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#1 2008-10-20 03:28:30

pogeymanz
Member
Registered: 2008-03-11
Posts: 1,020

A few questions about Compiz-standalone

I want to go from Openbox to the flashy world of Compiz.

First of all, do most people use Compiz or Compiz Fusion?

Can I still use feh to draw my wallpaper?

What plugins do you find the most useful?

Is Compiz actually a good window manager? Can I make windows stick to all four workspaces? Can I shade them? Is it easy to set keyboard shortcuts or should I just invest in xbindkeys?

Emerald or gtk-window-decorator? Which has the best themes?

To be honest, I really just want an Openbox experience with the Expo and Scale features of Compiz. (But of course, I'll play with just about all of the plugins a little)

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#2 2008-10-20 03:53:35

hk2717
Member
From: China
Registered: 2007-09-13
Posts: 217

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

I personally used compiz-fusion. fusion-icon is great.

Yes, you can use feh for wallpapers.

If you switch from openbox, I think desktop rightclick menu plugin may ease your pain.

You can do them all in Compiz. Compiz had every feature I used in Openbox as far as I can recall. No need for xbindkeys I believe, Compiz has GUI for keybinding setup.

I think gtk-window-decorator is for inheriting XFWM/Metacity themes? Compiz themes look better than XFWM/Metacity overall in my opinion, but they all have great themes of course.

If you just need Expo and Scale feature, feel free to disable other features that you don't need smile

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#3 2008-10-20 12:06:49

pogeymanz
Member
Registered: 2008-03-11
Posts: 1,020

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

hk2717 wrote:

I think gtk-window-decorator is for inheriting XFWM/Metacity themes? Compiz themes look better than XFWM/Metacity overall in my opinion, but they all have great themes of course.

Yes, gtk-window-decorator is for inhereting Metacity themes (not sure about XFWM); So I guess the real question is does Metacity have better themes available than Emerald?

And when you say "Compiz themes" is that Emerald or something else?

I will be using the right-click menu from AUR. I don't think I could use a WM without it anymore.

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#4 2008-10-20 22:41:46

Ranguvar
Member
Registered: 2008-08-12
Posts: 2,544

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

Compiz Fusion is basically Compiz with sweet extras wink

http://wiki.opencompositing.org/CompizFusionVsCompiz

And yeah, Fusion is great stand-alone.

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#5 2008-10-20 23:06:04

amranu
Member
Registered: 2008-09-25
Posts: 94

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

how do you handle minimized windows with compiz standalone?

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#6 2008-10-20 23:33:13

Ranguvar
Member
Registered: 2008-08-12
Posts: 2,544

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

In compiz-deskmenu, you can go to the Windows submenu, where there's a list of all open windows, minimized or not.

Or, you can install a panel. pypanel, bmpanel, fbpanel, cairo-dock-svn (non-svn is broken for me, and avant-window-navigator is more or less broken as well), and many others. You can even use GNOME's panel, gnome-panel.

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#7 2008-10-21 08:41:33

shazeal
Member
From: New Zealand
Registered: 2007-06-05
Posts: 341

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

I personally gave up on minimizing windows all together. It was kinda strange at first, but it allows you to make use of some of the nifty features in Compiz such as Expo. I just changed the minimize button on the windows to Roll up (or shade?) the windows instead, but now I just double click on the title bar to roll them up, changing the button was more of a training wheels type thing.
Instead of a using a panel I now just use Alt-Tab/Expo to manage and sort my windows.

It actually feels pretty un-natural using a desktop with a panel now, and I get to enjoy the extra screen space. The only things I did have to add on was a clock via Conky, a System tray via stalonetray, and the right click menu from Compiz-Deskmenu.

As for wallpaper I had some issues with feh, I dont actually recall what they were but I ended up just using the wallpaper manager built into pcmanfm to do that since I use pcmanfm as my file manager anyway.

Nice to see alot of people taking an interest in Compiz Standalone now days, It is definately alot less bloated than most of the alternatives with more eye-candy and useful features smile

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#8 2008-10-21 10:32:34

leo2501
Member
From: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Registered: 2007-07-07
Posts: 658

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

ported dwm to compiz configuration big_smile by myself:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=55907

maybe you find it usefull


Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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#9 2008-11-20 13:39:25

calle
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2008-11-14
Posts: 45

Re: A few questions about Compiz-standalone

why don't you guys let compiz set the wallpaper? with that you can eaven have a different one on each desktop

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