I know some people swear that Beryl makes them more productive on Ubuntu than Metacity does, but I can’t see that happening for me, personally.
Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) makes the process of installing Beryl and Emerald dead simple. So I gave it another try (my previous attempt left me a bit frustrated with the amount of configuration file editing I had to do).
Yes, the cube spun. There was a genie effect when I minimized windows. I saw thumbnail previews of items in the window list when I hovered over them. Open windows wobbled. F8 gave me an Apple Exposé effect.
After fifteen minutes, I was bored and just wanted my regular Gnome back with my regular keyboard shortcuts, no fancy effects, and no confusing options. Oh, yeah. That’s right. Every Gnome and KDE debate somehow comes up with “But KDE has so many confusing options.” What about Beryl? I have never seen so many cryptic options in an interface in my life. It makes KDE’s interface for handling devices and media look simple by comparison.
I’m glad a lot of people think Beryl is great eye candy or, better yet, that it makes them more productive, but I’m going to take a pass on 3D effects and all that jazz. Gnome (with Metacity) on my desktop. IceWM on my laptop. That’s the setup that works for me.
Beryl actually helps me to use the virtual desktops. Window transparency is useful, too. I particularly like transparent Terminal windows, they become far more useful that way.
Well, for me the main reason that I continue to stick with Compiz/Beryl is the Scale (Expose like) effect.
I usually open a lot of programs, and as a result often ended up with screen full of windows. When I migrate to Linux, the virtual workspace help alleviate this problem a lot (because now I can spread my program windows across different workspaces). But still in order to switch between program across workspaces one still have to, well, click a lot. Also there is no easy way to know which program are on which workspace (which can be quite problematic if you have 4 workspaces full of programs/windows).
Scale effect augmented this feature immensely. Now instate of having to click though window list in panel or switching between workspaces, I can just ‘flick’ my mouse to the top-right portion of my screen and all of my program windows across multiple workspaces is lined up on a single screen. I can switch between program across workspaces by just clicking on the floating windows, and most importantly I can observe status of multiple programs on a single screen in real time!
Sure you might say that I can manually ‘arrange’ various programs on a single screen and accomplish the same thing. But why must I waste time doing that when Compiz/Beryl can to it for me, with just a movement of a mouse?
And that’s why now I can’t live without Compiz/Beryl. (Well actually I don’t really care which one I use as long as it has this Scale/Expose effect and are stable enough not to crash my system :) ).
Well, it’s good to know other people find Beryl useful.
I don’t think its purpose is to make one more productive but rather just to look cool. I also have little use for compositing window managers but they are visually stunning. One of the best things Linux offers over Windows is its ability to customize your desktop much like how people customize their cars. Desktop effects are just another expression of one’s personal taste.
I use Beryl mainly for the eyecandy it imparts onto my desktop. Until I read it here, I didn’t know that it had the “expose” feature. Wow, is that ever neat! That totally comes in handy. I like the transparency of windows and the transparency of the cube.
I don’t really know what increase to productivity Beryl provides other than making it fun to use your computer again.
Amy
I too have spun the cube, and it’s not for me. Too buggy and unreliable in my experience. However, I find that the eye candy just gets in the way, and it is too distracting.
However, there is one feature that I like. I love the ability to Alt-Tab windows on other desktops with the Ctrl added modifier by default. Other than that, I’m glad that I’m not the only one who finds the Beryl Manager confusing and hack-ish.
I don’t even understand using multiple desktops. I think the most programs I’ve ever run all at one time is either 5 or 6. That includes file browser windows and a shell. I can only do one thing at a time. What’s the point?
FIAR, I’m on your wavelength. That’s a separate issue, though, seeing as how multiple desktops exist even without Beryl. But, yeah, I don’t use that many applications!
Same here. Played around with Beryl, then ended up turning most of the eyecandy options off. :P
I only keep running it now for the glassy Emerald window decorations, and nothing else. Runs great on my stock Intel card.
multiple desktops exist even without Beryl.
That’s what I was referring to. I removed the desktop switcher from my panel because I don’t use it.
As did I. Every Linux distro installation I’ve ever done–the first thing I remove is the desktop switcher applet. Glad to know I’m not alone.
I usually end up having a lot of windows open. Particularly when doing programming/web development, I tend to open a lot of terminal screens for different reasons.
So don’t deny the usefulness of multiple desktops for other people. I can understand some people not using it, but once you get used to it, a single desktop can feel very, very limited.
That may explain some of it. I don’t do any programming. And all my “web development” is just in a Gedit window with tabs. Usually I’ll have Thunderbird, Firefox, and Rhythmbox open, and that’s about it.
I understand multiple desktops are useful to many people, but I am not one of those people.
Also a lot of us are lazy to close open windows. That again may explain why we love multiple desktops. :P
I have 6 desktops on my KDE currently but I don’t use all of them all the time. Also I like the fact that each desktop can have its own wallpaper.
I never realized how much I *actually* used beryl until recently. I’ve been trying to get transparent terminals on my work machine, because I actually use them a *lot* when coding at home.
Same goes for “opacify” (set focus on the window your mouse is hovering over, while dimming the other open windows). I’m suprised how much I also miss being able to drag windows between virtual desktops, when at work.
I never thought eye candy would make a difference for me. I’m a hardcore, live in the terminal kinda guy. I hide my desktop icons and all panels (use keyboard shortcuts for everything), yet … I seriously love some transparent terminals.
Well written, thoughtful article. Agreed… the cube is neat eye candy, but gets old fast.
On a related note, thanks for your forum and Ubuntu posts. As someone that appreciates good writing and useful organization of information, I find your site and Ubuntu posts extremely useful.