new desktop effects...Vista's got nuthin on this

[350Xhilaration]

Got Beryl installed and working. Some stuff is really cool but would get old after a while.

http://www.350xriders.com/screenshot.jpg
http://www.350xriders.com/screenshot2.jpg
http://www.350xriders.com/screenshot3.jpg

[ccdhowell]

Dang that's weird. Hard to read. I haven't seen Vista yet, but I'll stick with XP for a while more.

[350Xhilaration]

That's only a screenshot of the 4 workspaces being rotated in a cube. When you're using the PC everything is flat and normal.

Check out this vid... (http://youtube.com/watch?v=G3p8IBNNd88)

Gives a better idea of the effects than a screenshot can do.

[Dirtcrasher]

Thats sum crazy chit! I wonder how much memory it takes to run that program.....

[350Xhilaration]

It's not bad at all. I was running it on a PIII 1,000 with 512 RAM and a GeForce 2 GTS 32MB vid card. I popped in a ti4400 card and it made no apparent difference in performance.

Compare that to the specs needed for Aero Glass in Vista...total joke.

Cool to bend a window out of the way...
http://www.350xriders.com/screenshot4.jpg

[Howdy]

I like it!!!

Edited: I found the answers I was looking for.

Howdy

[ScottZJ]

Hey man, that looks pretty cool. I thought about loading that on one of my machines just to play with it. I know one thing, its probably 4 time better than Vista, since Vista requires 1 gig of ram just to function corretly. I think alot more users are going to switch to another OS besides microsoft.

[350Xhilaration]

Vista requires 1 gig of ram just to function corretly

and that's just to get the OS up and running, let alone the Aero Glass effects. You need a vid card that is DirectX9 and the processor and RAM have to meet the minimum performance requirements (set by a utility that will run and "grade" your system...by M$ of course) or the Aero Glass options are totally hidden and not able to be activated.

I'm working today to get kiba-dock (http://http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=kiba+dock&hl=en) working. Another not needed thing, but looks fun.

Here's a lengthy vid of a lot of the features...click here for vid (http://http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5771298210255313600&q=kiba+dock&hl=en)

[Dave223]

So what exactly is Beryl and whats the purpose? I think its cool and would be fun to play with. I googled it but I dunno if I had the right page, Link?

[OldSchoolin86]

Is this thing just for fun because I can't see what other purpose it serves?

[Billy Golightly]

Rhuel I've been trying to get Fedora installed, but I've downloaded and burnt the first CD ISO image twice now and both times its failed the consistency check?

[ScottZJ]

Its basically a Windows manager within the Lunix environment and maybe Macs. Here are a few sites that help tell what it is and how to use it.

http://applications.linux.com/applications/06/11/08/1527207.shtml?tid=13

http://applications.linux.com/applications/06/09/29/1943228.shtml?tid=13


Billy, are you trying to install the Fedora Core 6? If so, I have saved a good site that has known issues, plugins and drivers that helped me out when I installed it.

http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc6.html#problems

[Billy Golightly]

Yeah Scott, Core 6. I had thought about trying to go ahead and install anyways even though the cd failed the consistency check but I knew it was risky at best if I did. I'll checkout that link.

[86waterpumper]

That looks cool, but I see no real purpose in it, anymore than I do in vista. Linux (and winxp both with powertoys) have had a four desktop environment for awhile. I like speed, and none of that 3d window crap is going to be condusive to that whether it be on linux or windows in my opinion. I like linux and have fooled with it before, but the problem with it as always is hardware support. Unless computers are your only hobby it's not worth the time and effort to get even small things (such as usb, drive controllers etc) to work right. Also plenty of windows apps still don't work right on emulators, and always run slower. The nail in the coffin for vista though for me is not system requirements, my core 2 duo rig with 2gig of ram would run it just fine, however it is gay that all drivers must be certified and signed before they will work. This is going to cause a great deal of headaches for a long time to come. It will also raise the price of hardware, and we will all suffer because of it. It will put many smaller companies under. Case in point, we use exclusively a4tech mice at work with autocad, because they have dual scrolling wheels. I can promise you they won't have a certified driver to make the 2nd wheel functional so that is reason alone we will never run it here at work. The only cool feature I have heard about yet in vista is the readyboost feature but I don't think it will outweigh the negatives at least for a good while.

