Is beryl/compiz worth using?

Hello,

I have been trying to find out a bit about beryl and compiz but have found a lot of complaints and problems with installing it.

Being new I have no real idea what beryl and compiz are or what they do.

Can someone please help fill in a gap here and discuss whether or not they are worth using?

Whereas I've never used either, I've understood that they're just eye candy. And they're at an early development stage, so bugs are likely.

I find it too buggy to bother with right now (in dual desktop mode that is).

And since i find it hard to work without an extended desktop there's no point sacrificing it for some extra stability in single monitor mode.

It does look very good and once it's properly stable will be great to use full time.

The question is: Do you like your desktop snappy or snazzy?

Snappy -> Don't install Beryl/Compiz Snazzy -> Do install Beryl/Compiz

Or you can be pragmatic and try it for a little bit. Just make sure you have successfully installed the proprietary drivers for your video card.

I've been using beryl for a long time now. It is very stable (RC3), you can sey it's only eye candy, but if you have used a mac before, you may find in beryl a lot of the functions you see in a mac desktop. Like expose for example. For me this is the FUTURE for Linux, improved functionality will defenatly make it a desktot for all users who want to Port.

Its all eyecandy to me. its fun to use, but i haven't found a useful use for it. and it crashes now and again

To this point I've found it buggy. Freezes, can't get it to stop loading at startup etc. I do very much like the F8 feature though. Being able to see all the apps in a nice thumbnail style view is great. I've never liked the taskbar either in windows or gnome or... pick an environment.

I like that you can rotate the cube from workspace 1 to 4 in one move instead of going through 2 and 3 like you have to with Metacity

Beryl is fun, but it does crash a lot for many users, including me. I turned off beryl after its last release because it was causing system freezes on a regular basis. A new version was released again today, so I've turned it back on to see how it does.

In my experience, it is one more thing you can do with Ubuntu to help put off doing any real work in it. If you thought you could waste time customizing Windows or Gnome, Beryl puts them both to shame.

If you don't have any idea of what beryl or compiz do, I suggest taking a look at www.youtube.com and doing a search for beryl or compiz. Many linux users have posted videos of their configurations for your enjoyment.

If you like what you see, give beryl at try. It is really quite easy to install if you are willing to use a 3rd party repository.

The information in this guide was what I used. I found it much easier to install it using AIGLX than XGL.

Well, a couple things.. and I'm using Kubuntu, although the OP apparently isn't.

Beryl is PRETTY.. and I'm a crazy eye candy lover.. though I really just like the shiny window decos, the rest of it is cool (fire!).. but kind of pointless. Like, rain and snow just make me shake my head whilst asking "WHY?!" since I can't imagine how anyone could use their computer with either of those things running.

Sadly, though, don't bother if your computer isn't super awesome. Mine sucks and Beryl lags like crazy... but the worst bit is that I cant play DVDs smoothly and movies have frame stuttering problems, so that pretty much kills it for me. It's possible it works better with Gnome.. but then I'd have to use Gnome.. and it's not worth it for some eye candy.

I'm getting a better computer soon.. and hopefully that'll help.. but even my brother had trouble using Beryl in Kubuntu on his fast machine.

Since it's free and not too much of a pain to install, you ought to just give it a shot and see what you think, there's howtos all over the forum. ^_^

Thankyou one and all.

Most of it is just eyecandy, but I became addicted to it's "scale" plugin (the exposé-like windows tiler). Another thing I found annoying in the beginning, but that I can't live without now is the fact that you can map functions to screen edges. I feels just so natural to tile your windows or rotate your desktop cube it hurts :)

The scale plugin really is a great improvement of my desktop experience. I turned off most of the candy though, wobbly windows makes me sick, and animations are a waste of time, IMO.

Never had problems with stability using the "official releases". Now that I use SVN, it's become a little unstable.

• trib'

Good thread! I FINALLY got beryl loaded and running two days ago! (Not a knock against Ubuntu, but I could never get it going there. I loaded openSuSE about a week-and-a-half ago, and it was pretty easy to get going there! (with some crucial tips from the fine folks in #suse irc channel).

