I know some of you don’t know what XGL and Compiz are, so I’ll explain first.
XGL is a system for Linux where the objects on the desktop are drawn by the computer’s 3D graphics card, rather than the computer’s CPU. This means, in theory, that the CPU has more power available to it. (or does the overhead of running a bigger program negate the saving?)
Compiz is a window manager. A window manager maintains the windows on screen and draws the title bars and things. The reason why Compiz is so good is because it can create amazing special effects on your desktop, as long as you’ve got XGL installed.
Words can’t really explain the effects, so do a search for "Compiz" or "wobbly windows" and you’ll find plenty of pictures and videos and things. Basically, whenever you move a window, it stretches and deforms as you move it. Windows have a drop-shadow, and they become semi-transparent when in the background. When they minimise, they zoom away into the background.
Apart from "wobbly windows", Compiz is famous for drawing the user’s virtual desktops onto the faces of a cube. You can switch from one desktop to another by Control-Alt-dragging. Cool effect.
I tried installing XGL and Compiz back when I first upgraded to Ubuntu 6.06, but it didn’t work. I decided to try again today, and what do you know, the instructions have now changed, and I got it working!
I now have KDE as well, so I set up KDE with Compiz too! Naturally, there are a few bugs. Shutting down XGL/KDE kills the X server. Using the launchers in XGL/Gnome causes visual artifacts. It seems that you can’t run two DEs at the same time when on XGL.
Compiz’s special effects are better than those which will be in Windows Vista. XGL and Compiz are free to use and only require 256 megs of RAM. Vista will be expensive, and the effects in Vista will require 1 gig (plus 128 megs of dedicated graphics card memory)!
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