Compiz
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 Screenshot showing the Cube plugin for Compiz on Fedora. |
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| Developer(s) | David Reveman, Sam Spilsbury, Danny Baumann, Dennis Kasprzyk |
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| Initial release | 2006 |
| Stable release | 0.8.8 / March 30, 2011 |
| Preview release | 0.9.5.0[1] / July 14, 2011 |
| Written in | C, C++, using OpenGL |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Type | Window manager |
| License | GPL, core: MIT license |
| Website | compiz.org |
Compiz is one of the early compositing window managers for the X Window System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. The effects, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace are implemented as loadable plugins. Because it conforms to the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual standard, Compiz can be used as a substitute for the default Mutter or Metacity respectively when using GNOME Panel or KWin in KDE Plasma Workspaces.
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[edit] Hardware requirements
Initially, Compiz only worked with 3D hardware which was supported by Xgl. Most NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards are known to work with Compiz on Xgl. Since May 22, 2006 Compiz works on the standard X.Org Server, by using AIGLX. Besides the Intel GMA graphics cards, AIGLX also supports using the AMD graphics cards (including R300 and newer cards) using the open-source radeon driver which supports GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap since fall 2006.
NVIDIA's binary drivers (since Version 1.0-9629) support GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap on standard X.Org server.
ATI/AMD's binary drivers do since version 8.42.[2]
[edit] History
The first version of Compiz was released as free software by Novell (SUSE) in January 2006 in the wake of the (also new) Xgl.
In March 2006 Compiz was ported to AIGLX by Red Hat.[3]
[edit] Beryl
Beryl was the project name for the quinnstorm branch of Compiz, announced on 19 September 2006 after Compiz developer Quinn Storm and the development team decided that the fork had come too far from the original Compiz started by Novell (compiz-vanilla). After the Novell XGL/Compiz team (mostly David Reveman) refused the proposition to merge the Quinnstorm changes with compiz-vanilla, the decision was made to make a real differentiation.[4]
Among the differences to Compiz, Beryl had a new window decorator named Emerald based on cgwd along with a theme manager called emerald-theme-manager, used a flat file backend instead of gconf, and had no GNOME dependencies.
[edit] Merge of the Compiz and Beryl communities
On March 30, 2007, discussions between the Beryl (a fork of Compiz) and Compiz communities led to a merger of the two communities which results in two new software packages:
- Compiz, (also Compiz-core) which contains only the core functionality of compiz and base plugins
- Compiz Fusion,[5] consisting of the plugins, decorators, settings tools and related applications from the Beryl and Compiz communities. Compiz Fusion concentrates on installation, configuration and additional plugins to add to the core functionalities of Compiz.
Outcomes include plans to fund a code review panel consisting of the best developers from each community who will see that any code included in a release package meets the highest standards and is suitable for distribution in an officially supported package.[6][7][8]
[edit] Further branches
In the fourth quarter of 2008, two separate branches of Compiz were created: compiz++ and NOMAD; compiz++ was geared toward the separation of compositing and OpenGL layers for the rendering of the window manager without compositing effects, and the port from C to C++ programming language.[9] NOMAD was geared towards the improvement of remote desktop performance for Compiz installations.[10] However NOMAD is now defunct.
[edit] Merge of the Compiz branches
On February 2, 2009 a conference call was held between developers of Compiz, Compiz++, NOMAD and Compiz Fusion where it was decided to merge the projects together into a unified project, simply named Compiz, with a unified roadmap.[11][12][13]
[edit] Compiz 0.9 series
On July 4, 2010, Sam Spilsbury announced the release of Compiz 0.9.0, still in unstable release, with a new API, rewritten in C++.[14]
Canonical Ltd. has hired Sam Spilsbury, lead Compiz developer, to further develop Compiz for Ubuntu.[15]
[edit] Features
Almost all available Compiz features – except translucency, dimming, and desaturation – are put into plugins.
Compiz plugins include the famous cube effect, Alt-Tab application-switching with live previews or icons, and a feature similar to Exposé. The Composite extension to X is used, as is the OpenGL extension GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap.[16]
The Compiz project categorizes the plugins into four main groups: Main[17], Extra[18], Unsupported[19], and Experimental.[20]
Compiz uses small programs called decorators which draw the window borders with the usual minimize, maximize and close buttons. Compiz provides three window decorators.
- gtk-window-decorator uses either a basic cairo-based rendering engine or can use Metacity themes.[21]
- kde-window-decorator uses native KWin themes.[22]
- Emerald a custom decorator with its own theme format that has been ported to Compiz.[23] It used to be Beryl’s default decorator.
