Compiz by default ?

[Michael Vogt]

On Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 05:32:03PM +0100, Andrew Price wrote:
> On 15/08/07 10:46, Michael Vogt wrote:
[..]
> > The effects tab in the apperance capplet should also
> > get some additional text that explains that desktop effects may cause
> > issues with windowed 3d applications.
> 
> Agreed, but it's a shame this needs to be done.

Yes, the problems with windowed 3d are serious, no doubt about it.

> In summary, I think desktop effects should be made easily discoverable
> without pushing it in the user's face. Perhaps gutsy+2 would be a good
> point to start thinking seriously about enabling it by default but I
> think there are too many issues that still need thinking about (has
> power consumption been discussed yet?). If the setting is discoverable
> then those who want the bling will find it. Personally, I tried it for a
> bit and then turned it off to speed things up and give my laptop battery
> some respite. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't turn it off after
> a few days.

I'm not sure about the "turn it off" argument anymore. This used to be
the case for wobbly windows etc, but especially with our default
settings the effects are fairly low and shouldn't get in the way too
much.
 
> Anyhoo, the community at large seems to be talking about compiz by
> default at the moment. The Fedora devel list has a recent thread with
> some good points made here (sharing the knowledge, and all that):
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-August/msg00559.html

I read the thread and their consensus seems to be that the problems
with windowed 3d applications is too big to enable compiz by default
and that they want to wait for redirected direct rendering [1].

There was also a lot of talk about increased power consumption, but I
could not reproduce this with some simple powertop measurments on a
i830 based laptop with or without compiz. At any rate, I have not seen
any hard numbers yet that back this claim. I would be interessted in
data :)

Cheers,
 Michael

[1] http://hoegsberg.blogspot.com/2007/08/redirected-direct-rendering.html