[Novalug] NOVALUG Meeting Topic

DonJr djr1952@hotpop.com
Sun Mar 2 19:11:23 EST 2008


On Sun, 2008-03-02 at 17:34 -0500, Jay Hart wrote:
> Compiz anyone? (No, I'm not giving the talk, I'm taking notes)
> 
> Jay

What do you want to know about it?

Besides the simple:
  You have to have it installed if you want to install one of the
following packages:
   avant-window-navigator  -- A MacOS X like panel for Gnome
   gnome-compiz-manager    -- Gnome compiz manager, daa
   cairo-clock             -- A fancy clock display
   desktop-effects  -- preference applet for configuring desktop effects

It looks real nice with some very nice features, if you have a lot of
spare CPU cycles and a direct access video card.
  {-: Yes nvidia and intel 915G video cards both have the required level
driver support. :-}

The graphics effects when active look to me a lot like the effect of
using an early version of enlightenment as a replacement for metacity in
a Gnome or kwin in a KDE desktop. Real nice on the eyes but the overhead
of running a high depth/high resolution display really puts a strain on
the system resources.

I was impressed enough with the compiz(and friends) to leave it
installed for use during special occasions, but inactive by default.

Oh yeah, it has soft crashed my Gnome Desktop on more then one occasion
whenever I first activate it for a session. The "Gnome session saver"
tries to restart/reload the wrong set of applications and it takes a few
X-session restarts to get it to straighten out.
  {-: And it may EAT the keyboard/mouse control, so external access is
handy to reach in and reset the session. :-}

-- 
 DonJr





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