[edit] Deployments
Compiz or Beryl have usually been deployed on Linux and other X11-based Unix-like platforms together with GNOME 2.x and KDE’s K Desktop Environment 3. Since version 4.2, however, KDE’s own KWin ships with capabilities similar to Compiz.[24] As such, KWin is usually deployed by default.
Since version 3.0 GNOME defaults to GNOME Shell requires Mutter as compositing window manager as it is set up as a Mutter plugin.[25]
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and later included Compiz in the universe apt repository. A limited version was included by default as “Desktop Effects” in Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). Since Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), Compiz Fusion is enabled by default.[26] Unlike other GNOME-centric distributors, Canonical has not adopted GNOME Shell and has instead developed Unity as new user interface which is written as plugin for Compiz.[27][28]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Compiz Releases". http://releases.compiz.org/. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
- ^ "AMD Proprietary Linux Release Notes". .ati.com. http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.42.3.html#188413. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ http://www.osnews.com/comments/13894
- ^ "Compiz Forked: Beryl". http://www.osnews.com/story/15888/Compiz_Forked_Beryl. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
- ^ https://smspillaz.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/and-the-new-name-is/
- ^ Storm, Quinn. "[beryl-dev Merge On (details still to be decided)"]. http://lists.beryl-project.org/pipermail/beryl-dev/2007-March/000356.html. Retrieved 2007-03-23.
- ^ Carr, Robert. "[beryl-dev Beryl and Compiz Merge: What's actually going on?"]. http://lists.beryl-project.org/pipermail/beryl-dev/2007-March/000371.html. Retrieved 2007-03-25.
- ^ Laramie, Jeffrey. "[compiz Compiz and Beryl are Reuniting"]. http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/compiz/2007-April/001809.html. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
- ^ Compiz feature branch compiz++, Dennis "onestone" Kasprzyk, Wed Dec 24 04:48:17 PST 2008
- ^ NOMAD home page
- ^ "Compiz Reorganises, Reaches Consensus Within Community". http://www.osnews.com/story/20950/Compiz_Reorganises_Reaches_Consensus_Within_Community. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
- ^ Lyngstøl, Kristian. "The Future of Compiz - Take two". http://kristianlyng.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/the-future-of-compiz-take-two/. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
- ^ Lyngstøl, Kristian. "Announcement: Creation of the Compiz Council and the road ahead". http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/compiz/2009-February/003284.html. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
- ^ "[compiz] Compiz 0.9.2 is released!". lists.freedesktop.org. http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/compiz/2010-October/003446.html. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
- ^ Sam Spilsbury (2010-11-25). "A bright new future for Compiz". http://smspillaz.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/a-bright-new-future-for-compiz/. "…I was also hired by Canonical Ltd.…"
- ^ http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/EXT/texture_from_pixmap.txt
- ^ http://wiki.compiz.org/PluginsMain
- ^ http://wiki.compiz.org/PluginsExtra
- ^ http://wiki.compiz.org/PluginsUnsupported
- ^ http://wiki.compiz.org/OtherPlugins
- ^ http://wiki.compiz.org/Decorators/GTKWindowDecorator
- ^ http://wiki.compiz.org/Decorators/KDEWindowDecorator
- ^ http://wiki.compiz.org/Decorators/Emerald
- ^ http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.2/
- ^ Taylor, Owen (2009-03-23). "Metacity, Mutter, GNOME Shell, GNOME-2.28". desktop-devel-list mailing list. http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2009-March/msg00106.html. "gnome-shell is set up as a Mutter plugin that is largely written in JavaScript"
- ^ ArsTechnica: Ubuntu Technical Board votes on Compiz for Ubuntu 7.10
- ^ fluteflute (2010-11-13). "Is unity just a plugin of compiz". http://askubuntu.com/questions/13073/is-unity-just-a-plugin-of-compiz. "The version of Unity that will be released in 11.04 is definitely implemented as plugin(s) in Compiz."
- ^ Unity To Use Compiz instead of Mutter [Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal News] ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog
- Notes
- Official Compiz site (redirects to the Compiz page to freedesktop.org)
- Compiz community forum
- Compiz on AIGLX
- A Simple Compiz Plugin Walkthrough
- Compiz source code
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Compiz |
- The Compiz website
- Video demonstration of IBM motion sensor integration
- Freedesktop.org wiki for Compiz
- Video Card Support Under XGL
- Linux Edge report Compiz Window Manager Released - Slides, screenshots and a video with more effects
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