compiz/beryl and fast user switching

[Matt Graham]

After a long battle with technology, Josh Coffman wrote:
> On 8/31/07, Craig White <craig at tobyhouse.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, 2007-08-31 at 11:00 -0700, Josh Coffman wrote:
>>> Does anyone know if there is a way to make compiz or beryl work
>>> with fast user switching?

Or if there's a way to make compiz-fusion work with wmctrl (or vice versa).  
wmctrl -l works, but shows that everything's on workspace 0 when I have 
windows on 0 and 1.

>> I always thought that the impressive thing to demonstrate was stability

You can't show someone "stability" in 30 seconds.  (Well, unless you do 
something like randomly delete a bunch of important stuff in /etc and show 
how the system keeps limping along.)  Most people's attention spans are too 
short to ... oh, look, a puppy!

>> text based configuration files, automated installations/updates and of

Text config files, while extremely useful, aren't impressive or even 
comprehensible to Joe User.  "apt-get dist-upgrade" or its synaptic 
equivalent, OTOH, is easy to explain and demonstrate.  I think *that* is a 
better selling point.

>> Eye candy things like compiz/beryl are hardly stable and are impressive
>> only for people that know little about computers.

"People who know little about computers" are roughly 90% of people.  I suppose 
you can ignore them if you want, but it's a losing long-term strategy IMO.

> 3d desktop is impressive to the casual over-the-shoulder peek at a coffee
> shop, or showing someone something on your machine like a youtube video
> briefly.
>
> Craig, you're right, but unfortunately my opportunities to introduce linux
> are limited to first impressions. For first impressions, style is usually
> more impressive than substance.

*ding* we have a winner.  FWIW, compiz-fusion has been pretty stable for me on 
2 machines once I got it set up properly.  It's just ... slower on this 
bloody FireGL2 card than it should be, and sometimes shows tearing.  Ah well, 
onward and upward!

-- 
 As a dog stood outside the gate of a temple, the Buddha called to him,
 "Dog, why do you not enter?" The dog looked back and replied, "I do not
 see myself as outside."  At that moment, the Buddha was enlightened.
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see