As I have a lot of time on my hands being laid up with a back injury I decided to try and play around with xgl and Beryl.

I installed them on my Slack laptop and I must say it's some pretty cool eye candy and does have some handy navigation features that I really like.

It also doesn't suck up a lot of resources as I feared it would. Well worth installing just for the coolness factor if nothing else.

What is the purpose of Beryl? and is it ok to use it in conjunction with XGL? or is it an alternative to using XGL?

... assuming you have a gl-enabled video card. How can you tell it doesn't suck up resources like a sponge ?

Beryl is a fork of Compiz. It does a few things more than Compiz but otherwise is similar.

Very easily. Compare cpu and memory usage with and without it. Very little difference.

Beryl is a window manager than runs with xgl.

Ok, what does it do exactly?

I have noticed that not only has my CPU/RAM usage not gone up with Beryl, it appears to have gone down since I have started using it.

I can also notice a pronounced increase in responsiveness compared to the more traditional software-rendered WM. Even if the CPU is grinding at 100%, moving windows around is just as fluid as if the machine was sitting idle.

It is really one of the most revolutionary pieces of software I have used on a desktop computer in the last few years. Linux itself was the last piece of software that I used and had the same feeling of "Wow, this could really turn out to be big". It isn't just about the flashy effects (though certainly that draws you in initially), but also the practical applications like tabbing or the various methods of selecting running applications.

Personally, from this point on I know I will never use anything but hardware accelerated desktops, system performance permitting.

@mansonm

Was your laptop a strict Slackware 11 or are you running current? Also, I'd appreciate any useful links/hints you could point out. I've been thinking of taking the Beryl plunge, but just haven't had the time yet.

It provides a 3D desktop and visual effects. Basically eye candy. Go to their site if you want to learn about it.

http://www.beryl-project.org/

Thanks for the link

Hi all

If anyone wants to try it they can download Mandriva One Metisse, or they can find it in the April 2007 edition of Linux Format LXFDVD91, it is a live cd version and is pretty cool.

Samac

Ok, CPU usage ... but what about GPU usage ?

What about it?

Well using and not using Beryl doesn't make any negligible difference on my system, but using it really bumps up the responsive on my system and it is good eye-candy too. It is a great piece of software. There is also talk of Beryl and Compiz merging on the Beryl forums.

Smooth as butter