Users of Compiz, a window manager that provides pretty visual effects, know that a lot of those effects are just for fun...Personally, I am most concerned with the Compiz plugins that add functionality to my desktop. There are plenty of those too. I am going to outline some of my favorites and most useful.

Compiz has a lot of nice effects that are mostly useless. In my quest to find a work place without distraction compiz effects doesn’t really fit it. Here are five effects that I actually found useful...

Today we soldier on to Desktop Effects with Compiz Fusion. It can be safely said that few features are as keenly desired as Desktop Effects. Ever since Compiz was announced XXX years ago, users and developers have been playing with the bling-tastic effects and wondering when it will hit a desktop near them. Well, the wait is no longer.

Compiz is one of the first compositing window managers for the X Window System that is able to take advantage of OpenGL-acceleration. The integration allows it to perform compositing effects in window management, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace. Compiz conforms to the ICCCM standard and as such can substitute for the default Metacity in GNOME or KWin in KDE.

So you’ve followed the latest series on KDE 4.5 and you are now using the spectacular latest release from the KDE team. You want to use Compiz, but quickly realize that it is not necessary as KDE has it’s own built-in compositing effects. In this article I am going to introduce you to the KDE Desktop Effects manager and how to use it to make your KDE desktop experience as sleek as it can be.

One of the coolest things about Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) are its new “Desktop Effects”. Desktop Effects are really a combination of two opensource components written by Novell’s David Reveman, Compiz and Xgl.

Don't have a graphics card capable of running desktop effects with Compiz on Ubuntu? By enabling compositing in GNOME's default Metacity window manager, you get some eye candy and can run applications that require or benefit from a compositing window manager.

Installed CompizConfig Settings Manager and are wondering where the custom visual effects setting has gone? The way this works has changed in Ubuntu 8.04.

I installed KDE4 on my desktop today so I could finally try out KWin in all its glory. If you haven't tried it yet I highly recommend it. KDE4 with desktop effects enabled is simply gorgeous. It's fast, responsive, and comes with a nice array of effects options.