I remember an old post years ago on DOSBox forum. Someone posted a patch to update the number of FPS on the window titlebar. Someone else tried it came back com

I remember an old post years ago on DOSBox forum. Someone posted a patch to update the number of FPS on the window titlebar. Someone else tried it came back complaining that it ate the processor. A bit of investigation revealed how expensive it was to update the titlebar: DOSBox, in some form, notified the DE (window manager) that the titlebar needed update; then the window manager informed the window decorator about the update; it then updated the titlebar and notified X11 to redraw it; X11 then had to sync all that to post new screen with everything ready to show. Now, go back and count the number of processes and calculate how many context switches were required just to update the titlebar. Server-side decoration made things more modular because it allowed the window decorator to be an entirely independent process. It could allow to use Beryl or kwin or any other window decorator with compiz, for example. Even considering these advantages, the price one paid for it was too expensive to justify. X11 did it, basically nobody else did; certainly for a good reason. Server-side decoration is one thing I'm glad we are finally getting rid of.