Battle for the window manager…raw graphical technologies like Compiz/Beryl versus user centered approach, like Metisse.

Thomas Menguy | September 14, 2008

The Linux community has come up with a bunch of new technologies to bring the UI eye candy on Linux to the next level…following the path of a well established player : Apple with its 8 years old compositing window manager Quartz.

But as it may happen way too often in the Linux desktop community the emphasis is on the technical aspects , not at all on the ease of use and usability improvements: check the following nice/fancy/eye blowing demos, and after the wow effect … think about what it brings.

Here is an interesting Beryl vs Vista videos: the focus is on effects only, except form the clear Apple borrowing (dock, window in/out effects) the Beryl side is just as unusable as the Vista one can be…but you have eye candy , and a wiz/bang teenager environment (jackytouch for the frenchies )

Another one with Compiz-Fusion, same conclusion:

…just try to find a utility, a user experience meaning to this fireworks….well nothing, in the same vain as vista windows effects and switcher you deactivate to speed up your PC. Ok the 3D cube is lovely, but come on, playing a 3D game just to switch between workspaces can be called a waste of time, I want to be efficient to do the things I really care on my PC, which ARE NOT looking at the animation between windows!

Then come this little refreshing Linux gem, and, I want to say of course, it is not coming from the "raw" desktop engineering Linux community, but from a lab (ok, a french one ), Inria. It is called Metisse : and at last it clearly states "Usability study and experiment before nice effects!"

Metisse [1, 2, 3] is an X-based window system designed with two goals in mind. First, it should make it easy for HCI researchers to design and implement innovative window management techniques Second, it should conform to existing standards and be robust and efficient enough to be used on a daily basis, making it a suitable platform for the evaluation of the proposed techniques.

Metisse is not focused on a particular kind of interaction (e.g. 3D) and should not be seen as a new desktop proposal. It is rather a tool for creating new types of desktop environments.

Quote from the Metisse web site.

Checkout this simple idea about copy/paste: why on earth it is not like that today….

This one shows also some interesting usability concepts:

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8 responses

Copy/Paste _is_ like that today. It's a feature of

MilesZS | September 15, 2008

Copy/Paste _is_ like that today. It’s a feature of X11. Highlight some text, then middle click to paste it. Try it.

The difference, MilesSZ, is that the top window rolled out

lefty.crupps | September 15, 2008

The difference, MilesSZ, is that the top window rolled out of the way, on its own.

I would very much like to try Metisse with KDE on Debian, but i cannot find the .debs and I’ve never tried compiling it.

Thx lefty, That was the point for copy paste....

Thomas Menguy | September 15, 2008

Thx lefty, That was the point for copy paste….

I've used Metisse (Arch Linux has it in their

Dave | September 15, 2008

I’ve used Metisse (Arch Linux has it in their AUR repository) and it didn’t seem very user-oriented to me at all. While there were some nice features most of them were awkward to use an/or didn’t work as well as they do in the video.

I was not able to run Metisse very well with KDE 4. Metisse uses its own modified version of X and didn’t want to cooperate with KDE. Some of the best Metisse features rely on their custom changes to X to make possible.

Compiz has the advantage of being a good platform for plugin development so any Metisse features that don’t require their special X can be done in Compiz. Right now Compiz has many useful plugins that enhance the user experience, but of course only the pretty ones make it into most youtube videos.

You also forgot about KWin, which has had compositing since KDE 4. It also focuses on the user experience instead of lots of fancy effects.

Fair enough. I personally don't want my windows rolling

MilesZS | September 15, 2008

Fair enough. I personally don’t want my windows rolling up on me. I have focus following my mouse without raising windows for a reason.

@Dave: I tend to agree even if I'm not a

Thomas Menguy | September 15, 2008

@Dave: I tend to agree even if I’m not a compiz/metisse/x11 expert, anyway what I’ve liked about this project is its focus on usability and not on gfx.

@Mike: your mileage may vary

Anyways thx a lot for your comments!

@lefty.crupps: um, kinda like how the window comes to

cwillu | September 15, 2008

@lefty.crupps: um, kinda like how the window comes to the front when you click on it to select the text, only with a gratuitous animation to go along with it :p