[502SS]

The nail in the coffin for vista though for me is not system requirements, my core 2 duo rig with 2gig of ram would run it just fine, however it is gay that all drivers must be certified and signed before they will work. This is going to cause a great deal of headaches for a long time to come. It will also raise the price of hardware, and we will all suffer because of it.

Comments like that amaze me. That comment has been made by others, who are ironically the same people that complain because they say Windows is "unstable".

[86waterpumper]

OH well to each his own. I guess you and I are very different. If I am going to lay down my hard earned money for a new OS, I dang well better be able to load whatever driver I want to for it. I haven't ever complained of xp being unstable. I believe that it as well as 2000 are very stable indeed, compared to what 98 was they are leaps ahead. However, this is certainly not due to running "certified" drivers because very few of the ones on my system ever are. This is due to the fact that alot of companies simply do not release certified drivers for their products, and I"m not just talking about some weird hardware made in a sweatshop by starving pygmies or some such I am talking about high end expensive hardware. How long has xp been out now six years? Even now alot of drivers aren't certified and now suddenly everything has to be? Xp warns you already if a driver isn't certified, and if the system is unstable simply due to one driver one can easily uninstall it or use the system restore. I agree that for business environments it helps to be standardized and this may help to keep those computers running better. I can possibly see microsoft putting this stipulation on the business version of vista, after all there are 20 different versions relased lol. What about the gamers though, or people that like to run beta drivers or 3rd party video card drivers that are written to increase speed or have tweaks? I'll tell you what they will continue to run xp, unless all the hardware manufacturers get onboard very quickly, and I doubt that will happen as quick as everyone wants. I would hate to be a tech support person right now, I doubt people are going to listen very kindly to "upgrade nearly every piece of hardware you own, or email the companies who made them and beg for drivers"

[ScottZJ]

Well I guess with Vista you could maybe run a serial mouse and get your resolution 480x600 and dont try to run an excel program and an access data base without it locking up. Or you could pay out the ying yang and buy all the stuff that microsoft tells you to buy. I dont consider that a "personal" computer. I think microsoft is getting the hitler mentality. haha

[350Xhilaration]

This was intended to be a shot at Vista's Aero Glass and similar effects. Not Linux is better than Windows or Vista is worse or better than XP.

Vista is touting their new effects on TV commercial ads and people will rush out to buy the OS because they think their pc will do those cool things. Problem is when they install it. Unless they have systems like what you have Willie, they get nothing more than an inconvenient incarnation ox XP.

I've run Vista Enterprise Edition for a month or two on a beefy system and was annoyed to death by all the popup security messages..."this program wants to do something...do you want to allow this?" Even as an Admin privelged user...gimme a break.

These effects I'm using have no other value than to be eye candy...and to prove that you can run average hardware and get extremely cool 3d effects FOR FREE!!

[502SS]

I simply said people have made that comment, not that you did/have. I'm sorry, but it's just a little ironic that people want a system that you can install/tweak any and every aspect, install any piece of software known to man, then get to complain if something doesn't work right.
I could care less if people stick with XP, it's not like I make any money from Vista sales :-)
Last I knew (correct me if I'm wrong), it did not cost anything other than a little more R&D to get driver cert, so I'm not sure how it would drive up the price on hardware much (unless the manufacturer uses that for a greedy excuse)
I think this is going to be a lot like it was when XP came out. Everybody is going to freak out about hardware requirements, a lot of people will upgrade systems with the bare minimum requirements (and lead to very slow computers), and a lot of people will try and find every possible flaw out there.
I think the upgrades will be the worst because yes, people see all the "cool" things this new OS will do, and think it will also make their old clunker run better.

[oldsking86]

Starting to sound like dell computers with everything certified and such.... just continuing the monopoly frame of business I guess

[86waterpumper]

