Xgl / Compiz (Beryl)

Quite a ways back I heard about the Compiz project, a Novell thing (Composite Window Manager) for Linux. Looked cool, but GPU heavy so I didn't pay it any mind. Well, yesterday I saw some more video of a system running Beryl, a community fork of Compiz-quinnstorm. I had to have it, if only to play with the rubbery windows and the cube for a little while.

Over the course of the day I got nVidia binary drivers for my extremely low end GeForce4 MX 4000. That was the cheapest card I could find when I built my machine, so I had low expectations. I was wrong. Xgl and Beryl must not ask much of the graphics card because it looks great and responds stellar. Sure, it has some blurring and jaggies, but you hardly notice them.

The only problems I've had are my numpad not working, and I think I found a fix for that. Also, the screenshot plugin doesn't work, nor does the rain effect plugin. Because of this I had to go lo-tech and bust out the digital camera for this one. Trust me, it's not easy to cover the flash bulb, hold the camera, push the button, hold ctrl-alt and keep the mouse clicked down and in a nice pose with just two hands. Anway, it's all I ever dreamed of, now I can watch Star Wars as shown bent around two sides of a cube. Frickin awesome.