What OS is that? I'm probably not even qualified to ask questions about that presentation, but how'd you get all those nifty visual effects and whatnot going on?
The OS is Linux. The distribution is Suse 10.2, which ships with Compiz. But I downloaded and installed Beryl, which is a branch-off of Compiz, and is more advanced
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Wow, this is amazing technology. The math required to get the flexible desktops that wiggle like Jell-o makes me a little woozy; very well done. Looks to me like that part would be what you call "nontrivial," in computer science terms.
It's a great way to organize your open apps--I wonder why nobody thought of it before. It looks like all the threads of a single app are grouped by default, but what if you have more than 4 (or 6?) apps open at a time? I guess I don't usually do that, I just can't help but wonder about things like that, being a programmer type.
I installed Mandrake Linux on my laptop, but was very disappointed by the performance, so I ended up not using it for long. Is Mandrake known for being slow? I guess I expected a big speed-up, since Linux is supposed to have a much smaller footprint than code-bloated Windows.
Linux with the X windowing system has had multiple desktops since it was created (a carryover from other unices like Sun, SGI, and BSD). So that isn't the new technology. It just used to do that in 2D. I always use four desktops as a habit from years back. But you could have 5, 6, 7, 8, or whatever. At some point though, more desktops don't serve much of a purpose
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So, if you use Gentoo, it compiles the program specific to your hardware--what percentage of benefit would someone get from that? Is that going to be significant for the average user, or would it only be needed by someone who is doing some kind of unusual application, such as a dual-processor server stuffing millions of web sales into an oracle database?
I have been wanting to give Linux another try, so maybe Suse is it. Any caveats before I just wipe my PC and install it? Favorie forums to consult?
Also, RE the speed issue. you notice the improvement more if you are running a server. However, these days, I notice it on the front end as well. My brand new computer came with Vista installed, and it was sluggish. I wiped it out and installed suse 10.2 and it is the fastest thing I've ever owned.
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What OS is that? I'm probably not even qualified to ask questions about that presentation, but how'd you get all those nifty visual effects and whatnot going on?
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It's a great way to organize your open apps--I wonder why nobody thought of it before. It looks like all the threads of a single app are grouped by default, but what if you have more than 4 (or 6?) apps open at a time? I guess I don't usually do that, I just can't help but wonder about things like that, being a programmer type.
I installed Mandrake Linux on my laptop, but was very disappointed by the performance, so I ended up not using it for long. Is Mandrake known for being slow? I guess I expected a big speed-up, since Linux is supposed to have a much smaller footprint than code-bloated Windows.
Reply
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I have been wanting to give Linux another try, so maybe Suse is it. Any caveats before I just wipe my PC and install it? Favorie forums to consult?
Reply
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