Forlong's Blog

Two weeks ago, I wrote a review about Desktop effects by default in Gutsy - how Compiz Fusion enhances Ubuntu's desktop of version 7.10

I published it by the time the beta was still fresh. We have passed the release candidate by now, so this is pretty much the actual state of affairs.
Time to see what has been fixed (and what not) or generally improved.

The following quotes are from the above mentioned review.

Setting workspaces

Quote:
The only problem that hasn't been resolved, is that you can't change the number of desktops in the panel's Workspace Switcher.
You would have to do that in gconf or turn off the effects, change them in the context menu of the workspace switcher and turn the effects back on.

That was an annoying issue and pretty urgent, because ccsm (CompizConfig Settings Manager) is not installed by default in Gutsy. I am very happy to say that this has been fixed. If Compiz is enabled, you can now change the number of desktops in the Preferences of the Workspace Switcher's context menu. Hopefully this will put an end to the confusion about "Horizontal/Vertical Virtual Size" and "Number of Desktops".

Furthermore, it's much easier now to explore the advantages of the Desktop Wall plugin (which is enabled in Gutsy by default). For example having 2x2 desktops is a very good substitute to the cube. In fact, I think it's even more practical. Particularly in Expo mode where you can rearrange your windows and switch to the desktop you want to work on next.

Default animations

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Only the window animations are a little more intense then I would have thought and, to be honest, I think is appropriate. Particularly the open animation can get quite annoying in the long run.
Same goes for the Alt+Tab switcher, that doesn't really follow the one you are used to from Metacity.

The Alt+Tab switcher has been improved. A little.
They scrapped the annoying "bounce" but unfortunately decided to go with the "Bring to front" option, which makes the live previews pretty useless.
If I want an eye-candy switcher, I go with Shift and Ring but the usual switcher should focus on functionality.

The open animation still annoys me as well (especially since applications that are minimized to the tray use that every time you access them) but that may be a matter of taste.

Screen corners

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Unfortunately, [Scale] hasn't been mapped to a screen corner in Ubuntu (in contrary to Compiz' default settings), so many people won't even know that such a feature exists until somebody tells them.
[...]
And again, no hot corner for [Expo] in Ubuntu. I know it brakes Fitts' law but those are two killer features of Compiz and acquiring them through the upper screen corners is very effective once you get used to it.

I talked to Michael Vogt (see https://launchpad.net/~compiz) about this and he confirmed they decided to abandon hot corners because of Fitts' law.
I actually received e-mails about this, so in case you didn't know what I meant with "it brakes Fitts' law":
Ubuntu has the shutdown button on the top right screen corner and the Applications menu on the top left. That's on par with Fitts' law, because this way they are very easy to acquire - you just have to thrust the mouse pointer to the corner and click. Since it's not going to go any further, you certainly won't miss.
Now, if you have hot corners enabled - like in Compiz - you have to get used to this, because you can't just move your mouse incautious to the screen corner anymore.

Although I think it would be worth it, I can respect the decision not to enable them. Unfortunately, I don't see any other way of letting the users know about those two features.

Disappointing Extra set

Quote:
The number of additional plugins isn't exactly mind-bogglingly large:

• Shift Switcher
• Wobbly Windows

Yes, that's it. Two plugins.

And while it's perfectly understandable that the wobbly windows aren't part of the default settings, it would have been no problem to add the Shift Switcher to the "normal" set, because it's mapped to another shortcut than the usual one.
And it doesn't require a faster computer, of course.
[...]
So it boils down to this: the only real difference between the normal and the extra set are the wobbly windows. Which is a little disappointing.

Unfortunately, this hasn't been changed at all. No additional plugins will be enabled with the Extra set, except for these two.
I have to apologize for claiming Shift wouldn't require a faster computer, though. Michael told me he tested the enabled plugins on older machines and they had troubles with the Shift switcher - that's why it had been moved to the Extra set.

ATI users and the proprietary (restricted) fglrx driver

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The problem is, the user doesn't get any information that he needs to install Xgl to get the effects.

[see "Possible problems for ATI users" here for more infos]

Simple answer from Michael: Xgl is in universe and therefore not to be recommended. He also said it hasn't been tested enough by the Compiz team of Ubuntu.
While those are legitimate reasons, I still think a cautious consideration in any of the pointed out possibilities would save a lot of trouble.