But didn't you just say that the GPU does all the work?????

Besides, the nvidia driver does all the heavy graphics work on machine.

What productivity? If there really is something I'm missing that will make my home use that much easier, then please tell us.

It should do most of it, but as I said it's not mature enough to be highly effective.


If you use a lot of virtual desktops and want to go the the nth one, isn't it easier to make them all show up side by side and click on the one you want ? In this view you can also get any window you want and move it on other virtual desktops as well, quickly and painlessly (and with a global view over what you are doing).

Another related case : let's say you have N windows opened on the same virtual desktop, it's HIGHLY ineffective to alt-tab until you get the one you want to highlight (unless it's one of the very last windows you have been using). Again, compiz can display all the windows currently opened on your desktop in a condensed and easy to pick way.
Furthermore, lets say you know the window you want to switch to isn't on the same virtual desktop, instead of moving to the right one (which take time, even if you remember which one it was...) and alt-tab your way up (or click on its name in the "bottom bar", painful if you have a lot of windows open, don't have this bar or this application have a generic name), you can simply do just the same and make all the windows from all the virtual desktops appear in front of you in a condensed way, and you just click on the one you want because even if you don't know its name or location you know how it looks like, and you can easily spot it.

That's just 2 of the basic improvements compiz can give you, and depending on your use there can be a lot more. If you don't use more than 3 virtual desktops and never open more than 4 or 5 windows, it may not be useful but you should recognize than in the other cases it can be really, really effective and painless in addition to be eye candy.
Also, notice that it will never (and simply can't) be less productive than what you are used to, as in the worst case scenario you will be able to do just the same as what you are used to.


Finally, even if I am not a mac OS fan personally, the fact is that it is praised by most IHM specialists as the best OS IHM-wise, and guess what ? compiz is similar in thought to the mac OS equivalent, with the customization in addition ! (so it's way better ;D)

I use Ctl + F1 to F5 to switch desktops, or the pager in my bottom XFCE panel. Alt+Tab and its variations work fine for me, and I can also select windows and drag between desktops in the pager. There are various other methods I can use when I want to. In short, I find the various conventional ways of handling desktops and windows to be more than adequate for my modest needs. These work on ANY computer that runs X. Compiz/Beryl/Compiz-Fusion does not.

^ but all these work with compiz too. I wasn't talking about was doable without it as it is doable with it too, but about the new methods introduced by compiz and the likes (which I find to be often more efficient).

I don't see the point of your last sentence btw. It's as if I said "paint" is better than photoshop because it is available on 100% pc with windows, while photoshop is not... see the problem ?

I don't use it all the time, because it doesn't yet support dual monitors of differing sizes. I have to disable one screen before turning it on. <grumbles>