Arch Linux

dr/owned

Member

Registered: 2009-01-09

Posts: 136

Should I use compiz?

I'm fishing for other people's opinions on this.  I love the effects of compiz (and some of the features like desktop cube), but I also want my system to be as much of a workhorse as XP is on the other partition - Something that's no-nonsense and a light resource hog.  I know I have plenty of ram and cpu idle most of the time to use compiz no problem, but I prefer to keep them in the wings until I actually do something resource intensive. 

Right now I'm leaning to installing Gnome with Openbox as the window manager, then using the tools mentioned here: http://urukrama.wordpress.com/openbox-faq/#compiz to duplicate some of compiz and metacity's features.  Anyone have any other options I might be missing bearing in mind I don't have hundreds of hours to get it installed?

Netsu

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-04-04

Posts: 182

Re: Should I use compiz?

I'm using compiz with a celeron 2.6ghz and 768mb of ram, and if anything is slowing down my desktop it's the apps like openoffice and firefox, not my WM.
So if you feel compiz effects help you (and I can't live any more without the zoom plugin) then totally use it.

---

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whoops

Member

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 891

Re: Should I use compiz?

Almost the same here: xfce+compiz with a decent graphics card, uses less CPU & Ram than anything else I tried. All apps I use (including firefox, openoffice, gimp, blender, 4 x whaawmp, 2xterminal, 3 x thunar, transmission, clawsmail, geany, epdview, a lot of panel plugins and some desktop effects...) started, running and on screen (expo plugin), it's still running at least as smooth as gnome with metacity right after start and a lot more reliable. At the moment (windows i don't use - like 3 of the 4 whaawmps - stopped) I've got about 10%CPU (Core2Duo1800) & 50%Ram (=2/4GB), it's been running for 5 days now I think, so at least there's no really bad memory leak anywhere.

I wouldn't want to miss the fish eye, expo and the custom config that enables me to do all small tasks using only the wireless mouse from the table on the other side of the room in general (oh, and the 95% transparency for all windows but GIMP & whaawmp + scake - haven't "lost" or forgotten windows with important unfinished tasks in the background for a while now )

Last edited by whoops (2009-04-22 13:44:59)

dr/owned

Member

Registered: 2009-01-09

Posts: 136

Re: Should I use compiz?

Whoops-

I've also looked at XFCE but a big turn off for me was the fact that it seems to lack a lot of "management" utilities that gnome has available either by default or as addons (control center, network manager, etc etc).  I'm using a laptop of course so I have a lot of hardware that needs managing- and I'm avidly against doing everything configuration wise from the terminal unless its very low level or no GUI exists.  And there were a lot of annoyances like not being able to drag and drop themes for installation.

JK3mp

Member

Registered: 2009-03-25

Posts: 105

Re: Should I use compiz?

Gnome is a solid Desktop manager and you could also consider openbox/fluxbox standalone.

whoops

Member

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 891

Re: Should I use compiz?

Oh, depending on the laptop and its primary use I would consider using a WM that doesn't "force the graphics card wide awake & wasting power" like compiz might...

Last edited by whoops (2009-04-22 15:33:09)

dr/owned

Member

Registered: 2009-01-09

Posts: 136

Re: Should I use compiz?

From my readings, it looks like one can install openbox as the standalone de/wm and plug in all the gnome goodies (like gnome-network-manager and gnome-panel) and have plugins that emulate most of compiz's effects.  Am I correct in this?

I suppose I'm angling to get Openbox to behave exactly as Gnome with Compiz through plugins and "splice ins" (i'm going to use that to refer to plugging gnome tools in).  But since Openbox is like the linux of wm's and Gnome is like the XP of wm's (KDE is Vista), I assume this could be accomplished and still be much less bloated than just straight running Gnome.

@woops, yes- you guessed another one of my concerns.  This laptop isn't very powerful but I rarely take it off AC power so battery life isn't a huge issue.  I have my eee with 4+ hours of battery life when I'm on the go

Last edited by dr/owned (2009-04-22 17:25:13)

JK3mp

Member

Registered: 2009-03-25

Posts: 105

Re: Should I use compiz?

True. And gl with it