I think it's sexy as hell. I have no idea if I'll stick with it, but the F9 function alone was worth the price of admission (all your open windows tile on the desktop for instant selection.)! The cube thing is awesome -- but I don't use a LOT of desktops (barely 2), so that's not very practical...but it sure is fun to play with...

So, after just a couple of days, what do I think? If it went away (or stopped working), I think I'd miss it, but it's certainly not essential. I use my computer about 85/15 fun/"work" anyway, so it contributes greatly to the "fun" side of the equation!

(In fact, I SHOULD be booted into XP and doing my taxes right now--but I'm playing with beryl instead!) :guitar:

I have been using it off and on for about 6 months now. (last two months have been using it as my main desktop development at work)

I like the desktop cube because it gives me a sense of direction when I am moving between desktops. 4 desktops on a flat plane and I get lost when I am switching between several apps and trying to remember which one they are on. With the cube it is just a bit easier to associate which desktop is to which and where an app is that I left around. edit: When having the cube set to transparent when rotating, you really then have a better awareness to every desktop. When you move from one to another, you have a visual representation and a location of where apps are. This for me really helps as I move around desktops quite often.

I really do like the "All Windows" thumbnail preview though. I have it set when I move the mouse to the top right of the desktop it thumbnails all active windows. This is the second best feature and when you have several or dozens of active windows, this feature is many times better then ALT-TAB'ing around trying to find a particular window.

I also really like the real time ability for full window transparency. ALT+Scroll Wheel will change the transparency of the entire application. This is great for so many reasons. Transcribing something from the background window without having to ALT+TAB back and forth, keeping an eye on some resource while working on a project, watching a movie while doing some php coding. (kind of unproductive, but it works :) ), multiple rdesktops...

There are a few other items that I like that enhances my productivity, although not to a great extent. The rest is just eye candy, and I leave them on in a minimal state just to help convert the Microsoft users over. They are speechless because they think only Mac and Vista can look this good :KS

And I have never had a lock up. It just seems that every time I try to upgrade to a newer version I get the white-screen-of-death :mad:

edit: I also wanted to add that yes, XGL/Beryl will use more resources. But why would I buy a dual core computer with 4Gigs of RAM and only try to convince myself that it is okay to only use 10% of it's power? You don't buy a sports car with 310HP and make it a practice to use only 31HP when you drive it do you?

Cheers :)

It's mostly eye candy I guess, but there are some very nice features that I've started to rely on and that keep me from going back to a plain desktop. More and more I think the cube is just pointless and I'd love something (desktop wall might do it) more like the virtual desktops that are coming in the next OS X. I do use the Expose-like "Scale" plugin constantly though, to the exclusion of all other types of task management. I also use transparency so that I can lay certain windows over others and get more stuff to fit on my desktop in a usable way. Plus, some of the more subtle effects, like drop shadows and close/minimize animations, just make the whole desktop feel more alive and make the experience of using my computer more enjoyable. Considering that I get all of this to run on my laptop just as fast as Metacity (though Openbox and E17 are obviously faster), and I don't really get any bugs at all, I'd say that it's definitely worth it for me.

I find Beryl very useful. My Beyl svn usually works perfectly.

I think Emerald is really nice and easy to customize too, and looks way better then anything else out.

I like the 4 (or more) desktops that are only 1 or 2 clicks away from every window.

I like to put apps onto the corner of the cube, so when I'm switching back and forth, I can have it on two different workspaces. I do this with GIMP to avoid all of the clutter.

I also don't use most of the plugins that make it slow.

I only use the necessary ones in Window Management and Desktop, and the Opacity, Brightness, and Saturation plugin so I can just press "Alt + scroll down" and see the stats on my desktop from my Conky 1.4.5.

I think my only unnecessary plugin I use is the wobbly windows and 3-D windows.

I still find my xubuntu's xfwm4 just barely faster, but regular xfwm4 lacks so many features that I have become used to, that it's worth the unnoticeable change, and it might be that the only difference in fastness is the fact that I have the wobbly windows plugin installed.

