Compiz could be back on Linux in no time

Compiz

With him alone listening to Compiz can bring some nostalgia to many of us and mainly for all those who entered the world of Linux and started exploring and modifying their desktops with those great Compiz effects.

From a server boot into Linux actively on what was Ubuntu version 10.04 and from there I have had various GNU/Linux systems on my computers without stopping using them.

In those years it was a sensation in forums and blogs the power show off your desktop environment with Compiz effects.

Over the years many of the Linux environments and distributions began to have compatibility problems with Compiz.

Old school nostalgia

Meanwhile since Ubuntu 11.04 (which was the change from Gnome to Unity) to 17.04 (last version with Unity, before going back to Gnome) featured the Compiz window manager by default, and the Unity desktop was implemented as a Compiz plugin (after a stalled Qml port).

Y now a developer which was part of the Compiz project is working on a project again.

sam spilbury for a long time he was the main developer of the Compiz project, and Canonical even hired him in 2010 to continue working on the project.

Compiz has been used for a long time in Ubuntu as a window manager, but in connection with the transition to GNOME Shell from Ubuntu 17.10 it was decided to abandon it.

Compiz effects were regularly shown in YouTube videos where Linux users showed their desktops with Compiz animations along with other appearance modifications and where most used to share their made settings.

Although this is no longer common today, perhaps because the time of having a desk heavily loaded with elements went out of style.

In addition to the fact that Compiz's composer began to have problems, for example in Ubuntu they have Mutter which is very efficient at what it does, it lacks the advanced effects and animations that Compiz offered.

Libanimation, the rebirth of Compiz

This is where Sam Spilsbury, the former head of Compiz developers, comes in. and its new window animation library.

The 'libanimation' project aims to implement shaky windows and other effects on the Linux desktop modern in a way that allows third-party window managers to use them.

The Libanimation library that Sam Spilsbury has been working on andIt is designed to be used by programs written in C++ with an interface written in C++.

Thus making the library you have been working on compatible with GNOME Shell and also allowing it to be used directly in web applications as well.

In this way all those animations that we remember from Compiz could be back on Linux in a matter of time.

We are talking window animations such as zoom, bounce, slide, among others that were the most popular at the time.

"More animations will be added over time," Sam writes in a blog post.

"I hope the library is useful to authors of other composers or apps and helps preserve some of the more magical parts of Compiz as the technology itself gets ahead of itself."

It is important to note that this is not a direct replacement for Compiz, nor is it a project that tries to recreate all of Compiz's features.

En libanimation, the "scene graphics rendering or management" aspect is not handled.

But can provide necessary functions to other administrators and window composers, like Mutter, so they can use it.

Sam knows his stuff: not only was he the lead developer for Compiz but he was even hired by Canonical to work on it and later on the Unity desktop plugin.

Finally, you just have to see how this library is being developed and wait for its integration for the different Linux distributions.


4 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Andreale Dicam said

    Hopefully everything goes well, Gnome is not the same as before, and not for better, for worse. Today it is too modular with many functions but added through extensions that add more weight to the already exaggerated one that it has. Compiz Fusion will not only have to deal with the Gnome Shell malfunction, but it will also have to be compatible with each and every one of its extensions. If the project is not taken over by the Gnome Team, there will be a lot of crashes and bullshit given the structural components of those libraries.

  2.   Williams said

    Well, let me tell you that in Linux Mint 18 and 3 that I have installed on my two computers I still have COMPIZ as a Windows manager, when I activate them on either of them, it works correctly.

    This note makes me understand that if it doesn't work in Ubuntu, it doesn't work elsewhere (whatever the program is)

    1.    David naranjo said

      The hardware comes into play, at least for my part, on my computers I have not been able to run compiz due to problems with the composer, use the desktop environment that I use, I always have the same problem.

    2.    Moses Orostica said

      hello williams, years ago I stopped using linux to join the world of microsoft, if you avoid the comment hahahaha, it turns out that when I came back I found many changes that I really didn't like and well the nostalgia of using compiz calls me a lot , I am a fairly average user and the truth is that I am not very good at using the console and all that, but could you tell me if you can still run compiz in mint? My brother recommended mint so I want to try it to see how it goes.