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Compiz Project Releases C++ Based v0.9.0
werfu writes "Compiz 0.9.0, the first release of Compiz rewritten in C++, has been announced on the Compiz mailing list. See the announcement for more info." Compiz has for years been one of my favorite ways to make Windows users envious, despite my (Linux) systems' otherwise low-end graphics capabilities. Besides the switch to C++ from C, this release "brings a whole new developer API, splits rendering into plugins,
switches the buildsystem from automake to cmake and brings minor functionality improvements."
It'd be nice if the summary contained at least a sentence describing what the software actually does.
I understand, but for speed I expect that C++ still outperforms Java, and while C should outperform both of them, C doesn't feature encapsulation, polymorphism and all the other goodies that OOP provides.
No, C is exactly as fast as C++. C++ only becomes slower if you use certain features that have a performance impact. Example: if you use exceptions, there is a performance penalty. If you don't, you don't get the performance penalty. That is one of the design principles of C++: nothing can be included into the language that slows down code that does not use/need it. The main slow downs you will see in your average C++ program, over the corresponding C, is the use of the string class as opposed to the nasty but fast strcpy and friends, and the extra indirect function calls due to virtual functions (which causes a branch misprediction and hence a pipeline flush on modern cpus, costing you a bunch of clock cycles). Still, you only pay for virtual if you choose to use it, and manually implemented virtual function calls are used all over the place in good old C, with the same effect. Furthermore, C++ templates allow code re-use with exactly 0 performance loss and while the error messages are ugly, they're still a whole load prettier than doing the same thing the C way with recursive includes and lots of preprocessor madness. And you can link to existing C code/libraries without any problems. Frankly, there is no valid reason for starting a new program in C in this day and age.
* Lower cost of ownership - BS, too much time is spent hacking up config files to make crap work or work right
On Windows, too much time is spent hacking up the registry to make crap work or work right. Just this last Thursday, I had to manually scan the registry to delete every reference to a printer driver that kept killing someone's spooler service... because the spooler service needed to be running to delete the printer normally. If it had been a unix system, I could have just edited a line in a file and been done.
* CLI/scripting system that actually works - BS, anything you can write and make work in Linux, I can in Windows
Using cygwin, bash compiled for Windows or DOS, or other scripting applications that are not guaranteed to be on every Windows system.
* Most open source software runs on it - Show me anything worthwhile that doesn't run in Windows or have a better alternative there
Well, Linux runs in Windows, so I'd say you've won this argument.
* Drivers for just about any piece of hardware ever built - BS, that's the primary thing most users have issues with, half baked drivers
Half-baked drivers in Windows XP, Vista, and 7. That printer driver mentioned above? It was an HP driver written for and installed in Win7 64bit.
* No blue screen of death - Agreed, but I haven't seen one yet in Win7
I haven't either, but I have seen a Win7 machine reboot constantly (the equiv of BSOD since Win7 is set to reboot on fail).
* Not nearly as resource hungry (unless of course you use Compiz :-) - Agreed, but neither was Win98 which is typically how Linux feels
I still have Win98se running on an old machine for old games. Win98se is actually snappier than modern Linux, which is in turn snappier than WinXP/7. How much window compositing did Win98se do? Firewalling? Multi-user? Even the 1998 version of Linux had multi-user support and ipchains.
Mod me down if you want to, but I've yet to have Windows drop me to a command prompt after an video card driver update
I've had it boot up to a BSOD, which looks worse than a command prompt, or a blank screen where I had to remote in or boot up in safe graphics mode.
[I've yet to have Windows drop me to a command prompt after an] OS update (Ubuntu anyone?)
I've had it boot up to a BSOD, which looks worse than a command prompt.
or had to recompile sound drivers after every OS update (Ubuntu on that one too).
I wish I could. Sometimes vendors take years to get their sound drivers working. Google realtek, imac, and Windows 64 bit.
My file manager will display in a column what date pictures were taken so I can categorize them accordingly, can yours do that? It couldn't the last time I checked.
This is the first time that I ever checked. No, it does not, but it could with a little quick editing. Right clicking and selecting properties shows that the Gnome file manager (didn't check KDE) can see the image properties, including "Date Taken", so the information is there. Linux users are probably just better mentally organized, and name their photo directories YYYY_MM_DD
If you don't value your time.
Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.
Windows is only $119.99 if your time is worth nothing.