Am 31. Aug, 2007 schwätzte Craig White so:

moin moin Criag,

> On Fri, 2007-08-31 at 11:00 -0700, Josh Coffman wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>    Does anyone know if there is a way to make compiz or beryl work
>> with fast user switching. (using fedora 7 if that matters). 3d desktop
>> isn't a big deal to me but its a nice way to impress people with
>> linux.. plus one of the launcher panels I like needs a composite
>> window manager to work.
> ----
> I always thought that the impressive thing to demonstrate was stability,
> text based configuration files, automated installations/updates and of
> course free software.

Depends on who you're target audience is. Text-based config files are
great for sysadmins, especially those automating infrastructures, but it
means nothing to most anyone who isn't a sysadmin.

> Eye candy things like compiz/beryl are hardly stable and are impressive

Well, they should be stable.

> only for people that know little about computers. Thus a compiz/beryl
> demonstration is perfect for pointy haired bosses but few else.

Actually, it's helping me with some of my customers at work. They're all
intelligent and geeks in their own right, but not in computer science or
sysadmin. They would greatly benefit from some specialized Free Software
tools that are easier to run on GNU/Linux than other platforms.

I've got one guy somewhat interested in investigating the other
tools. Showing him the cool eye candy and that GNU/Linux can do all the
other things he wants from his desktop is also important in encouraging
his interest.

I've got most of my customers using some Free Software, but they're
not computer geeks and are afraid of changing platforms. The cool
eye-candy helps. Apple has proven time and again that a user interface
that's deemed to be cool helps lead to adoption. Why shouldn't we also
seek that? Especially since it doesn't interfere with improvements in
GNU/Linux-based server infrastructures.  Some people want to improve
eye-candy, some want to improve LAMP. We get to benefit from improvements
to both :).

Besides, having windows fold up in to electronic paper airplanes and fly
off is cool, even if it's not useful :).

ciao,

der.hans
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