back, those who fear change jumped on that train!
Edited 2018-12-14 00:16 UTC
Hm? I must have missed the news…
I have no idea what he’s talking about either.
Something about a migration from Mac? or Windows? to linux was stopped or sped up due to a bug being found in linux, windows or mac?
W8, so about what were you talking?
I remember windows “burning down” when minimized. Useful? No. Entertaining? Yes.
I only used that animation on window close… made more sense there.
I was hoping it was tweaked to allow replacing mutter within Gnome-shell. I really like Gnome-shell, but also want wobbly windows and them burning up.
Doesn’t seem to be a way to currently do this, and instead have to use the gnome-flashback and that breaks the activities overview. Also, after using Gnome-shell for so long, going back to a normal menu based system with categories just seems archaic, and I used to be one who absolutely loved that Gnome/KDE had the .desktop files to put them under the right menu category, something that Windows sorely lacks.
Being able to hit a single key, type a descriptor / name and then hit enter is just too useful to lose for some shiny effects.
so – I’ve been following Linux and its attempts at a desktops Ince about 1995
in that time I have seen huge displays of technical prowess and coding skills
i have seen huge amounts of configurability and huge amounts of simplification
i have seen a wide range of approaches from windows-clones to retro-celebrations to keyboard driven borderless window managers ..
but
what i have never seen is anyone take a user-centric approach, define who their target users are, do user research, understand those users and their context and lives, build key user stories that actually help those users meet their needs efficiently and pleasantly, and then test, iterate, test, iterate …
.. and show. this working publicly
(I’m not saying I could do it – the thought first occurred when trying to use a recent libreoffice)
Pretty sure some of the Gnome guys have done this and same with KDE. Hell, if you look at how KDE was looking about a year before anything of Windows 7 showed, you could see how similar they are.
Pretty sure there haven’t been many of these, not to mention Windows or Mac. Honestly I don’t see how the Linux desktop(s) are any less usable than either of these two. They may be different, but they are easy enough to learn these days.
The ‘true’ ‘year of the linux desktop’ will only come if the OEMs can stop being bullied my microsoft and give clearer indications that a system can be ordered pre-installed with Linux.
OEMs have not been bullied by MS to install windows since mid-last decade.
It’s not 1999 anymore.
They don’t have to bully people into it.
It’s the industry standard now.
Fairly certain their tactics are similar still (discounts for OEMs that just use Windows).
It’s 2018… Are we really still blaming Microsoft for the failure of the Linux desktop? Are you really trying to pin it on people not being able to buy computers with Linux pre-installed? You do realize that countless users at the less-capable end of the spectrum manage to (re)install Windows successfully, yet you don’t think they can do it with a much easier & quicker Linux install?
Under the hood, things have gotten better. But, as others have already pointed out, the Linux desktop can’t seem to decide who it’s for. Once they figure out what *the average/typical Windows user likes/needs/wants*, and they figure out how to provide that in a clear & consistent way, they might get someones attention. Standing against the wall with your head down blaming Microsoft is no excuse at this point, and hasn’t been for a while.
Question is does one really want the attention of these people?
Answer in most instances is no.
How will the Linux desktop *ever* become a thing without convincing Windows users, who are the vast majority, to switch? The Linux desktop will never be anything if it can’t figure out how to lure a portion of Windows users away from Windows.
So let’s ask your question again — Does one really want the attention of these people (aka Windows users)? The answer is hell yes if you ever want to be a successful desktop.
Nobody creates a desktop with the hopes that hardly anyone will use it. Today’s Windows users are potentially tomorrows Linux users so you may want to think twice before shitting on them.
Edited 2018-12-16 20:55 UTC
Most of the people you’re thinking about are not even aware of the choice of using Linux.
If someone could walk into a Best Buy or a Wal-mart or whatever and see Linux / Mac / Windows systems sitting side by side, they could have an actual choice in what to buy based on what they SEE.
As it is, even if the stores do carry both like Best Buy, they’re in different sections. People who want to buy Macs will buy Macs, people who want to run Linux have to research out several vendors, or specific models online, or just go buy whatever Windows laptop and hope the wifi and other bits all work.
This pretty much hasn’t changed much in the last 15 years, except there are a few more dedicated pre-installed system OEMs that provide a choice, but the big ones (Dell and Lenovo) still require you to look at particular models or even pages.
It’s true many Windows users aren’t aware of options outside of “Windows or Mac”, but by the same token far more average users are aware of Linux today than ever before. It’s not uncommon to find someone who has at least heard of Linux today whereas in years past if you asked if they know what it is, their answer would be “huh?”
