I heard a while ago about the Korrora livecd, which had an OpenGL-accelerated X server boasting 3D effects similar to those enjoyed by Mac users. I tried the livecd and it did indeed work.

Lately I see that there is the Beryl project, which seems to do the same thing. Maybe it is a development of the same work. But it still seems to be in development/testing, and none of the distros are shipping it as standard yet.

I would have thought that with the release of Vista and its Aero interface that people would start clamouring for the same kind of experience on their Linux desktops. The Mac users may have had it a while, but once Windows users start having it too I'd expect Linux users not to want to be left behind.

I guess I was just wondering if anybody had any news or gossip on the state of the 3D Linux desktop? Like, any idea when major distros might start including it as standard?

Beryl is a part of Fedora Extras I believe, it is also going to be included in the next release of Ubuntu (From what I've read.)

Compiz is in Slackware -current

And then there's Sabayon Linux (wich is mostly Gentoo from what I can tell) They try to make Beryl the default Window Manager.

So I think Beryl/Compiz and OpenGL desktops are coming along quite nicely. I imagine it will be a very long time before these toys are set up as Defaults, I don't see much actual functionality from them. They make good toys though.

It is my understanding that Beryl/Compiz is going to be included in Ubunto 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). However, it will not be installed by default.

I am using Beryl 0.2.0 with Edgy and it is working great! There have been a few glitches, but nothing I couldn't correct with my limited knowledge.

I'm using Beryl/xgl on Slackware and it does provide some pretty nice eye candy.

Beryl/Compiz is also included in PCLinux2007 (currently in beta test release 3). It's not enabled by default, but it is installed and using it is just a matter of selecting "enable 3d desktop effects" in the control center options.

Thanks all. Nice to know what is going on.

eehh.....don't mean to hijack your thread here. Can anyone clarify for me (help me sort out) all of the Compiz/Beryl/XGL/OpenGL mumbojumbo? From what I understand, Compiz and Beryl are window managers replacing kwin or metacity. Are XGL and OpenGL interchangeable too? What is their purpose? And 3d graphics cards and drivers are required for these things?

Not much actual functionality? It's the best virtual desktop model I've seen, the window previews are incredible, and the expose/kompose-like functionality is amazing. Then, there are accessibility features, such as zoom and negative, which are equally good for GUI developers, graphic and web designers, CAD engineers, and handicapped folks.

Likewise, for developing documentation, the SEOM video capture plugin is a godsend.

The screenshot functionality beryl provides finally helps the PC catch up to MacOS (circa 1990) by placing PNG or JPG files on the desktop rather than just capturing to the clipboard.

Alpha blending (transparancy) and blurring for windows? it is actually quite practical if you are a power user who multitasks heavily; you can see other windows right through other inactive applications. I thought of it as just eye candy until I started working with it.

And then, to make your work day less boring, there are the themes. I love that I run a Vista lookalike, with 3D desktops that Windows Vista cannot come close to competing with, with MUCH faster performance than Vista, and without the craptacular DRM jerk fest that comes with Vista.

Basically Compiz/Beryl are compositing window managers. Unlike Metacity or Kwin (which are just window managers) they can composite textures such as transparency etc. XGL and AIGLX are the 3d accelerated servers that the window managers run on. XGL runs on top of the normal X server (a bit like Xnest I suppose) but this means that you can't run 3d accelerated programmes (games, google earth) while running XGL as X is already using it's 3d acceleration to run XGL. AIGLX is X with integrated "3dDesktop" so you can run 3d games etc, a bit like in Windows Vista with Aero. Of course AIGLX is the preferred server, but some cards (particularly those from ATI) only support XGL, so to run 3d games it's best to use Xgame. And yes, to run a 3d desktop manager like Beryl, you need a 3d accelerated dri driver!! I personally use XGL (because I have to with my ati card) with beryl, and absolutely love it, even the snow effects.

To go back to the original thread, the state of the 3d desktop on linux, if you're graphics card has DRI capability is amazing!! Mandriva for one supports it fully. AIGLX is included in Xorg now, so if have the correct drivers installed (check with glxinfo | grep direct), then install beryl, beryl-manager and you're ready to go!! Having just installed vista, I can confidently say that the 3d desktop on linux, is leaps and bounds ahead of windows!!

There is a lot of interesting development going on, that's for sure. Also, it seems that Beryl and Compiz will be re-merging soon, which should speed up the process a bit.

I don't know about any of the technical stuff but I discovered the "enable 3D" setting in Mandriva this morning. It is neat as all get out! It seems to work fine and this is a laptop with what I guess is standard on board video!

Hmm. Looks like I can forget about trying Beryl for the time being. I find it requires X.Org 7.1 or later (I get "beryl: error while loading shared libraries: libxcb-xlib.so.0" with 6.9.0), and apparently nobody has made packages for Slack for X.org 7.1, which I am really surprised to see. Bummer.