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Beryl User Interface for Linux Reviewed

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yo-ho-ho-and-a-beryl-of-rum dept.

techie writes "OSWeekly.com has published a review of Beryl, a very cool looking UI for Linux. Matt Hartley writes, "This release, in my opinion, was the most over-hyped and bug-filled to date. You will have to really hit Technorati to see more of what I'm talking about, but Feisty is as buggy as the beta I tested a short time ago. After completely tossing into the wilds of the ubber-buggy "network-manager," anything running with Edgy supported RT2500 driver shows up, but it will not connect without a special script. Those of you who are on Feisty and need help with your RT2500 cards are welcome to e-mail me for the bash script."

12 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Could we have that in English please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps:

    Beryl (note spelling) is buggy. It isn't finished yet.
    Feisty Fawn is still a bit buggy. Its only just released.

    1. Re:Could we have that in English please by Haeleth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Beryl, well, who cares? I mean, really? I don't think many linux geeks care about Beryl other than maybe to turn it on and say "wow, that's neat" and turn it back off.
      Don't conflate Beryl with the silly effects like wobbly windows and raindrops making your desktop splash and windows catching fire when you minimise them and so forth. Those are neat for a few minutes and then quickly turned off. But Beryl can bring things to the table that are of real value, and it's unwise to dismiss the whole think just because the parts that get exposure on YouTube are silly.

      For example, when I hover my mouse over an entry in my panel's window list, a live preview of that window pops up, so I can instantly tell (for example) whether a long compile process has finished without actually having to switch away from whatever I'm doing. Similarly, when I alt-tab to switch windows, what appears isn't just the icon for each application, it also includes an actual scaled-down representation of each window, so I can tell which picture each graphics editor window is editing far more easily than just going by filenames. The ability to zoom in smoothly on a window is very handy when trying to debug graphics output, and conversely if I want the big picture I can zoom out and see all my desktops at once. (Forget the cube, I'm talking straightforward tiling - but it's just as dependent on Beryl.)

      All this adds up to a desktop that's just slightly more pleasant to use than before. Plus whenever smug Mac weenies appear I can switch a few silly effects on and blow their minds with all the cool things "PeeCees" can do these days. Hey, it's a bonus.
  2. After reading TFA... by brennanw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... I think the author needed to include a little more information.

    For example, exactly how does Beryl interfere with OpenOffice Write's word count feature? I'm trying to make a connection and I'm flummoxed.

    Also, given that the author spent most of his time reviewing Beryl on Edgy, how exactly does Feisty's network manager reflect on the stability of Beryl? I think he was including the network manager as an example of how buggy Feisty is (though I haven't really noticed any problems myself, perhaps Kubuntu's network manager is a different beast) but there were a few connections that he made internally that didn't necessarily make the transition to the article itself.

    --
    Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
    1. Re:After reading TFA... by JanneM · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is sort-of off topic to the Beryl thing (but then the reviewer didn't manage to stay on topic either), but my experience of Feisty is that it is a lot more stable and supports more stuff out of the box than Edgy ever did for me - and that includes NetworkManager, which so far has been working with both my Wifi and wired network without a single hitch.

      Of course, it all depends on exactly what hardware you have. Which means that making sweeping statements on any distributions' hardware compatibility is pretty senseless based on the experience of one machine.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    2. Re:After reading TFA... by ScottSCY · · Score: 5, Funny
      For example, exactly how does Beryl interfere with OpenOffice Write's word count feature? I'm trying to make a connection and I'm flummoxed.

      Go to openoffice; do a word count. Shift cube left or shift cube right onto new workspace. Where is the wordcount now? Huh? Where? Not there!

  3. What is being reviewed here? by jrumney · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFA is slashdotted already, but from the summary I can't tell if he's reviewing Beryl, the unstable fork of Compiz 3D window manager, which is itself unstable and not enabled by default in the latest Ubuntu and most other distros, or the recently released Ubuntu 7.04, AKA Feisty Fawn.

  4. keep it secret by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Those of you who are on Feisty and need help with your RT2500 cards are welcome to e-mail me for the bash script.


    No no no! Please don't give us detailed information, publish this "special script" or link to it. Just keep it as a secret.

  5. It's not turned on in Ubuntu for a reason. by Baavgai · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In a recent Mark Shuttleworth interview posted on Slashdot, the interviewer criticized Fiesty for not having the eye candy turned on. He responded "The actual software itself - Compiz and Beryl - is not good enough."

  6. mirror of TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    *rant about beryl still being beta*
    *rant about word-count in openoffice not working, no reasons given*
    *rant about feisty being the most buggy and overhyped release so far, based on the fact that the new network manager fails to work with his specific network card*

    seriously, does he get paid for this?

  7. News Flash!!! by Spudtrooper · · Score: 5, Funny

    Beta software has bugs. In other news, Avril Lavigne can't sing, people hate paying taxes, the sky is blue, and your "girlfriend" from Nigeria who keeps asking for money is really a man.

  8. Re:0 results found for "berly" by FreeGamer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not only that, but this is a review of a project that is being merged back into the original; Compiz. What's the point in running a story about something that is basically going to disappear? A compiz article would be much more appropriate since that is even installed on a default Ubuntu installation these days. Beryl is just the name for a now-dead fork.

    --
    Free Software games list and commentary
  9. Mod parent up! by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These "reviews" are stupid.

    #1. Review the distribution with hardware that WORKS WITH IT. You want to review the distribution, right? Not "does it work with Card XYZ123". I know, I know. Finding that hardware is too hard for you. You want to "review" it based upon whatever you have at hand right now. Whether it works or not.

    #2. If you want to review how it has problems with "Card XYZ123" then right your review about that card. That means you try that card with different distributions. Again, I know. You don't want to spend more time or effort than is absolutely necessary to get your "review" out.

    #3. If you're going to review hardware, review hardware. Which cards are supported? How well? Which are not? Why not? Of course we're not going to see many of these because it takes even more time and effort than the other two.