XGL demo

[matt74441]

The demo is kind of neat, but is the direction that Linux on the desktop is going? Like back when Windows XP came out and the whole Start Panel and new look of the OS was introduced, I thought it was amazing. A month later, I was back to the classic theme and the classic start menu. I think that the whole Aero thing is just a gimic, and people are going to get tired of it.

[Joni_78]

The demo is kind of neat, but is the direction that Linux on the desktop is going? Like back when Windows XP came out and the whole Start Panel and new look of the OS was introduced, I thought it was amazing. A month later, I was back to the classic theme and the classic start menu. I think that the whole Aero thing is just a gimic, and people are going to get tired of it.

I agree.

Btw. It was really interesting to see on that video how smooth everything was, playing two videos at the same time and still played those goodies.

[ichi]

The demo is kind of neat, but is the direction that Linux on the desktop is going? Like back when Windows XP came out and the whole Start Panel and new look of the OS was introduced, I thought it was amazing. A month later, I was back to the classic theme and the classic start menu. I think that the whole Aero thing is just a gimic, and people are going to get tired of it.

AFAIK E17 wont be implementing support for this opengl thing, so no, I don't think this is THE direction the linux desktop is going, just another option.

[MrA]

The demo is kind of neat, but is the direction that Linux on the desktop is going? Like back when Windows XP came out and the whole Start Panel and new look of the OS was introduced, I thought it was amazing. A month later, I was back to the classic theme and the classic start menu. I think that the whole Aero thing is just a gimic, and people are going to get tired of it.

I think it is. Not so much for the fancy effects (the wobbly one get's a bit annoying), but for the core system. The last major update to the rendering framework was back when XAA was introduced a long time ago. We need a new way to render X which makes use of the current graphics technology and this is it. Although it would be much better if all the *NIX vendors came together and created an X12. Now that would rock.

@ichi: I think E17 and XGL are more parallel than complementary. On one hand (E17), you have some desktop thinkgy (WM) which uses X to do it's rendering. On the other hand (XGL), you have the thing which renders X. So one makes use of the other. Now combine the two and you'll have one kick-ass desktop.

[ichi]

@ichi: I think E17 and XGL are more parallel than complementary. On one hand (E17), you have some desktop thinkgy (WM) which uses X to do it's rendering. On the other hand (XGL), you have the thing which renders X. So one makes use of the other. Now combine the two and you'll have one kick-ass desktop.

I thought Rasterman was talking about XGL here... is it unrelated then?

[matt74441]

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_XGL

I was reading this and I found out that my video card in my laptop is compatible. Do I dare try it?

[Borbus]

I just got XGL installed and running silky smooth on Ubuntu Dapper Drake by following this guide: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=131267

It is really impressive, the effects run smoothly and flawlessly. Wobbling windows is fun and making them stick to other windows is cool. The F12 expose-like function is great and so is the alt-tab, the selected windows glows when you alt-tab to it.

FYI, i'm running it on a Athlon XP 2500+, 1GB pc2700, GF 6600GT.

@Rob2687: Did you try turning auto-detect refresh rate off and setting refresh rate to 60Hz in gconf-editor? When I first used it the wobbliness was a bit off but that setting solved that.

[Rob2687]

Actually that has been fixed already in the CVS repository dealy. ;)

[Borbus]

One thing I haven't worked out how to do yet is change the opacity of windows. Anyone know how?

[Rob2687]

Somebody wrote an opacity plugin but its not part of the official Compiz source.

http://www.downwithnumbers.com/compiz_plugins.html

[coxis]

I put some links together on my blog : http://coxis.simple-by-design.org.uk/2006/02/28/xgl/

[Grandaevus]

For all that want to check out Xgl but don't have the time/skills to get it running you got satisfaction guaranteed with this Gentoo based LIVE CD :D

http://getkororaa.com/

[theotherdave]

Wow, that live CD is amazing. Not only do the effects run smoothly on my machine (Duron 2400, 512MB RAM, nvidia 5200FX), it's also the fastest, smoothest live CD I've ever run! It runs faster and smoother than dsl :o !!

