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View Full Version : Linux: Compiz Users?



W4GPL
12-29-2009, 07:30 PM
I've been using Linux on my desktop and laptop for just about as long as I can remember, typically Gnome with Metacity as my window manager. Out of boredom, over the holidays, I decided to play with Compiz. I had messed with it here and there for 2 or 3 minutes at a time, but always found it sort of silly and reverted back to Metacity.

After dealing with a lot of key binding headaches, I got everything working pretty well -- the only issue I'm having is with gnome-terminal, when I type in the terminal, more often than not, the characters are covered up by black boxes, though this doesn't happen in xterm. I'm using the same geometry and font (Monospace 11) in both terminals. I did a little Google'ing but didn't see any definitive answers. Any thoughts?

Also, what is your general opinion of Compiz? Needless eyecandy or is it also an effective/time saving window manager? I'm on the fence.

ad4mg
12-29-2009, 08:52 PM
I've been using Linux on my desktop and laptop for just about as long as I can remember, typically Gnome with Metacity as my window manager. Out of boredom, over the holidays, I decided to play with Compiz. I had messed with it here and there for 2 or 3 minutes at a time, but always found it sort of silly and reverted back to Metacity.

After dealing with a lot of key binding headaches, I got everything working pretty well -- the only issue I'm having is with gnome-terminal, when I type in the terminal, more often than not, the characters are covered up by black boxes, though this doesn't happen in xterm. I'm using the same geometry and font (Monospace 11) in both terminals. I did a little Google'ing but didn't see any definitive answers. Any thoughts?

Also, what is your general opinion of Compiz? Needless eyecandy or is it also an effective/time saving window manager? I'm on the fence.
I have Compiz installed on this machine as it has enough of a video card to run it well. I didn't find it so useful as a window manager, spinning a 3-D cube to select one's desktop was a novelty that kept my attention for only a couple of days.

For the resources it uses (it slowed my browser scrolling speed considerably), I'd call it needless eye candy.

FWIW, I never had the issue in the terminal window, and all of my desktops are gnome. Strange ...

W4GPL
12-30-2009, 02:33 PM
I switched to "indirect rendering" in compiz and the problem with the terminal went away.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. Still seems pretty trivial. I haven't notice any performance hit, but it sure does take up a lot of memory for no great reason.