I do see the point of the thread, sorry to have gotten it off track. You can obviously do the same 3d window effects with linux with alot less hardware, it really shoudln't take alot of hardware anyway I mean it's not like it has to be rendered at lightning speed like games do etc. Most people I know or hear talking about vista at work don't even know anything about the aero features, all they know is that it's the newest version of windows so it must be better in every way and aspect, and the necessity to rush out and get it is great. Like Scottzj and I were discussing, you go to walmart or best buy or wherever, and there you see some crappy emachine or whatever it is with 512 mb of ram and a celeron and yet it's being touted as a vista ready machine. Most poor saps won't have a clue that it won't look much better at all than xp and the sad thing is, probably over 50 percent won't ever know about or miss aero they just want to be able to tell their friends, my new computer has vista etc. 502 you are right, there are plenty of people that think whatever new OS is out will make their clunker work better. I don't know how many times I've told people on the frontend that their computer woudln't be any faster or better with xp because it was older, and would in fact run slower, and yet they still act surprised when this is the end result. I do like the concept and idea of linux, and I wish more hardware manufacturer's would get behind it and write some drivers instead of it solely resting on the heads of hobbyists or whoever in the general public is dealing with open source. It's a catch 22 I guess, no hardware people are going to really take linux seriously until a large customer base is running it, and not alot of people are going to switch over till more hardware support is available. I bet it is harder than you know though to get a windows certified driver stamp of approval. I am betting it comes down to padding microsoft's pockets a bit more than it does some simple r&d work. Next time I get another old computer in I think I will load linux on it and tinker with it some more, and see how much the hardware support has improved in the last couple years I definately agree about the nag screens being very annoying...sort of ironic, I"m sure as usual microsoft is blowing on about how much more work can be accomplished on vista, and yet here are users steadily clicking things to give their computer permission to do whatever it was they told it to do in the first place HAHHAHA

[350Xhilaration]

Next time I get another old computer in I think I will load linux on it and tinker with it some more, and see how much the hardware support has improved in the last couple years...

You'll be amazed at the level of support for most things. Wireless is getting waaay better and USB and printing seem to work very easily.

If you install Fedora Core 6 on almost any machine you'll have video/sound/printing/usb support out of the gate with no tweaking. Heck, you can download a live DVD of Sabayon linux and it has bundled a playable demo of Quake4. Somehow they figured out how to get a 3D shooter to run at decent framerates off a LiveCD. I couldn't believe it while I was playing the level (you only get one level). Open Source has come a loong way over the last several years. Dive in and give it a whirl!!

To get this beryl and kiba-dock stuff to work wasn't the simplest though. Both are pretty new.

[OldSchoolin86]

OH well to each his own. I guess you and I are very different. If I am going to lay down my hard earned money for a new OS, I dang well better be able to load whatever driver I want to for it. I haven't ever complained of xp being unstable. Holy crap! No wonder the vista "adviser" didn't like a bunch of my software! I think it will be a very long time before I even consider touching that one. XP has been very good to me too.

The reason I asked about the purpose of the desktop effects is because I watched the video and didn't really get the point. It looked like it bounced around a lot to get little done. If it could do those effects and quickly allow you to navagate it could be cool. Maybe the video gave me the wrong idea.

[El'Capitan]

hmm, i saved the money from buying vista...got a bootleg from my friend that works at CompUSA, the spent the money on another 7950GT ... mmmm sli.

[350Xhilaration]

The reason I asked about the purpose of the desktop effects is because I watched the video and didn't really get the point. It looked like it bounced around a lot to get little done. If it could do those effects and quickly allow you to navagate it could be cool. Maybe the video gave me the wrong idea.


Some stuff is really cool but would get old after a while.


The dock is annoying in the vid. I got it working on my system and run it with small launcher icons and it autohides. With the beryl, I can autohide the systray and when I move the mouse near the top of the screen a live mini-preview window shows up with each active window I have open as I move across the top of the screen. So while working I have no icons or trays onscreen.

http://www.350xriders.com/kibascreen2.png

[xd 200x]

Mandriva ftw

Billy if you need a copy of mandriva, a better linux 3d desktop pm me your addy.

P.s running it in 3d all the time stresses your graphix card to all hell. I had to boot leg a copy of vista just to have it. Not impressed

[350Xhilaration]

Try not to take offense xd, but this isn't an "opinions post" on Linux distros. I just wanted to "showcase" some cool effects that are available in the open-source world. Sabayon, Unbuntu, Gentoo, Slackware, Fedora, Mandriva, etc. can all run 3D desktops equally well.

Point again was Vista is a resource hog.

As far as stressing the vid card...I seem to have no problems. Fluid effects even when running multiple apps on multiple screens all while rotating the "cube". With cube transparency on and videos running on all four screens, playback is fluid. Even while moving windows with "wobbly windows" enabled.