Fun with linux and Beryl (XGL) [beware dial up users]

[Roach Of Discord]

I know a lot of people think that linux = command line, but that's so far off. Now days, linux has advanced tremendously, and gains new features/functions all of time. One of the newer features, which is still in an experimental stage, is XGL. XGL, meaning eXtended OpenGL was started by Novel (SuSE)..and has been further enchanted by the makers of Beryl. Beryl, a newer 'eye candy' program has made working with these affects much easier than before.

I'll tell you..setting it up was a bit of a pain, but once installed...getting these features to work was simple.

Much of the features below scream 'vista'..but there is one major difference between vista affects and XGL. Memory Use. From what I've heard, Vista will be horribly resource hungry...partially because of the sexy affects it produces. Right now, I'm running a Dell Dimension 8200, with only 256 mb of ram, and am having little to no trouble using these affects. Actually, using the affects seem to use no significant resources at all.

Ok..so, to start...here is my main Desktop (Kubuntu 6.10)

http://samhainlight.com/images/desktop/newdesktop1.jpg

Just a few karamba widgets running (system monitor + amarok mp3 player). Both are nice little features..but not part of XGL.

This is my tweaked filemanager/webbrowser, konqueror:

http://samhainlight.com/images/desktop/newdesktop11.jpg

Now on to the real affects...

This is a neat affect, but it doesn't look as great via a screenshot. Wish I knew how to grab a video and throw it on youtube. Here is a window maximizing from the taskbar (looks a bit distorted because it's kind of fast, and the screenshot couldn't grab it properly):



Now a window minimizing after being maximized:



Now for the cube. The purpose of the spinning cube is to switch to each virtual desktop in an interesting way. Here is me spinning the cube:



Done just for fun, this is my media player in between desktops:



Transparency on my media player (Amarok):



The new task manager! Have too many apps minimized, not sure which one to grab? Just want to grab the one quickly and easily? By putting your cursor on the right hand top corner, the windows center themselves next to each other on the desktop, allowing you to easily choose which one you want to bring up..by simply clicking the one you want:



Next..wobbly windows, what can be better?:





There are more affects, including 'shivering' windows...fading, blurring, and more..but these are the easiest to catch in a screenshot and the ones I enjoy the most.

Anyway, I wanted to share the sexyness.

-RoaCh

[Wing Zero]

wow its looks like what happens when mac and windows have sex and make a leet baby :o

[Nicholas The Slide]

I think i just orgasm'd on myself.

[Dragnskull]

looks very nice...but i have a question:

what is the driver compatibility like for linux? i might download this and install but i wanna know how hard it will be for me to use programs that are windows based... D2, Aim, MSN, Yahoo, media players, and all the other little things you can get

[Roach Of Discord]

Driver compatibility is iffy. It depends, really. My hardware all works wonderfully.

Linux doesn't use windows .exe files, meaning it has to use its own programs. However, d2 (and several other games) run perfectly under a program called "cedega". It's a graphical program, that uses windows dll's and such to make certain games run on linux.

Aim, msn, yahoo..they all can be connected to from several different linux messaging clients. I use Gaim and Kopete, which are multiprotocol messengers, they have it all..icq, yahoo, googletalk, msn, aim, etc.

Media players, tons of them for linux. Most people think linux lacks in software, but really..it has loads of great software, all free. I use kaffeine for movie watching...and Mplayer for dvds. And then there's Amarok, which in my opinion is the best music player ever.

[x42bn6]

And what is your graphics card?*

[Gimmi]

ROACH I WOULD HAVE INSTALLED IT LAST NIGHT BUT MY HARDRIVE CRASHED.
HOW WAS YOUR FOOD FATASS?
IM GOING TO TRY TO RUN SEATOOLS BUT I DOUBT IT WILL WORK.
TEE TEE WHY EL