Compiz and Berl have come along way with innovative ways to enhance the everyday desktop. They both eventually merged to become Compiz-fusion and are continuing working on the project. One would think something this creative would have taken place on the juggernaut which is Windows with their new operating system Vista. Windows Vista’s Aero provides a nice 3D flip feature which looks cool but doesn’t quite add the usability and functionality we might have hoped for. As far as the futuristic visual eye candy is concerned thats pretty much all the new windows has to offer. Mac users are no stranger to getting the latest visuals from their operating system. From the creation of widgets or expose and with the all new time machine included in leopard, it has the right amount of aesthetic goodness and usability. The mixture of functionality and futuristic visuals is what you would expect from a new operating system. But who would have thought you would ever see it on a linux machine.

When you see it in action you think hey this is the step forward in computing we want to see. To then see peoples reaction when you say its Linux running all this. People then become more interested in running a Linux machine, one because it looks cool and you can show off to your friends as well as get some work done. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of distractions that come along with all the useful plugins. Let me give you some examples. Writing fire all over your screen doesn’t seem like the most productive thing to do with your time. Nor does dragging your mouse across the screen to see water puddles. As a friend of mine often makes a joke “Hey look at how fast my desktop spins”. Is it cool…yes, is that productive hell no. Now that I got that out of the way here are other plugins that I find very useful. Let me say my most favorite is Expo similarly a ripoff of Expose however the point is that it is still useful. The Zoom feature for hard to read things or for pointing out information like in a presentation. Also the 3d window switchers and your choice of Coverflow yes another mac rip and ring. The transparency for windows makes thing easy to see when you have multiple windows open.

The days of configuring Compiz to work on your computer are pretty much over. No longer will you need to follow a complicated tutorial to enjoy the fun it is now included in Ubuntu 7.10 right out of the proverbial box as well as a few other distros such as SUSE linux. But enough about talking you want to see what its all about so I have a few videos I made using a screen capture utility. So enjoy.

Compiz Fusion Screen Capture from Encript on Vimeo.

More Compiz Fusion Gusty Gibbon from Encript on Vimeo.

HD Compiz Fusion Screen Capture from Encript on Vimeo.

Linux has been known to be the uber geeks choice for computing as well as being extremely difficult to use. A lot has changed since the all command line days of Linux and in this installment of Linux for regular people we will be taking a quick glimpse of gOS. gOS is a Linux distribution which is aimed for average PC users. It is based on the ever popular Ubuntu 7.10 except without the gnome desktop environment. They started to go on sale in local discount merchants such as walmart. Where you can get your self an Everex Impact for around $199.00. They would bundle the operating system with inexpensive hardware which is actually decent enough if you are not a power hungry PC user. I mean don’t expect to do any sort of video editing on this baby but its good for web browsing and checking email.

In fact checking email and web surfing is what this is set out to do out the box. With the enlightenment desktop environment they make things very simple and easy. The green wallpaper is serene and calming. The included applications dock which looks similar to the OS X dock is pretty to look at. However it isn’t really an application dock its more of a link dock for your web applications. Once you click on a link it will open up your Firefox web browser for you to sign on and check your email or look though wikipedia. The very goal is to be a simple and affordable computer for anyone to use. Does it accomplish that task? I feel it does. Let me stress to you that this would make a great computer for a young student or even and older less computer literate adult. The downside is many people will feel stuck when it comes to support and expandability. The lack of support for Linux will probably drive most people away. Some people might feel hey I have an iPhone how do I get my music on this. Well the truth is you would have problems getting music on your iPhone if you can at all. Then when they get fed up and frustrated and will go out and find a copy of Windows to though on it. But in all fairness this is still in Beta and more support can be expected.

I say don’t give up that easily and put windows on it. For one you wont have any spyware of virus problems on Linux because not too many exploits have been created for it. Keep it as a backup computer and use it only to surf the web safely. If you must have windows there are options. Such as creating partitions and dual booting both operating systems. Or just using this one since it is inexpensive as a second computer for the internet.

gOS HD Screen Capture from Encript on Vimeo.