[hotwire]

Probably RedHat/Fedora or SuSe... But for the moment you need an ATI Video Card, or at least the newest NVIDIA Chipsets :(

I don't think you want either of those... I have a ATI 9600 pro. It's fairly old and out dated... and guess what? i still can't install Fedora without the video card problem. Even ubuntu can deal with it. But if u want to play game and have nice graphics. I would think the glx acceleration must be enabled which would be a pain in the ass. talking about compiling kernels and etc. :wacko: :| :|

[ViperSnake]

gForce4 Intergrated...512mb ram...2079ghz, runs very smooth, and the effects are amazing! Now if only Vista's effects could be that extensive without lag like this one.

[Rob2687]

Some of it still runs on software acceleration until the manufacturers release new drivers. Which is probably why it's so smooth for a lot of people seeing as most people these days run pretty powerful CPUs. I wonder if it will still run as well when it's completely off the GPU.

[markwolfe Veteran]

^^^ I would imagine that running GUI effects off the CPU would be much worse than off the graphics card. :ermm:

[ichi]

Specially while installing something through portage, or just compiling anything. Portage at least can be re-niced easily, but I can't be bothered to set the niceness for every cpu-intensive process.

[Subaru]

Didnt work here :pinch:

P4 2.4Ghz, 1GB RAM and ATI 9000

I know, i know, ATI is barely supported but i wanted to give it a try after watching such a wonderful video :laugh:

[Blue Fire]

I got it working with my x600 it took some work though, however i am a complete linux newb, (2 weeks of breezy ubuntu before this)

ATI users can install rather easily and quite safely, just dont use it to store important stuff

1. go get ubuntu dapper drake. Make a partition for it and install ( DO NOT USE THIS PARTITION FOR IMPORTANT FILES - THINGS CAN GO WRONG) http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/flight6?high...C%28download%29

2. install ati fglrx drivers. Search ubuntu wiki for info about this, its really rather easy. Reconfigure x so that fglrxinfo readers ati and not mesa. Again easy, but do some searching on the ubuntu sites to learn whats going on.

3. follow this guide https://wiki.ubuntu.com/xglati?highlight=%28xglati%29. First half use whichever method, but later on use stand alone instructions. This allows you to select XGL or regular GNOME session from the login and is very good for enewbs, so if you get lost and stuck you can simply restart and log in with regular gui.

ati x*** users (eg. my x600 pro) might have hardlocking issues. check here for info about fixing them https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XglHowto

hopefuly that will work for you lot. Be patient though, it's quite buggy.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

^^^ I would imagine that running GUI effects off the CPU would be much worse than off the graphics card. :ermm:

It is, that's why they are offloading drawing to the GPU.

If you don't have PixelShader 2 support, video is done in Software Mode, that's very slow (apparently)

[Tarzan2k]

I hope they finish it soon! Xorg bye, bye :D

[ichi]

I hope they finish it soon! Xorg bye, bye :D

Xorg will still be there, xgl is being merged into xorg7.1

[betamaxman]

Why bother with all this agony transparent windows and menus and drop shadows have been possible in kde for some time now, and 3ddesktops has been around for years, has well has an expose thing. As for the wobbly and click together windows lol, "tools for fools", IMO. :cool:

[SaguratuS]

Why bother with all this agony transparent windows and menus and drop shadows have been possible in kde for some time now, and 3ddesktops has been around for years, has well has an expose thing. As for the wobbly and click together windows lol, "tools for fools", IMO. :cool:

I cannot begin to tell you how wrong you are. I've been using XGL for 4 months now, and I've seen firsthand what it's capable of (I cvs update/rebuild nightly). Even still, the video I made a month ago (https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=456614) is lacking quite a few things. The composite extension & manager are still not stable enough to use constantly, as performance would steadily degrade over time. XGL on the other hand doesn't suffer from these issues even though it's still very new (not counting miniwin/min plugins). The 3d desktop is just the beginning of this technology, and saying "tools for fools" is like saying the windows 3.1 GUI should still be in use.

Even wobbly/snap plugins have more use than you think. They allow you to throw windows offscreen, peek around windows, throw windows to an edge or corner, or even quickly organize quite a few open shells. Granted, these uses are limited with smaller screens, there's still a ton more coming.