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Burn My Windows

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191–200 of 282 posts

Re: Burn My Windows

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't tackiness heavily context, culture, and timeframe dependent? Besides, computing is far too serious these days . I see no reason for my computing to be a little bit whimsical (especially if it's a hobby project), provided it's also self-consistent.

> Isn't tackiness heavily context, culture, and timeframe dependent? All the more reason to not require them?

I believe the opposite: that there is sometimes the right place, the right project/people, and the right time to be whimsical. So not always, but also not never (as an abolitionist stance would see it).

Re: Burn My Windows

#192
post #152

VR desktops apps nowadays let you place windows around your head in VR, so that you feel fully immersed in whatever you're doing. Back in the Compiz days, my virtual desktop switcher was a 3D cylinder. Holding the middle mouse button would zoom out my current desktop, placing me in the center of a giant 3D cylinder which I could rotate by moving the mouse to switch to a different desktop. And it worked with my dual m…

And here I am today, with Compiz Alike windows and magic lamp effect, Burn My Windows, Blur My Shell, Desktop Cube, and of course, Useless Gaps on GNOME. I love it.

Re: Burn My Windows

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here we go...down the same rabbit hole that these Linux vs whatever else conversations always go down. At risk of sounding like a school child: you literally started it. My point was initially just to say that other people get on fine with Linux. Then you took us down the rabbit hole conflating preference with technical fact. > Just to reiterate: Every OS has problems but… Exactly my point. You try to sound imparti…

> At risk of sounding like a school child: you literally started it. No. When someone relates their negative experience with an OS you happen to use, that is not a personal attack or invitation to expound upon your own contradictory experience. This happens every single time anyone ever says anything even remotely negative about the Linux Desktop. Can you honestly say the same happens with anywhere near the same freq…

> No. When someone relates their negative experience with an OS you happen to use, that is not a personal attack

What personal attacks are these? All I’ve seen thus far are adults having a mature conversation.

> or invitation to expound upon your own contradictory experience

That’s literally the point of social platforms. You cannot post an opinion on a public forum and then declare that other people are forbidden to rely. If that’s your bag then you’re better off writing your thoughts and then popping them in a glass bottle and casting that out to sea :P

> Can you honestly say the same happens with anywhere near the same frequency when discussing Windows or MacOS problems?

Yes. Happens all the time and on any topic. This is a message board, opinions will differ and people will want to discuss them. I don’t see what the issue is there (as long as it’s civil).

Eg this started out a positive thread talking about Linux composing managers and there wasn’t any need for anyone to start arguing about how much better Windows was but that happened. And I’m fine with that. Weird you should think I’m not allowed to reply when that does happen though.

Anyway, this has gotten meta and in my experience that’s usually the point when the quality of conversations deteriorate so I’ll duck out of the chat now :)

Re: Burn My Windows

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll have to agree with this. Compiz was great at drawing curious people in but I'd argue that Compiz helped many people write off Linux. It definitely made Windows XP look outdated but after you scratch the surface and adopt Linux, you discover a world of hurt whether it be bad drivers that break your desktop and throw you to a different run level, poor interoperability between the different components or just the g…

It's a real shame, but unfortunately it seems endemic to the FOSS development ecosystem: people will work on things they think are cool; and stable, consistent, functional software is hard work and not very cool. Consequently we get a lot of opinionated little fiefdoms ruling over collections of frankensteined software and then the evangelical wonder why it isn't The Year of the Linux Desktop yet.

[deleted]

Re: Burn My Windows

#195

Compiz was probably the single most impactful event for desktop linux of the mid 2000's. Not that it itself made much of a difference, but the ripples affect many areas we take for granted today. A few reasons: - it put linux ahead of windows and mac in terms of appearance; - it brought many new users and most were a good mix technical and enthusiasts; - it showed the advantages of modular software; - many plugins we…

I was already dabbling in Linux with shared hosting for my hobbyist website, but Compiz made me lean into Linux and development full tilt.

