Is Compiz worth it?
 

I am using Slackware 12.1 and I have read I thread on Slackware and Compiz, stating that I would have to do all kinds of compiling, building, and configuring that I would have to do. I now ask the ulitmate question. Is it worth it? Is it worth installing, if I want stability and stuff like that.?

It is very cool to have, but I lost interest after awhile, so I disable it from starting at boot time. It does take some resources depending on how many effects you enabled.

Try a distro that has it preinstall, for example mandriva. You can run compiz from the mandriva live cd as well.

Is compiz worth it, only you can decide that...

- Cheers

thanks.. I think I will leave wut is already good, good. and later, dual boot ubuntu or sumthin...


Thanks!

I never even looked at it; I absolutely hate any distractions like "special effects" when windows go away and so on - I just want them to appear or disappear as quick as possible. I don't think there's much point in asking what other people think of it since everyone will have a different opinion; it's just one of those things that you have to try yourself.

I think Ill just tweak Fluxbox and be happy!!! I barely know how to compile CLI programs.... Ill just chill till later!! thanks anyway!

Not for me...I was interested at first, but when the light slowly began to glimmer and I realised that it only offered eye-candy and not usability inprovements, then my well-developed 'why bother?' response kicked in.

It doesn`t worth it... it`s fun to play with, but when you have work to do it`s irritating.

Debian

I've never tried it, but I should think that once the novelty's worn off it's useless eye-candy.

My wife is one of those people that think everything a computer does is magic. So if something happens that she doesn't expect it must be because something broke.

She hasn't figured out tabs in Firefox, so she typically has a dozen or so instances of FF on her desktop, then gets lost trying to find her way around. So she starts poking around the taskbar and finds herself on another desktop where she might have last weeks FF windows. Of course that means that she "lost" all of her work and will call me at work (usually when I'm in a meeting) to help her find everything.

I've tried to explain the concepts of the multiple desktops, but her understanding never took root until I installed compiz fusion with the rotating cube. Now that she can visualize where her screens go, she doesn't have to call me anymore. She still opens up many instances of FF, but at least she can find them wherever they are distributed around her cube.

Well, IMO, compiz is not worth it, it's not stable either. But, if you enjoy visual effects, try it out.

Have you tried using slackbuild scripts? These are scripts submitted by slackware users to compile and build a binary package. Once the package is built, you use the installpkg command to install the package. This is how it works.


Download the script and the package. Be aware that the script and the source will have the same name. The script will be like so name.tar.gz and the source, the package, will be name.xxx.tar.gz. The xxx is the version of the program.

Extract the compressed script file with
tar xvf name.tar.gz

Move the name.xxx.tar.gz source program to the directory of the extracted script file.

Optional: If you got the different version of package from the one
that on the script, you can easily edit the
*.Slackbuild file to change the version. Note that it
doesn't always work, but yes, most are working with no cry.

Change directory to the extracted script directory.
Run the script by typing ./name.Slackbuild
It will produce a file called name.tgz in the /tmp directory by default.

Install the package by typing installpkg /tmp/name.tgz

And you're done.

http://slackbuilds.org

ok thanks! I might try it... but have you tried it?

Compiz is cool for 5 minutes. Just like Windows Aero. Sure, you can bring it up and show off for some friends or whatever, but it's a novelty. It's not something that you're going to use because it has purpose.

Not completely useless. The enhanced zoom utility is invaluable for anyone who's eyes aren't what they used to be. My father thinks its the best thing ever invented.

I've used slackbuild scripts to build other packages in the past. But, I have not tried it with compiz.

Another benefit to slackbuild scripts is that if you ever need to reinstall slackware, you can reinstall the packages that slackbuild created. No need to compile again. Just backup the *.gz files and use installpkg to install them.

- Cheers

I've installed it from the Slackbuild scripts and as long as you follow the correct order, it goes smooth. Makes it easy to remove if you don't like it as well. Just be sure to also install Fusion Icon since it makes starting and managing Compiz a breeze.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised at how much I like and use some of the features in compiz. Probably the one I use the most is the Scale function, which shows all the windows on a desktop. That has been very helpful when I've gotten a lot of windows going. Frivolous? Probably, but some of what Compiz does is useful, and always draws comments from Windows users.

