Hi,

I am currently running the 3D desktop (CompizFusion) on Mandriva 2008. While it looks very cool I am wondering what are the practical aspects of this desktop setup. I find myself using only one out of the 4 virtual desktops - when I work, I usually open one window after another without thinking about switching desktops first. Is there a way to open a window in one desktop and then move it to one of the other desktops? I know that this can be done in the classic scheme using the desktop pager. Anyone know of other benefits of using the 3D desktop please let me know too!

Thanks!

To put it mildly, making your window behaviour being annoying.
I have stopped using it a long time ago- it may be impressive, but the window management is plain horrible, and that is that.

It ain't that bad. Once you get used to using it, going back to the normal desktop takes some getting use to again (at least for me it did).

When you have several windows open with a quick flick to the top right corner of the screen they are all displayed making it simple to click on the one you want.

Most apps if you left click on the icon in the top left of the window will reveal a menu, in there is the option to send that window to whichever desktop you wish.

All novelties aside there are some practical uses if you are willing to take the time to configure it to behave the way you want it to.

IMHO, the 3D stuff is a nice graphical toy, but it will not improve the usability of the system for the average user. The only thing I have activated in compiz on my computers is the dropshadows. The cube was always useless and annoying for me.

I do agree that compiz is 75% bling and 25% functionality. However that 25% functionality if configured correctly is very useful IMHO

Oh, and that is that too

Haha I guess looking cool is an important aspect! Even though I dont have a use for all that real estate, it is nice to know that I have it. I am beginning to get used to the paradigm of spreading out my windows across desktops and flipping through desktops. Now I hardly shrink windows anymore - I just drag them onto the next desktop. Overall I quite like the 3D cube desktop, it is innovative and fun to use once you get use to it, and it is vastly superior to the windows aero theme (those poor vista users...)

I mostly agree with what is said above, except when it is written that compiz is useless. It isn't.

True, the cube is 90% eye-candy, although it can give a nice overall view of all destops.
Expo, on the other hand, achieves the same overall view, and allows dragging windows between workspaces like you do with a 2D desktop. So far, we only catch-up with the 2D desktop funtionality, though.

Most of the added functionality is elsewhere, provided you take the time to set it up. Here is a short list of the active modules I have, and why, and with what setup (some words may be slightly inacurate due to translation from French):

- General options:
Opacity setting raised to 20 because it allows for quick changes.
This is something I use very often to be able to type things in a window while seeing what is in the window bellow, as I do right now for seeing what settings I have in the CompizConfig window. I usually do this in OpenOffice.
I defined some keyboard bindings of my own:
. Super+Up = Raise the window
. Super+Down = Lower the window
. Super+PageUp = Raise opacity
. Super+PageDown = Lower opacity

- Window decoration + Place the window + Move the window + Resize the window + Image Loading/* + Workarounds + Snaping windows:
Those are almost mandatory for normal use.

- Cube + Viewport mouse switch + Cube reflexion + Window previews: nothing important, that's for the show

- Cube rotate:
This one is mainly there for keyboard bindings:
. Ctrl+Alt+Left|Right = Previous|Next workspace
. Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Left|Right = Previous|Next workspace and move the active window along
. Alt+KP_1|2|3|4 = Go to face 1|2|3|4
. Ctrl+Alt+KP_1|2|3|4 = Go to face 1|2|3|4 and move the active window along

- Expo:
I bound it to the top left corner of the screen. So when I want to move windows between workspaces, I first throw the mouse pointer to this corner. Apart from that, I chose the Super+Tab shortcut.

Now this is where it's getting interesting…

- Group the windows:
I checked "Move all from the group", "Raise all from the group", "Minimize with the group", "Shade with the group", "Group windows after the selection", and "Drop the group when a single window remains".
As for key bindings, I set them according to the keys layout, not what's printed on them; important settings are:
. Change the glow color (a bright pink glow is bound to attract attention at work )
. Group the selected windows
. Undo the group
. Remove the group
. Close the group (be carefull with that one!)
. Select a window
. Group in tabs (that is put all windows in a single frame with pop-up tabs)
. Go to previous/next tab

- Put:
This is a simple but extremely convenient extension. My settings are (it's a laptop, I substitued Shift for Fn):
. Ctrl+Super+Shift+KP_1|2|3|…|7|8|9 = Put BottomLeft|Bottom|…|Top|TopRight
. Ctrl+Super+Shift+KP_period = Put under pointer
. Ctrl+Super+Shift+KP_0 = Restore initial position

- Shift switcher:
This is what I use for the usual Alt+Tab… funtionality.

