"Beryl 0.2.0 will be released shortly and I spent time the last week testing out Beryl 0.2.0 RC2 on Kubuntu's Edgy Eft. The improvements found in 0.2.0 are simply amazing. Improvements in usability features, improvements in the pure 3D eye candy, and even the Beryl Settings Manager has been improved (the layout has become much more logically laid out). As you read through this preview of Beryl 0.2.0 and see some of the screenshots, I think you will get a firm grasp on how impressive Beryl can be. Basically, Beryl makes OS X and Vista look old and antiquated."
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Member since:2005-11-11
Also no it's not just candy, there are some great usability features (like a thumbnail based application switcher and visual cues regarding virtual desktops, amongst others).
I've been using Beryl for a while now, and I'm not sold on the utility of thumbnail views in the switcher. All my apps tend to look the same from afar (suddenly Apple's use of many different styles is making sense). All I see is mostly white windows with black text smudges scattered about. I find it a lot easier to identify an app by its icon, especially since icons are made to be unique and easily identifiable.
The one time thumbnails are of use is when I have several windows of the same app open (a browser say, though tabs mean that isn't often) AND IF the pages in each window have a different overall color scheme. Otherwise the thumbnail is too small to enable me to tell them apart at a quick glance.
Now, some features do help usability. In X11, I love being able to scroll a window without giving it the focus. So, I can scroll a browser window thats underneath the Kword window in which I'm typing, so the part of the page I want to see isn't obscured by Kword. Can do this without kword losing focus, win. Beryl goes a step further. (optionally) mousing over the obscured window makes the foreground window see through so I can see the obscured window, without having to activate it. In fact, I can keep typing in Kword.
This could be done before by manually setting Kwords opacity, but it's pretty cool to have it happen automatically on mouseovers. Some would hate it I guess, but that's why it's an option, and why I never understand people who want to remove options.
Member since:
2006-09-10
Early versions of Compiz had that prblem, but it's not something I've seen for some time (a year?).
My scrolling performance is identical now.
However my window dragging, minimising, maximising, creation and destruction are far smoother now that I'm using a composited desktop.
Also no it's not just candy, there are some great usability features (like a thumbnail based application switcher and visual cues regarding virtual desktops, amongst others).