Multiple desktops were on Unix first. But Quartz Extreme preceded Compiz by three years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_Compositor https://en.wikipedia.o

Multiple desktops were on Unix first. But Quartz Extreme preceded Compiz by three years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_Compositor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_Compositor Also, Exposé was introduced in 2003 before Linux counterparts (and requires a good compositor to do it well). In fact, there was a rush to write KDE/GNOME plugins after Panther was introduced. Sadly, most were pretty janky/bad until Compiz was introduced. Spotlight (launcher/search) was introduced with Tiger in 2005, also much before Linux desktops started introducing it. Only after that, desktop search (e.g. Beagle) and search-based launchers like GNOME Do started showing up.