A matter of tastes, and also a matter on how each one conceptualizes the desktop.

As someone said above, things like a cube or a global view of your desktops will be useful for those that can't visualize the traditional multidesktop paradigms. For those belonging to the old school, compiz and similar things are mostly shinny annoyances.

I would like to see compositing on traditional window managers, but for cpu saving purposes. We should use the gpu to render graphics, that's what it is for. Traditional wm's are too bound to the cpu. About the effects... I don't care. I just want it to be opengl accelerated. Compiz is too limited for my tastes in which regards core functionality. But it might suit you.

If you don't want to bother yourself, you can always try a livecd or something.

You can also try a livecd for kde4. It has also some of this stuff, and the number of effects is growing with each version.

I installed Compiz and after using it for a few days and showing it to some friends I got rid of it. It was making my machine run a bit slower. It is up to you to see if it is worth the trouble.
OpenSuse 11.0 comes with the option to install compiz.

I've been running Beryl/Compiz for a year or so now on my main machine. I have some slower machines(old hardware) that can run it, but it's too much of a sacrifice in performance and I tend to run fluxbox or something similar. However, my main system is a gaming machine(much better/newer hardware) and the extra load that Compiz adds is unnoticable.

I'll agree that most of it is just eye candy, but that's part of what I like about it. If I'm going to sit there staring at something for hours on end, I'd like to stare at something appealing. After getting used to the cube concept, I really like it and I find that it helps me keep things a bit more organized. Some would argue that I could do the same thing with multiple desktops, but there are some things you just can't do without the cube. Being able to use the mouse scroll wheel to quickly rotate the cube is nice. Being able to see all my desktops at once is nice.

I just wanted to throw another perspective into the hat...

In my opinion, Compiz is usefull:
http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?s...dpost&p=492464

I do, however, tweak it alot. I am also very annoyed by any kind of time-taking “effect”. First thing I do is to reduce all effects timers, so that everything is just fast enough to appear instantaneous, but not too fast so I can still glimpse some feedback for my keyboard shortcuts.

Yves.

I'll agree with that 100%. One of the things that got me using Linux in the first place was the ability to customize things and make it mine. Compiz just adds another layer to that. Compiz may have a few kinks still, but I think it's great and really shows what can be done with a desktop...

I agree with the last couple of posts. I must admit on fedora 8 I had trouble with performance using Beryl (I have a 32 bit AMD Athlon 3200+ and a Nvidia 6800 series GPU). I moved over to Gentoo and installed Compiz-Fusion. It runs very smoothly now. I have been running this for a year now and is currently on compiz-fusion 0.7.6. I certainly haven't had any stability problems with it.

The cube is useful and in my view more intuitive way of having multiple desktops. Being able to set transparency can also be useful in some situations. There are some gimmicks of less value, like the rain and the wipers, windows that burn up when closed, etc. All of that is configurable to a very high degree (even the burning windows can burn quickly if you want them to).

If you have reasonable hardware, it is worth trying. You can always configure it not to get in your way when you are working, or of course let it get in your way if you like the little distractions...

Mons

well, Im running:

P4,512MB, 45GB, Nvidia GeForce 6200,.... I think I will wait until I upgrade maybe... I want to get the best out of Compiz-Fusion, and that may be the ticket. plus, by them, I should know enough about programming (C) to fix some problems, I guess thats how Ill look at it for right now. Besides, Im using Slackware 12.1 right now, and its goin good so far! Im just gonna master and tweak Fluxbox for now! lol!

I like it at first, but then all this eye candy stuff with things floating around and using ram (even if its minimal with linux) reminded me of another OS. I go for speed and efficiency and I personally don't find any interest in using compiz.

it is just fun eye candy .I turn it on when company over, to show off what an 8 year old computer can do . With my -old- Gforce 2 mx 400 card there is almost no system slowdown almost no extra ram is needed ( 25 to 50 meg sometimes)to run the desktop cube with "Atlantis"
plugin turned on .
Most of the time i just leave it off .

I know it's 98% fashion plate (but it DOES have some useful features, like window zoom, ADD helper, window grouping & tabbing, etc.) but it really is cool to look at.

