Compiz Fusion is quickly becoming an important part of many Linux distributions, and I don’t think that anyone would argue that the cube effect for switching between desktops is one of the most hyped features. Well, the cube could very well be on its way to retirement thanks to the cylinder effect that was just added.
As seen in the screenshot above the cylinder effect provides a pretty sweet looking way to switch between each of your virtual desktops. The thing that I’m left wondering is whether Compiz Fusion is becoming a little overwhelming? There’s just so much that you can do, and so many different effects that I fear it could be verging on bloated. Maybe I’m wrong, but the last time I actually used Compiz Fusion there were so many features and settings that it was intimidating. But I guess power users want the ability to control every aspect of features like this.
What do you think of Compiz Fusion? For those of you running Linux: is Compiz Fusion something you use often, or do you only have it to show off to your friends? Personally I fall into that latter category, which is disappointing since it took some extra work for me to get it functional in Ubuntu.
I’ve embedded a video below of the new cylinder effect in action. The video starts out demonstrating the cube, and then moves into the cylinder after about 1 minute and 45 seconds:
Compiz Fusion [via Digg]
I think that Compiz-Fusion is getting out of hand. It does have too many features and it is becoming unwieldy. The biggest problem I have with it is it’s lack of default features (the Beryl default features were great – no fuss). And the other really big problem I have with Compiz is the control panel… it’s just stupid. It’s difficult to navigate and understand what you’re turning on, what you’re turning off, and what the parameters really mean. I think they need to scrap the Compiz Control Panel and start all over again.
That’s about where my thoughts are with the project as well. The Control Panel has really become hard to understand, and I think that some of the options they offer are better left to those who want to mess with the terminal/command line. There are just too many things in the Control Panel, and many of the names associated with the options aren’t very descriptive as to what they do.
I don’t have problem with lots of plugins and lots of options. It’s important to keep pushing the boundaries of visual effects, then merging them into the main release as they become stable.
I think the problem is with the manager. For example, at the moment Ubuntu offers only basic visual effects controls (none, basic & ‘eyecandy’), unless you want to use the full CCSM panel.
What we need is something in-between: a manager that offers a smaller range of useful plugins with sensible defaults, and most of their options hidden behind ‘advance’ buttons. That would satisfy the needs of intermediate users, while also giving people an easy ‘way in’ to learning the full manager.
Something else I’d like to see is separately packaged plugins. So you could browse the Compiz Fusion site, download a plugin you liked the look of, and the open up your Intermediate Manager panel and click ‘Import Plugin’. That way people could expand on the basic range of plugins with things they liked, without being overwhelmed by choice.
Personally, I have no problem with having numerous option in Compiz Fusion, but I do think the control panel needs to be redesigned allowing for a basic default setup and an advanced group of options separately, similar to what Oropher previously stated.
raindog
It’s getting to become a joke. A total wankfest. Having a set of default effects on an OS is a great thing, in my opinion, and the Compiz effects are probably the best-looking effects on any of the OSes. But all this spinning cube and cylinder crap is just laughable. I mean, c’mon: who really thinks the spinning cube thing is useful in the daily grind of getting work done? It makes Compiz look like Price Fisher.
But then most bundled Linux apps are full-featured which some may call bloated. Konqueror for instance is so so bloated.
That would be a perfect solution, and hopefully a middle ground will be developed for users that want the eye candy but not all of the confusion.
I would agree that some of the Compiz effects are the best out of the other operating systems as well. But I’ve only found a few of them that make me more productive. Hopefully they’ll start adding more effects that will focus on productivity.
It looks like [dev.compiz-fusion.org]~marex/2008/04/13/cleaning-up-to-do-list/ is already under way.
Thank goodness! Hopefully that is one of the next things to be added.
Patrick Niklaus has done a [dev.compiz-fusion.org]~marex/2008/05/01/profiles-and-other-random-thoughts/. Looks like a sensible selection of effects, especially on the lower-end.
I really like how that is laid out, and hopefully we’ll see those profiles being distributed with future versions of Linux distributions.