4 ms·

The demo video looks like some of those Enlightenment-WM demos from 15+ years ago, which feature cool effects on the first glance but then people remember that

The demo video looks like some of those Enlightenment-WM demos from 15+ years ago, which feature cool effects on the first glance but then people remember that they want to get work done and use a different WM (or compositor, in this case) cool, but ultimately not very useful

berkes 4y ago
I fondly remember those. Sure, they may not be efficient or even useful. But what a boring life I would have if I only ever can have things that are fully efficient or entirely useful. "Just fun" is, imo enough reason for these silly, wobbly burning Windows to exist.
- hedora 4y ago
  Now, if only someone would get xscreensaver working under Wayland.
  - berkes 4y ago
    Yea! Shame on "these developers" spending their free time and hobby on things they like instead of on the stuff that matters to me! /s
current_thing 4y ago
Someone wrote a goddamn wayland compositor and you shrug it off like it’s nothing? Nobody gives a rats ass about your opinion about its usefulness. I’m installing this tonight. I have to bet you have released little or no open source software.
- mnd999 4y ago
  Wlroots does a lot of the heavy lifting here, and that is by design. It’s now much easier to write Wayland compositors than it used to be. So yeah, we can have these enlightenment style things that get used once again.
arendtio 4y ago
Actually, I wonder if you are referring to the Xgl [1] demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQYk09CHOZs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQYk09CHOZs Maybe Enlightenment WM started using Xgl too, but AFAIK Compiz was the first implementation to make it usable. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl
- exitb 4y ago
  That’s a cool video, I’m also going to leave this here, from around the same time, but a totally different world: https://youtu.be/JXv8VlpoK_g https://youtu.be/JXv8VlpoK_g
- dark-star 4y ago
  Indeed, the 3D cube effect is inspired by Xgl or Looking Glass and the like... But from an abstract point of view it feels like the kind of things Enlightenment did around the year 2000: You could have windows zooming in and out, swooshing from left to right, accompanied by matching sounds and graphical effects like jelly or bursting in flames. It was totally fun and awesome, especially when compared to Windows 9x at the time, and everyone used it as showcase on how cool a Linux desktop is compared to Windows. But then again, to actually work with the computer, they switched back to FVWM, KDE, or whatever "boring normal" window manager they had. Still, it's a cool showcase for what a compositor with some added shaders can do
nemothekid 4y ago
It takes inspiration from compiz so I imagine it has all the compiz flare, like spinnan cubes, burning applications and wobbly windows. It's kind of nostalgic that new WMs are still showing off the same demos as when I first discovered linux.
rvz 4y ago
> but then people remember that they want to get work done... > cool, but ultimately not very useful You know when you put it like that you're right and it's probably the reason why many choose macOS or Windows just to get their work done rather than switching around system components or essentially doing things in order to get things done i.e play around with their OS. This isn't 2009 and generally it is not early days for the Linux Desktop and we are still trying to find alternatives of alternatives just to get it working. Instead we have yet another compositor demo with shiny effects that are a distraction and basically gets in the way. So yes, not at all very useful in general.
ammen99 4y ago
Disclaimer: I'm the main developer of Wayfire From the README: "It aims to create a customizable, extendable and lightweight environment without sacrificing its appearance." The primary goal are features after all, and figuring out how to share code between various paradigms. If Wayfire was only about effects, we wouldn't have simple-tile (a tiling plugin), or vswipe (using laptop touchpad to switch workspaces). Of course, Wayfire is not (and will never be) very feature-rich, it is only meant as a base for a fully-featured desktop environment. The videos demo mostly the effects, as those are the easiest to show off :) But Wayfire has enough features for daily usage, and in fact there are already quite a few people with different workflows who use it.

berkes 4y ago

I fondly remember those. Sure, they may not be efficient or even useful. But what a boring life I would have if I only ever can have things that are fully efficient or entirely useful. "Just fun" is, imo enough reason for these silly, wobbly burning Windows to exist.

hedora 4y ago
Now, if only someone would get xscreensaver working under Wayland.
- berkes 4y ago
  Yea! Shame on "these developers" spending their free time and hobby on things they like instead of on the stuff that matters to me! /s

current_thing 4y ago

Someone wrote a goddamn wayland compositor and you shrug it off like it’s nothing? Nobody gives a rats ass about your opinion about its usefulness. I’m installing this tonight. I have to bet you have released little or no open source software.

mnd999 4y ago
Wlroots does a lot of the heavy lifting here, and that is by design. It’s now much easier to write Wayland compositors than it used to be. So yeah, we can have these enlightenment style things that get used once again.

arendtio 4y ago

Actually, I wonder if you are referring to the Xgl [1] demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQYk09CHOZs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQYk09CHOZs Maybe Enlightenment WM started using Xgl too, but AFAIK Compiz was the first implementation to make it usable. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl

exitb 4y ago
That’s a cool video, I’m also going to leave this here, from around the same time, but a totally different world: https://youtu.be/JXv8VlpoK_g https://youtu.be/JXv8VlpoK_g
dark-star 4y ago
Indeed, the 3D cube effect is inspired by Xgl or Looking Glass and the like... But from an abstract point of view it feels like the kind of things Enlightenment did around the year 2000: You could have windows zooming in and out, swooshing from left to right, accompanied by matching sounds and graphical effects like jelly or bursting in flames. It was totally fun and awesome, especially when compared to Windows 9x at the time, and everyone used it as showcase on how cool a Linux desktop is compared to Windows. But then again, to actually work with the computer, they switched back to FVWM, KDE, or whatever "boring normal" window manager they had. Still, it's a cool showcase for what a compositor with some added shaders can do

nemothekid 4y ago

It takes inspiration from compiz so I imagine it has all the compiz flare, like spinnan cubes, burning applications and wobbly windows. It's kind of nostalgic that new WMs are still showing off the same demos as when I first discovered linux.

rvz 4y ago

> but then people remember that they want to get work done... > cool, but ultimately not very useful You know when you put it like that you're right and it's probably the reason why many choose macOS or Windows just to get their work done rather than switching around system components or essentially doing things in order to get things done i.e play around with their OS. This isn't 2009 and generally it is not early days for the Linux Desktop and we are still trying to find alternatives of alternatives just to get it working. Instead we have yet another compositor demo with shiny effects that are a distraction and basically gets in the way. So yes, not at all very useful in general.

ammen99 4y ago

Disclaimer: I'm the main developer of Wayfire From the README: "It aims to create a customizable, extendable and lightweight environment without sacrificing its appearance." The primary goal are features after all, and figuring out how to share code between various paradigms. If Wayfire was only about effects, we wouldn't have simple-tile (a tiling plugin), or vswipe (using laptop touchpad to switch workspaces). Of course, Wayfire is not (and will never be) very feature-rich, it is only meant as a base for a fully-featured desktop environment. The videos demo mostly the effects, as those are the easiest to show off :) But Wayfire has enough features for daily usage, and in fact there are already quite a few people with different workflows who use it.