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."

Comments

Summary Fail

[drinkypoo]

The relevant words from the announcement are "complete rewrite". Or in simpler terms for the users, you do not want to run this until it reaches 0.10 (also as per the article.) This is a development and not stable release. (Sure would be nice if they would go 1.0 instead of .10 if it's going to be a stable release...)

Here's the stuff from the announcement interesting to users:

Rendering framework split into the composite and opengl plugins, the former
    making compiz a compositing window manager and the latter performing that
    compositing using OpenGL. Such a split will allow new rendering plugins such
    as XRender and Clutter to be developed as well as for compiz to run as a
    non-compositing window manager

Added support to drag windows to edges and have them fill the adjacent side of
    the screen

* Added support for automatic wallpaper rotation
* Added edge support to grid plugin so windows can easily be resized by dragging
    to an edge or corner

Everything else is of interest only to developers...

Re:favorite way

[ZERO1ZERO]

Compiz doesn't actually use that much system resources, nor strain your hardware either. It uses your gfx card to do all the work, which otherwise would be doing 99% nothing in most other circumstances anyway.

Re:favorite way

[Rogerborg]

I use a variety of POSIX operating systems 95% of the time, at work through necessity, and at home through choice. And because I use them, rather than despite it, I am compelled to respond.

Fewer viruses

And drunken cheerleaders get date raped more than shut-in nerd chicks. Personally, I prefer nerd chicks, and you likely do too, but most people don't. Really, they don't, and there's no use telling them that their opinion is wrong.

Lower cost of ownership

If you don't value your time. For the latest of many, many examples down the years, I 'invested' 3 hours this weekend trying to get WiFi with WPA working again after upgrading my wife's box from Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04. Verdict: the rt73usb driver has (yet again) returned to a state of porkage, so it was (yet again) ndiswrapper and Windows drivers for the eventual win.

CLI/scripting system that actually works

Until of course you try and run a script written for fooshell on barshell, i.e. when a distro changes its shell.

Most open source software runs on it

Can be made to run on it, given enough time.

Drivers for just about any piece of hardware ever built

If you limit "ever" to "older than two years or so". But sure, many of the drivers give the appearance of working tolerably well, for a surprising amount of the time! And when they don't, well, there's ndiswrapper, or we'll-fix-it-in-the-next-release, or you've-got-the-source-compile-a-previous-version-yes-we-know-it-doesn't-build-against-your-kernel-headers-or-gcc-version-fix-it-yourself-you-filthy-M$-shill.

No blue screen of death

Ain't seen on one Windows for years.

Not nearly as resource hungry (unless of course you use Compiz :-)

Granted. Oh, unless you've got a driver bug, which you almost certainly do if your hardware was designed this millennium. Then see above.

Penguins way cooler than butterflies

By that measure, that would mean...

But the easiest way of making a windows user envious is to use a mac

...that.

This is not the year of Linux on the desktop (or the netbook). I thought we were there with Ubuntu 10.04, but it's actually a regression from 9.10. I'd just recommend 9.10, but that's effectively abandonware now, just like all previous versions of all Linux distros, "LTS" included.

Again: I'm writing this from Ubuntu 9.10. I've got RHEL5 in that VM over there, SUSE 11 yonder, Solaris in that shell, and even SUA on Windows (tastes a bit like POSIX). I'm happy with POSIX OSen. But I would not recommend them to a Joe Windows user, ever, since I don't want to be their Support Guy from now until there's a distro that actually Just Works.