Compiz Fusion on Linux has definitely received a lot of attention because of their innovative thinking, and the latest thing to come out of their lab is a plugin called Stackswitch. To put it simply it is an application switcher, but it comes packed with pizzazz. Once it’s activated it angles all of your windows so that it appears as though they are laying flat on a table that’s sitting in front of you, and the window you currently have selected stands up straight to draw more attention. Some aspects are also configurable, such as the angle at which the windows lie down.
As you might recall Compiz Fusion has already cloned Vista’s Flip-3D and Mac OS X’s Expose features. The Flip-3D feature is called Shift (video demo), and the Expose clone is called Scale (video demo). Stackswitch has its benefits over both because all of the windows are visible at the same time, and it’s more compact.
There’s one thing that I’m dying to know though… is this something you would actually use, or is it merely one of those things that you show off to your friends? Personally the thing that I still find myself using the most for switching between applications is Alt+Tab (or Command+Tab on a Mac). Take a look at this video demonstration of the new Stackswitch, and let us know whether you would ever use something like this:
Stackswitch Announcement [via FusionCast & Digg]
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Tags: Newly Released, Software, Applications, Features, Linux, Plugins, Videos
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That new plug-in sure looks nice. But I think it’s just used to show-off to friends as I find Alt + Tab much faster. I mean, I would like to have that on my Windows Vista to show off…but Flip 3-D seems to get a “cool” offa my friends.
But, to choose Aero or Compiz Fusion, I would chose Compiz.
From the second paragraph: “As you might recall Compiz Fusion has already cloned Vista’s Flip-3D…”
Really?? Which came first, Flip-3D or the Compiz Fusion version?
Hi Ryan
You’re quite right that Alt Tab is very quick for switching between windows. I think Windows and Mac OS X got this wrong, in that they have one way of switching between recent windows quickly (Alt Tab on Windows, Command Tab and Command ` on Mac OS X), and then a separate mechanism to get the flashy interface. (Actually on Mac OS X it’s even worse, because over the years they’ve accumulated half a dozen different ways to switch between windows and applications.)
So what I’m trying to do with this design is have a single mechanism for switching tasks, with a consistent interface. If you pressed Alt Tab quickly, it would switch to the next-most-recent window with no fuss; but if you kept holding down Alt, the switcher would appear so you could select other windows. This detail isn’t implemented in the current version of the stackswitch plugin, though.
The stackswitch actually seems to get it right in that you see all your windows at once. I think I would use it–unlike the flip 3D clone which I used a few times until it coolness wore off.
I didn’t say that Compiz Fusion cloned Aero… I was meaning that Compiz Fusion created a plug-in that clones Vista’s Flip-3D feature. That came well after Microsoft demoed Flip-3D.
I like the idea of having this serve as an Alt+Tab replacement if the key combination is pressed quickly. That would help alleviate some of the problems I was talking about. One thing that Alt+Tab still does to make identifying windows a quick process is include the application’s icon. Sometimes it’s difficult from small previews to tell what’s your feed reader and what’s your email application without hovering over them, and so I think an icon needs to be placed in the corner to get around that problem. I look forward to seeing what else will come out of Stackswitch!
This is definitely more useful than Flip-3D in my opinion, but the question is whether it can grab the attention of those that enjoy the simplicity of Alt+Tab.