XGL and Next Generation of Linux GUI !!!

[saquib]

Recently more stuffs on XGL, Novell's work on it and how its going to "look and feel" has been popping up on teh ineternet. If this is the next generation of Linux, Microsoft sure has to worry about! Just check out the amazing videos on this link: http://www.novell.com/linux/xglrelease/

[Áedán]

Apart from confusing Xgl and Compiz ...

Xgl is a component that uses OpenGL to accelerate drawing functions of the existing Xserver. Compiz is the composition manager that sits in as the window manager. Xgl and Compiz are a joint effort between Novel and SuSE.

However, Xegl is more interesting, in that it's a native OpenGL implementation of the Xserver. Unfortunately it only works on a specific graphics card.

If you have an nVidia card, then things are looking good - nVidia support OpenGL well.

On the other hand, if you have an ATI card, then the opensource driver lacks a bunch of accelleration features. If you use the ATI provided driver, you'll find that cards like X300, X600, and X700 do not work properly, and cards like x1300, x1600, and x1800 don't work at all.

XGL isn't finished at all, and is best considered alpha code. I don't see this challenging MS, given that MS has already ported their GUI across to a DirectX implemenation in Vista. We also know that it's complete.

If you want to play, then Gentoo have put together a good bit of information for implementing Xgl and Compiz. They do note however "Warning: This is very experimental, alpha software.". You can see which cards it will run on over at Gentoo Wiki.

[dsio]

Its basically OSX. I particularly like the organiser thing, where your windows tile on the desktop, and you choose the one on top. Thats something I really missed on windows. The cube thing is nice too. Anything that will make X better is definately a step in the right direction, and if using opengl can simplify the whole thing, and improve performance as well, I'm all for that.

[Áedán]

X needed to be thrown out a good few years ago - it's not well suited to desktop use at all. There's a great deal of work that needs to be done to X to improve it's performance. Personally, I think that throwing out what's currently there and revamping the whole way apps interact with the display manager would be a good start. Should backwards compatibility be required, then a shim layer to conver the old X calls into the new framework would work, even if it were somewhat slow.

[Daniel ~]

Yet always the hope springs a new,... a decent OS to free us from MS domination!

(At lest that's how this plays out at my house...":O}

[saquib]

More Stable, Different, Powerful, Highly Customizable, Professional Looks and Free added with GOOD LOOKS - that definately challenges M$. Instead of comparing how better vista is comparing to xp... microsoft should fcus how beter vista could be made comapring to linux, mac os etc.....

[Áedán]

Comparing Linux against Windows for the desktop user? Stay with Windows would be my advice. Linux is great if you're techy, and don't mind taking weeks over getting something sorted.

Yes, I run Linux, BSD and I run Windows. Given the amount of grief that Linux has given me compared to the amount of grief that Windows has given me, I know which gets my vote for being easier to use on the whole.

[dsio]

I'm still running an Openbsd and a freebsd machine. I learned to use Open before I really knew my way around linux, and on the whole I don't regret it.

I've even got a heap of the stickers and puffy shirts to go with it

[Chesso]

Well many things piss people off about Windows and Microsoft in general but I think in an overall comparison to other operating system it just can't be beaten yet.

[Daniel ~]

Now isn't that the sad terrible truth!

[Chesso]

Unfortunately it is, but I did say *yet*

[Daniel ~]

"Hope springs eternal from the heart of man!"

[dsio]

OK, I've seen there is a considerable interest in this, but most people lack the technical ability to get XGL working at all, let alone working with stability.

There is a Live-CD Distro called Kororaa which is Gentoo based, using XGL.

Now this means, you pop it in the drive, boot from the CD, and with some luck, you will have a fully functional XGL desktop to play with, along with assorted programs, media apps, and toys to play with.

Now the ISO is 450MB, and I am currently uploading it to AOAFiles for you guys to try out. This is the first time I believe that we have hosted a linux ISO, but given its relatively small size, we'll see what the interest is like.

Who here would like to give it a go?

[dsio]

OK, the Kororaa XGL Live CD is available from AOAFiles here: http://files.aoaforums.com/code.php?file=2435

Minimum requirements: ATI 9700 or better, Nvidia Geforce 3 or better, Pentium 3 / Athlon T-bird or better.

If you're new X1000 series ATI card does not work, call ATI and let them know how unimpressed you are with their half arsed effort in the linux driver department.

Nvidia cards seam to work perfectly for the most part, while even the ATI cards that do work, usually have some little quirks here and there with the rendering.

I will post another thread with a full review once I have finished playing with this.

[Daniel ~]

Many thanks for making the possibilities known to us!

[Chesso]

Iv'e never myself used personally linux or any other OS other then Windows( Have used it at a mates house etc) but I think I might download this tonight while I sleep and give it a go.

Now this thing runs from a cd right? but is there anything stopping me from using a cd/dvd emulator or does this absolutely have to be ran from a bootable disk ( i'm guessing yes seen as it's an operating system).

Because atm I don't have any disks to use besides DVD-R's unless that's a possibility? But I would really like to see this XGL in action.

[dsio]

Bootable. So you have to burn it. I still havnt tried it yet to be honest.

[Chesso]

But is a DVD-R ok? I know my pc can boot from bootable cd's but I don't know about DVD's.

[Chesso]

Sorry for the double post people.

Anyway I burnt it off to a DVD-R and booted up in it(sorry no screenshots). It looked nice but a few of the programs wouldn't open up and I didn't know at the time but I couldn't access data on my hard disk so obviously it doesn't support NTFS.

Couldn't get on the internet with Firefox or that instant messenger thing it had. Everything moved and loaded rather slow, considering it accesses everything from disk including settings, I figured it'd load in ram but I guess not.

Tried changing the theme but the manager just crashed when I selected one.

Yeah, I supposed it was only to show off gfx? as a demo but the OS itself wasn't very function lmao.

[dsio]

The minimum ram for this to run properly is 384MB-512MB. 1GB+ is highly recommended. The XGL desktop uses a great deal of memory, as does Windows Vista's version of XGL. As such it doesn't put the whole Live-CD into RAM.

The maker of this distro is <just> about to release a new and improved version of this Live-CD that fixes many of the bugs, and improves support for ATI/Intel setups. As soon as its out, it will be up on AOAFiles.

Until then, anyone who wants a go, check it out.

By the way, you say you havn't used linux before? You actually have to mount the windows partition. It should be able to read NTFS, but you most likely do have to manually mount it, as LiveCDs are a preinstalled system, they cannot guess what your computer's hard drive arrangement is.