Plus, Emerald just looks better then the regular Window Decorations, with more features like "stick" and "set above".

I think Beryl is a must have just for the productivity aspects.

The eye candy isn't trivial either. The more you enjoy using the computer the more you will use it.

Beryl will end being as important to the widespread sucess of linux as openoffice is... if it's going to compete with Mac and Windows in the eyecandy department. 100% of the vista ads I have seen are focused on eyecandy. (mainly the shuffle windows effect)... It's great that Ubuntu has something equal.

I installed Beryl using Automatix2 and it has worked perfect ever since.

If your machine is pretty up to date, you will like Beryl. Mine is pretty fast and Beryl is downright snappy.

Some is only candy and silly, but a lot of it is quite useful. I love the cube and F9 and transparency and just the feel of it.

If you think it's unnecessary, you're right, but try to go back and use a Win 98 machine as your daily. That would be hard. :)

I also really like how you can put the mouse in the upper right corner, and instantly see every open window on all sides of the cube. And if you select it, then it spins to that window and cube side.

Beryl/Compiz definitely enhance the computing experience. Tiling and folding windows is so helpful.

Plus it looks great! Definitely worth it IMO.

ive used both beryl and compiz. but they are just eye candy. with beryl i dont use any of the 3d cubes or effects i just use it for Emerald.

I'm fairly new to ubuntu/linux myself and i have had beryl installed on a 6 yr old computer now (only upgraded the video card to a GeForce 6600) for about 2 weeks im here to tell ya, i love it. My desktop it mainly entertainment value purposes but i keep beryl running (love the cube, window selection, and yes the window animations) and here recently I have discovered avant window manager and screenlets which also run non-stop.

I notice no real big drain on my P4 2.4 Ghz, 512 ram HP...still faster than xp in my opinon but now waaaaay prettier! :) Now that i have figured out wireless printing, so that i can print from my xp laptop (wifeys computer) the desktop will rarely be booting xp..if ever (don't have the gonads yet to delete xp partition).

So i guess it just depends on the role you home pc takes and whether or not you need/want all the bells and whistles....

But for me, beryl is awesome and i would recommend/brag to anyone :P

Kalinda said:

Beryl is PRETTY.. and I'm a crazy eye candy lover.. though I really just like the shiny window decos, the rest of it is cool (fire!).. but kind of pointless. Like, rain and snow just make me shake my head whilst asking "WHY?!" since I can't imagine how anyone could use their computer with either of those things running.

It just looks very nice! and if you look at some screenshots or videos of youtube you see what's possible. if you once got you desktop that fra that everything looks as one big (and very cool) thing i think you won't want to miss it any more =)

yeah it's mostly eye candy but some things ARE useful. and perhaps it helps newbies to get interested in linux :P and so make the linux community a bit bigger (and the windows community a bit smaller :))))) )

If you have ATI, it's too much of a pain to install to be worth it. Spend some time with someone you love.

If you have Intel or Nvidia, it is TOTALLY WORTH IT! It goes wobbly wobbly! Wobbly Wobbly! (I just installed it guys)

Install it, make sure you have two different sessions (one with beryl start up, one without). My Buggyness is that... Beryl will just randomly switch back to my defaul window manager. I don't even notice it except every like 20 minutes I go, "Aww, no more wobbly wobbly." and I turn it back on and everything's good. That's not a big bug compared to the freezes. IF you get freezes, just don'e use it and wait till it gets updated.

But totally worth it. It's like using ubuntu for the first time again.

Like a viiiir iiir iiiiiiirgin! When your heart beats...

Aboslutely. I can't imagine life without Beryl anymore.