Showing friends the crazy 3D desktop, the wobbling, burning windows, and all of the other crazy customization and effects it provided gave me a kind of unique confidence and excitedness in my explorations. It was like jet fuel for learning. Bash, vim, Unix philosophy, Python - all things I got sucked into because I liked the aesthetics and promise of Linux. Lessons that outlived the window manager and paved the way for my career.

Compiz couldn't have done a better job.

Re: Burn My Windows

#196
Pretty, but just more cycle-stealing inefficiency.

Using something like this boils down to whether you don't mind wasting cycles and RAM on pretty effects or you just want the best performance consistently.

For most of us, that depends on whether we have had the experience of struggling to maintain good GUI performance or not. The younger users will have no hassle with using something like this, they've always had plenty of GUI performance.

For those of us who have had the experience of the necessity of only using plain-color wallpapers because it took too long for an image wallpaper to repair itself after moving a window on the desktop, it will remain one of those 'interesting thing to see, but not for me' effects.

Re: Burn My Windows

#197
I love the thing you can do with linux! gnome is an exceptional desktop environment, i don't see any other DE letting plug directly into its environment to change every aspect of it, i just wish they are not going to make it more limted with a bunch of limited portals access (like firefox)

Re: Burn My Windows

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The physicality that Compiz and wobbly windows brought to the desktop was a huge boon to my productivity. Everything was low latency, high framerate, and just felt real . I could rotate my virtual desktops around and they felt like actual spatial locations for organization. I could drag windows and they felt like quasi-tangible objects, not just abstract rigid platonic rectangles. It was far more than just a gimmick,…

I have to say the same. It makes the computer "feel" better. It reminds me of discussions around Mac vs PC in the early days. The experience of using a Mac was more "fluid" than Windows. The Mac would draw windows faster, move the mouse faster (as in more refreshes of the cursor position per second) and that made it more comfortable to use. At the same time I also used Sun and SGI boxes regularly and the stark differ…

https://wayfire.org — you're welcome :)

Re: Burn My Windows

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At risk of sounding like a school child: you literally started it. No. When someone relates their negative experience with an OS you happen to use, that is not a personal attack or invitation to expound upon your own contradictory experience. This happens every single time anyone ever says anything even remotely negative about the Linux Desktop. Can you honestly say the same happens with anywhere near the same freq…

> No. When someone relates their negative experience with an OS you happen to use, that is not a personal attack What personal attacks are these? All I’ve seen thus far are adults having a mature conversation. > or invitation to expound upon your own contradictory experience That’s literally the point of social platforms. You cannot post an opinion on a public forum and then declare that other people are forbidden to…

> this started out a positive thread talking about Linux composing managers and there wasn’t any need for anyone to start arguing about how much better Windows was but that happened.

That isn't what happened, this is my point about taking things personally. Let's look at what was actually said:

> Compiz was great at drawing curious people in but I'd argue that Compiz helped many people write off Linux.

After which that opinion was elaborated to say that despite the attraction of the window effects, Linux's issues during the time period in question drove people away and left them with the impression that Linux was all gimmick that couldn't hold up to serious use.

Your response to this was:

> I switched to Linux full time before Compiz took off and did so for exactly the reasons you cited the other platforms were superior: Linux was more stable, easier to reason with (as it was doing less magic behind the scenes), components worked better with each other since POSIX is designed for interoperability.

Which, at least to me and apparently nebula, sounded a lot like the "no, Linux is great actually" defensive anecdote you see every time anyone says anything negative about Linux. Worse, you didn't even engage with what was being said, only saying that you had a great experience. What does that have to do with the argument presented?

> That’s literally the point of social platforms. You cannot post an opinion on a public forum and then declare that other people are forbidden to rely.

There are useful replies and then there's tired old defensive performative argumentation. I'm arguing that 'I had a good time with Linux' in the context of what was posted is much more the latter than the former. I might be a touch too sensitive to this sort of thing after hearing it out of Linux Desktop evangelists for 20 goddamned years, though.

> Yes. Happens all the time and on any topic. [...] Eg this started out a positive thread talking about Linux composing managers and there wasn’t any need for anyone to start arguing about how much better Windows was but that happened.

Take a look back at the original nebula post and you will see that he only ever mentioned Windows negatively.

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