- Scale:
Invaluable! I just bound the top right corner of the screen to this functionnality, and whenever I put the mouse in this corner, all windows are tiled in miniature so that I can choose to what window I want to go. Very usefull when the desktop gets crowded.

And finally, the 3D desktop enables real transparency in some applications, such as Gnome-terminal, so you can type commands based on what you see in other windows (mail, forums, other terminal…).

Yves.

One practical aspect is that you use the GPU to draw windows not the CPU.
About it's all eyeycandy: I think it's at least 70% true for Compiz fusion. OTOH when I used Metisse I really liked it. But it wasn't too stable like compiz. But that was a long ago.

That's true. I also found Metisse much more geared towards productivity than Compiz, last time I tried 2 years ago.
However, given it uses 2 X displays for its rendering, I'm a bit concerned about the resource usage it may have (I could be wrong, though).

Yves.

compiz is a combination of functionality and eye candy. yes, you could have all the same functionality without a lot of the cool 3d effects (windows flying around, wobbling, etc.) but it's a nice addition to some pretty useful things. it takes a while to change your mental paradigm of working with one desktop and no effects to working with multiple desktops and lots of effects. at first, it seems useless, and a lot of people just stop using the features. i forced myself to use compiz's features and found it increases my productivity - specifically when working on websites. with file transfers, image editing, html/php coding, and my standard im/irc/web browsing going on, having several desktops and some of the effects is advantageous. I have a lot of windows open: with features such as the "expose" of compiz, multiple desktops (with programs separated by task), and various other things included in compiz, i find my productivity goes up because i spend less time trying to find the window i want and more time actually working on the project at hand.

Seems no one bothered to answer you query about moving an open application to a different desktop.

It is dead easy. Just right click anywhere on the title bar at the very top and a menu will drop . From it you can select from "To Desktop" which desktop you want to move it to. Easypesy.

Cheers. john.

I don t get the ¨To Desktop¨ option when I right-click on the top toolbar.....

However if I keep dragging the window toward the edge of the current desktop it will cross over into the next one...

You can also use the key shortcut CTRL-ALT-SHIFT and then the left or right arrow to shift the currently focussed application to another desktop. CTRL-ALT and then left or right arrow will just switch screens.

Did I say tool bar ???. No I did not. I said Title Bar. Right at the very top.

I can't make it any clearer than that.

John.

It might be to your benefit to calm down a little bit before responding next time. So he didn't understand what you meant, chill out.

I don't think that John was upset when he wrote that. It can be read in two ways. "Upset-mode" and one "slightly-puzzled-mode". JMHO.

Thank you Arctic.
You are correct. Why would I be upset because someone here didn't correctly read my suggestion ???.

Thyme's response is typical as to what is causing so many members leaving MUB. Maybe I should have loaded my post with funny emoticons to ensure i didn't hurt any ones feelings especially Thymes.

Cheers. John.

I answered in #3

I understand what a¨ title bar¨ is - but I am saying that there is no option on the right-click menu that says move to desktop #. THere is Advanced Move Minimized Maximize Shade CLose, and Move doesnt just assign the window to a new desktop as you said. I didnt want to nitpick but there are so many responses generated regarding this....

Are you using KDE or Gnome ???. I am using KDE and Konqueror.
I generally use default settings so there is nothing tricky or fancy going on here. By the way regarding the icon on the left of the title bar, left or right clicking on it does nothing for me at all.

John.

I think I know what the misunderstanding is here. In the classic KDE desktop one has four desktops whereas with the cube there is only one desktop and four windows. So the answer to the original post is it cannot be done with the cube.
In the classic mode the icon at the top left of the title bar does give me the option of sending a window to any of the other desktops plus some other functions. I hope this is of help.

THank you I think thatś where the misunderstanding was. I am happy with the cube desktop - was just curious to hear what others think, didnt mean to set off a heated discussion about title bars

Glad it's sorted for you. Don't worry about things getting a bit heated it happens when a post is not taken in the spirit it was written. That's where these things help. One smiley to watch out for is Then you know it's serious.

Sorry, I'm not psychic, and when I see excessive question punctuation and bold letters I assume "upset mode" (it's similar to ALL CAPS). As do many people on the internet, so perhaps it'd behoove us all to be a little more clear in our "mode".
Right. I've been posting like that since long before you joined this board. And the community grew then.

(and it's tyme, not thyme, dang it )