I have installed beryl a week ago, and the installation itself went well, but after - the problems come, and a lot of them.... even if they are just little things like no borders, or windows become blackend , it can get really annonying and you have to spend so much time getting them fixed. And since it is so unstable, sometimes even if you just play with the cube and all its features and dont tauch the settings- the system can suddenly crash, and even a reboot won't help. Basically i wouldnt say this is just a eyecandy, i think it is also for convenience, and even if it is just the look - it makes your work on the computer more pleasent, so it is important. And also, its nice to show off to some friends and make them want it too but they cant because they are too noobs and still run winXP :)

To sum up - beryl is great!...... as long as its working :???:

One feature of Beryl I really like is the screen zoom. When watching a flash video that won't "full screen" you can zoom in and watch it just like full screen.

Installing Beryl with nvidia is done in 3 minutes.After 6 weeks with beryl I cannot imagine my desktop without it.Dunno why,but I have no problems,using a nvidias agp GS 7800+.Check out : http://www.flickr.com/groups/equirectangular/pool/ for equirectangular skydome images for beryl.....thanks to beryl.org,you made my life better!!

Although I have a medium-high system, using Compiz proved to be nothing but a fancy thing to show off with. But as soon as friends go home, i switch it off. I like my resources to be used for other things than useless eye-candy.

After using Desktop Wall and Scale, I have to say, Beryl *is* worth it. Those two things alone make everything ten or twenty times easier. Anyone who says otherwise clearly hasn't every played around with BSM. Seriously, the plugins that make Beryl worth it are disabled by default. How wrong is that?! ADD Helper, Desktop Wall, Tile... Oh, and Group. Group is wonderful for un-cluttering a desktop. If you just dismiss Beryl as eye-candy, you haven't played around with the settings. Oh, and in my opinion, it's miles better than Compiz just because of the settings manager. Because I can SEE what I have installed, and use it better. Give the SVN version a shot - it's stable, and they don't seem to be updating it right now because of the merge. As opposed to how they have compiz set up in Feisty by default, Beryl SVN/GIT is so much a better option that it's not even funny.

You could do a search for issues with your video card, if you don't find any or find few you could give it a try.

I've been using it since I installed Ubuntu 6.06 and I certainly can not imagine to use my computer without it. It's not that it's incredible useful (it's not) it's just that it's incredible appealing.

Well, maybe rotating the cube with the scroll could be useful =) But I can tell you that speaks the geek out of you!

To say it's mostly eye candy isn't fair. It looks great, ture, but beryl makes me way more productive. I use a lot of applications at the same time (Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus, Firefox, Skype, Terminal etc.

We are all used to minimizing and maximizing windows, and restoring from the task bar. But really, this is a very cramped way to work. We've just been working too long that way to realize it!

Think of Beryl as a way of expanding your screen to give you more workspace and more effective ways to interact with that space.

I'm not into eye candy, and I turned off wobbley windows etc., but the cube effect, as well as the way to get an overview of all applications is absolutely amazing and means I don't have to get a second monitor and I'm not trying to rummage through the tabs in my taskbar to find where I left that Firefox window.

Beryl/Compiz really provide two things; functionality and eye candy.

People who don't need the functionality, don't notice it and just see eye candy. It's not very stable in Ubuntu when you enable it, but there are ways of getting it to work well if you search. Future versions will also be more stable.

I definately recommend trying it, or at least checking out some footage http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beryl&search=Search

I havnt had a crash yet on ATI 200M and its quite fast. The expose like feature to show all windows helps me switch fast and find the window I have open I need. Very useful. Try it and if you dont like take it off.

I find it both pretty and valuable. I customized the "screen edges" to perform various tasks for me (such as showing all the windows for a particular program, or all the open windows on the screen at once) and I'm already wondering how on earth I ever lived without it.

I actually found that Beryl at the moment is not very good. It offers quite few more options than Compiz, but most them them lack the polish that Compiz has. Also, Beryl ceased functioning after my first reboot.

Compiz > Beryl

compiz and beryl are merging as one.....in case you didn't know.

if beryl (the ones in the repositories for feisty) is crashing then you need to look at your drivers or hardware. I have a few users I take care of who run beryl on production computers, and it has rarely crashed and usually it is driver related. granted we use nvidia 7300 and above video cards and ubuntu 6.10 or 7.04.

if it is crashing on edgy, then you need to look at the version of beryl, xgl/aiglx, or the drivers.