The Third Gem of the Renaissance User Interfaces

This is the last instalment of my miniseries comparing the 2007 User interfaces to the Italian Renaissance. The first two can be found here and here.

The last interface I am going to write about is the Ubuntu interface. Ubuntu 7.10 comes bundled with a compositor much like Quartz or Aero. This compositor is called XGL. To take advantage of such a compositor, Linux systems such as Ubuntu sometimes incorporate a compositing window manager. The default one used in Ubuntu is called Compiz Fusion.

For those of you interested in history, Compiz Fusion is an unforking of two linux compositors: Beryl and Compiz. Beryl was forked from Compiz when the Beryl branch decided that its code had strayed too far away from the main Compiz. Beryl was then unforked back into Compiz under the name Compiz Fusion, bringing many extra plugins and general UI glitziness.

One of my favorite Compiz Fusion effects I did not take a screenshot of, and that is a certain animation. I normally use this animation for minimizing, so that whenever I minimize a window, instead of just disappearing the window folds itself up into a paper airplane and flys down into the taskbar.

It just so happens that, to take maximum advantage of the 3D rendering layer included, Compiz Fusion incorporates many 3D perspective enhancements, such as a Cover Flow/Flip 3D view for window switching, a spaces like implementation of virtual desktop switching shown at an angle (below), and windows doing backflips when they are closed.

Compiz Fusion also incorporates other advantages based on light, mainly reflections. The cube has a reflection, the desktop switcher has a reflection (above), the Cover Flow/Flip 3D window switcher has a reflection, and the windows can even reflect your face (through some tweaking). Also, for each of the effects where the desktop zooms out, the amount of light and the intensity of the reflection can be controlled.

There are too many effects to write about, so here are my favorite effects in Compiz Fusion (in no particular order):

• The airplane effect
• Paint fire to the screen
• Cover Flow for window switching
• Wobbly Windows (see below)
• The aquarium inside of the cube
• The raindrop effect

The wobbly windows are a plugin which causes the windows on your screen to "wobble", or behave like pieces of paper. The part dragged moves with the mouse, and the other parts of the window follow as they are forced to according to some semblance of the laws of physics (Newton must be spinning in his grave). When the window is no longer being dragged, it reverberates a little and resumes its normal square form. This is also evident in maximizing windows, as the corners of the window spring to the corners of the screen and the rest of the window follows.
Compiz Fusion is the most glitzy of the compositors on the market today, but be aware that it is in active development. I find some of the features very useful, because they provide visual feedback on where something is or what something does. And it is just so cool.