Now, let's look at a very, very real purpose it has: Showing off. Yeah, you just probably giggled, but believe it or not, I've had more Windows users at my local coffee shop get so blown away by compiz they actually downloaded the Ubuntu live CD (that's the distro I recommend) so they could come into the linux world.

So, is it worth it?

- If you want to make your desktop a more interesting and beautiful place, yes it is.

- If you want some really cool features that are also very useful, yes it is.

- If you want to use a cool dock manager like AWN, yes it is.

- If you want to show off for people (for the hidden purpose of recruiting them) then yes, it absolutely positively IS worth it.

Compiz knocks the socks off people that have never seen it before, and suddenly they look at their own desktop with something close to disgust. That's the key opportunity to start talking up Linux, and explaining how so much better it is than Win or OSX.

It's just like the dating world! Yeah, looks aren't really important... it's who you are on the inside. Same is true for Operating Systems. But, like in the dating world, looks are always the first thing you notice and it's ALWAYS what attracts you at first.

Compiz doesn't take up THAT many resources... besides, do you really need 100% of your resources at all times? What, do you work at NASA or something? Shave a tiny bit of your resources off for the beauty and art that is Compiz.

And despite what some people here have said about the novelty of it, I've been using Compiz for quite some time and the novelty hasn't worn off for me yet. I still love watching the desktop cube spin. I still love moving windows from one screen to another in Expo. I still grin when I minimize a window and watch it fold itself into a paper airplane and fly down to the dock.

Let's face it, folks... desktops (any distro) are pretty boring looking when you first install. In fact, they're downright ugly. There's nothing wrong with making them easier on the eyes... for yourself and for others!

I use it for AWN and Screenlets(window list screenlet) on an Aspire One with 1.5Gb ram. It allowed me to free up screen space in a very visually pleasing manner which knocked the socks off Ubuntu netbook remix for usability. As for performance, it whizzes along and thats on a little atom processor.

Hey Aspire, how do you like that little kneetop? (That's what I call them) I was thinking about getting one, but I'm really not a big fan of solid state drives and I'd like the damn thing to last.

And Ubuntu Netbook remix runs OK on it?

I have the one with the 160Gb hard drive one, not the SSD. Netbook remix worked but it wasn't to my taste at all, using the compiz based programs provided a better solution for me. And yup, I think they are great little machines.

Pretty much everyone here has made good points, all from their own experience and perspective. Good stuff! :)

I've had a couple of people come to me with their new Vista installs and say "ooh, looky what Vista can do!", showing me their fancy glass menu fades. Then I show them my laptop and say "ooh, looky what Linux can do!"

Yeah, it's a little bit of a resource hog, and isn't exactly stable yet (I'd not use it on a server), but it's fun to play with and show off.

Thanks, Aspire! I'm definitely going to look into getting one of those this summer. Cool little things!

Slow: Yeah, Compiz puts Aero to complete shame. Aero doesn't even really DO anything, and it takes up 4 times the resources that compiz uses at full tilt. Like I said, I've wowed a LOT of people with Compiz. Almost always Windows users.

I find that Win users are very receptive to Linux; they are always happy to listen to my speech, eagerly watch the compiz demos, and sit there and say "wowwwww"... then they pelt me with questions, and 9/10 times I end up emailing a link to ubuntu.com

Mac users, on the other hand, have a stick up their ass about it. I think they're bitter... I don't know what their problem is, but they HATE being showed up by Linux on all fronts. They take personal offense to it. I can tell that they're burning with jealousy, but they try their best to conceal it. They just sit there and scowl a lot. heehee.

There's something ultra-satisfying about it all the same.

What I think you're getting is the crush effect. They see what appears to them to be a sweet OS with all the fixins and trimmins. But they don't immediately realize the implications of moving to Linux from Windows. They end up facing a learning curve, and many will ultimately return to Windows because the greener pasture was a bit hard to swallow.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure what that is. Probably a Mac following, just like Linux users who say they'll never use Windows or Mac. I've used OSX and find it pretty nice, if different. I've never witnessed a crash in OSX, and it seems to run pretty smooth. The systems are fitted out with just about any mainstream application type they can come up with, and are commercially supported. Apple seems to have a pretty solid (if not stolen) OS in place, and I don't particularly blame users for liking it for all its features.