Beryl Rocks! « Irfan’s Corner on the Web

14Apr/075

Beryl Rocks!

Recently I've been experimenting with Beryl on my laptop, and I have to say that I'm very impressed by the project. Sure its a relatively new project, and there quite a few bugs in it, however once you get the hang of it you really enjoy the beryl-desktop experience.

There are numerous things which make you instantly productive, however there are some other things which hinder productivity however look cool. For example the idea of "the Cube", where different desktops are running on different sides of the cube, I know is not new with beryl, however it is very productive. I keep most of my web browsing stuff on one end of the cube, another side is running VMware, another one is running some development IDE. The Cube allows you to multi-task more efficiently. I have used both Windows Vista and MacOSX 10.4.8, and I have to say that none of these operating systems even come close to Beryl. Where as MacOSX comes second and Vista is way off.

There are many effects in Beryl, which actually distract a user, for example check this one out, I can not think of any scenario where someone would like to have this:

Initially I was planning of getting a Mac Book Pro for myself, as I considered MacOSX the most productive OS, however after running OpenSUSE with Beryl, I have changed my mind. The only one thing, which Linux lacks for me is a _decent_ word processing application. I keep a Windows VM image, which I run everytime I need to write some paper or do some word processing. OpenOffice is completely inadequate for my use as it misses many features which I make use of heavily, additionally I would love to see Acrobat Professional for Linux, not the reader, but the actual program which is available for both Windows and MacOSX, this again is a software which I make use of on a daily basis.

Beryl's "Snow" effect

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http://linux.wordpress.com/ E@zyVG

Nice to see that openSUSE changed your mind, though OS X is of course really nice and cool OS. I am a long time SUSE distro user.

So, if not Mac Book Pro then which notebook you got for yourself?
http://irfanhabib.wordpress.com Irfan Habib

Right now I’m using a Dell Inspiron 6400, which works perfectly for me.

MacOSX is indeed a cool OS, but right now because of beryl and VMware (in which I run Windows for Office 2007), I dont see much motivation now to switch .
http://schestowitz.com Roy Schestowitz

Irfan, you post some good Linux advocacy. Please keep it coming.
http://opensourceroolz.wordpress.com/ michaelt74

You quote “I keep a Windows VM image, which I run everytime I need to write some paper or do some word processing. OpenOffice is completely inadequate for my use as it misses many features which I make use of heavily”

Which features are you missing? Have you visited the OO forums, requested the missing features be added to future versions of OO?
http://thedarkmaster.wordpress.com Darkmaster

Hi! I agre with Michael. You should really learn how to sue OO since it misses absolutely nothing. It’s just a problem of getting used to it. And another thing: you don’t need to PAY for an entire windows instalaltion in vmware (You paid for your windows licence because we’re not saying you are a damned pirate, are you?). That’s because Wine existes. And Crossover exists too. You can run Microsoft Office using Wine or Crossover nativelly into Linux, as if they where Linux Apps. the same can be sayd for Acrobat Pro. the speed is faaaaaaaaar superior to vmware, the same speed you’d have in windows. So why a virtual machine? Guess you didn’t know about wine, that’s all. Now you know
But I definitivelly suggest you to learn how to use OO.org and Scribus.
Another hint: Beryl is dead. Sadly, it came to a re-merge with compiz. The very essential and eyecandy missing version of Beryl. This does not mean Beryl will loose its superior eyecandy approach. It will reduce itself to a mere set of plugins for compiz… wich is sponsored by Novell (author of Suse you’re using)… wich is an hated partner of Microzzozz….. in the end: switch to Ubuntu
Just a suggestion ;P
Byeee! Hope my suggestions may help you. And visit my blog! You’ll find a lot of interesting guides to Linux tasks and mnaybe you’re interested in running a wonderful fish tank over the cube… Dream Aqaurium