Some people think your suggestion, stores putting Linux side-by-side with Windows is the missing magic to make the Linux desktop popular. I think that’s a horrible idea, at least until the LD has an identity and is as polished as Windows appears to be.
Whether (Linux) people like it or not, the Linux Desktop will never be anything more than it is now if it can’t figure out how to peel Windows users away from Windows. And, simply placing it next to Windows in stores isn’t near enough to accomplish that. The absolute first thing that needs to happen is stop playing the blame-Microsoft game. The LD can’t finger-point it’s way to success. The LD needs to focus on what it isn’t for typical users and address that so it has a solid comparable offering.
Isn’t ChromeOS that serious Linux attempt? (though who knows if it will remain Linux, with Fuchsia looming…)
They and you have your desktop where you can run your shitty 1st person shooters and Steam games. It’s called Windows. So the hell with them and the hell with you.
Sun spent money with usability tests and that effort went into Gnome 2. Then Gnome 3 throw all that work to the trash bin.
Sad isn’t it. At least there is Mate.
Edited 2018-12-16 16:56 UTC
I can certainly see your point with regards to the myriad directions open source seems to take in coming up with solutions for Linux. The choices can be dizzying for someone new to Linux and open source. But isn’t that the point? Linux, for example, currently has myriad desktop environments for all types of users. KDE, Gnome, MATE, LXde, XFce, Pantheon, Deepin, etc. They run the gamut from super advanced and configurable to simple and minimalistic. I personally like all of the choices because unlike Windows or macOS I can choose what I want and then after that, I can customize it to my heart’s content. Linux distributions are so powerful because they don’t have a one size fits all mentality. It has many sizes to suit each user’s needs and each distribution has an enthusiastic and thriving community to embrace those needs. Underneath it all though the Linux kernel quietly purrs away. Even Microsoft is embracing Linux more and more with each new Windows release. Microsoft knows that open source tools are valued, useful and powerful. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Microsoft will be releasing its own Linux distribution one day soon. That would indeed herald the year of the Linux desktop!
Or they just buy Ubuntu
Every time I try one of the newer DEs, I am confused by the effort. Most seem like they are just modified Gnome-shell DEs. Like Unity was a hacked together effort over Gnome-Shell’s libraries.
Well, thing is, when you have a lot to choose from and lots of ways to customize, fulfilling your needs usually boils down to putting some effort into finding the proper one the make it fits your needs. I know, it’s not fitting the average-user profile – it might not even fit the enterprise-user profile -, however, we’ve also seen efforts to dumb down everything targeting the average-user thus making it almost unusable for the rest. I’ll take lots of choices any day over properly researched, but limited functionality and over-bling versions.
My need is to have an UI that has every functionality (this also goes for the disp srv, which means no wayland), is fully customizable, but also gets out of the way as much as possible. Thankfully, I have found one, and I’m pretty satisfied with it (not going to name it on purpose:)
Regarding the original topic (compiz) well, it was and it is good to have it around, the “little known” part feels a tad weird to me though.
This was literally what SUN did with the SUN Java Desktop. They paid $100 million for UX research which they turned over to the GNOME project. The result was GNOME 2.0 Which was a wonderful desktop environment. The MATE Desktop continues building upon that solid base. About the only thing I would change in GNOME is making GTK Useful for C++ programmers by making it possible to autoconnect UIs designed in Glade to signal handlers to get rid of tons of boiler plate code in C++ GTK applications.
Really misleading article. Compiz is a window manager, it replaces Mutter, the default window manager of Gnome 3. And for the Gnome Shell, he author replaced it with Gnome Flashback. So you can’t say Compiz is faster than Gnome Shell, as one is not the replacement for the other.
Compiz does not work on Gnome 3 with Gnome Shell. It does work somewhat in Fallback mode but even that is limited.
Still, the replacement for Gnome Shell is Gnome Flashback, not Compiz.
Me, I am running MATE with Marco, changing to MATE with Compiz is a single click, but I don’t bother, as I see no benefit.
Je doute que cela soit une nouvelle pour beaucoup de lecteurs d^aEURTMOSAlert, mais c^aEURTMest toujours une bonne introduction aux fonctionnalit~A(c)s offertes par Compiz.
Je doute que cela soit maintenant pour beaucoup de lecteurs d’OSNouvelles, mais c’est toujours une bonne introduction aux fonctionnalit~A(c)s offertes par Compiz.
https://downloader.vip/torrent-sites/ https://downloader.vip/turbotax/https://downloader.vip/gogoanime/
I had a hard time grasping virtual desktops until the cube, that gave me a perfect representation of the desktops, I loved it and I miss it to this day.
KWin has it built in, still.