Compiz is a fairly generic ‘desktop effects’ package for Linux. Ubuntu (and maybe others?) users can enable with System \/ Preferences \/ Appearance \/ Visual Effects, or you can be hardcore and type compiz --replace<\/tt> in a command prompt. (Be warned that it’ll kill your window manager and replace it with Compiz, so don’t do this if you have a lot of stuff open, in case anything goes wrong. Be further warned that if you do this and foolishly Ctrl+Z it hoping to then bg<\/tt> it, you’re going to lock up your desktop, since you just suspended your window manager.)<\/p>\n
About all that you’ll notice with Compiz at first is drop shadows. It’s nice, but it’s kind of like buying a Ferrari and savoring the fact that it’s a stick-shift. What you really want is to customize it. System \/ Preferences \/ Advanced Desktop Effects Settings is how you do this. If you’re like me and this wasn’t installed with Compiz for some strange reason, you can use Synaptics (or apt-get<\/tt>) to install compizconfig-settings-manager<\/tt>.<\/p>\n
Here are some things I do and don’t like:<\/p>\n
I doubt I’m going to use all of these, but I’ve enabled all of them right now, and I wrote myself a cheat-sheet. I think after a few days I’ll have a good idea of what’s eye candy and what actually makes my life easier. I think they all have the potential to do so, though.<\/p>\n
Oh, a bonus tip? Gnome users, check out System \/ Preferences \/ Keyboard Shortcuts. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s something any power user ought to tweak to their liking.\u00a0 (I set F1 up to launch a terminal, a task I must do 50 times a day. It masks the “Help” feature programs love to pop up when I overshoot the ~ key, too.)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Compiz is a fairly generic ‘desktop effects’ package for Linux. Ubuntu (and maybe others?) users can enable with System \/ Preferences \/ Appearance \/ Visual Effects, or you can be hardcore and type compiz –replace in a command prompt. (Be … Continue reading