Blog

Update: Since I made this post in September 2006, things have changed. Compiz-Quinn has changed its name to Beryl, and up-to-date installation instructions are available for Ubuntu Edgy and Ubuntu Feisty

Well, I got my laptop on Friday (15th September). I must say, the Inspiron 6400 was definately a good choice. The only thing I don't really like about it is the reflectiveness of the TrueLife screen, but I suppose I'll get used to it (the colours are definately more vivid, and it has better contrast... The screen looks absolutely awesome when playing games!). Anyways, one of the first things I did was partition the drive, and install Ubuntu Linux 😃. Once I did this, the first thing I did was install i8kutils and Gkrellm (so that I could control the speed of the fan, to make sure it doesn't overheat), and then install the ATI Drivers for the X1400 (called 'FGLRX'). Everything was working excellently (see screenshot)

After everything was done, I thought about what to install. I remember my friend telling me about something called 'Compiz', but I couldn't remember how to install it. After searching for a while, I found a nice tutorial on installing GLX/Compiz. It appeared to be quite easy to do, so I followed the instructions on the tutorial. And, it works perfectly! 😄 It comes with heaps of themes, and there are some similar to the upcoming Windows Vista. Take a look at this:

Look at the title bar of the 'Home Directory' window. That's called a 'glass effect', and is quite nice...

Another thing implemented in Compiz is window transparency: You can make a window semi-transparent. For example, look at this screenshot of my home directory on top of Opera (with the Google site open). I've faded the window out a bit, so it's partially transparent:

Nice, huh? Yet another thing in Compiz is multiple desktops. Sure, Linux has support for multiple workplaces in-built (the selector on the bottom-right hand side of Gnome). However, Compiz improves on it vastly, making all the virtual desktops into one large cube:

I thought the cube was interesting, but something really interesting is if you run VMWare in fullscreen mode. You can make it appear as if you're running multiple operating systems at once... Take a look:

In addition to all of this, Compiz has heaps of other effects which I couldn't take screenshots of (including wobbly windows - windows wobble as you drag them, windows 'zoom in' when you start a program, and 'zoom out' when you exit it, and a lot more)... If you'd like to get Compiz working, and have an ATI graphics card, first get the ATI Linux drivers (FGLRX) working (see http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Dapper_Installation_Guide for a tutorial. Make sure you follow the second bit of the tutorial, to install version 8.28.8). Then, follow the Compiz tutorial, as found at http://www.compiz.net/topic-389-1.html (I followed the second howto, as I personally think it's better to have Compiz as a seperate session... Have fun! 😃

Anyways, I think this is probably the longest blog post I've written, ever 😛