Re: Compiz and complexity

[Frederik Nnaji <frederik nnaji gmail com>]

On Sun, May 30, 2010 at 16:33, Rovanion Luckey <rovanion luckey gmail com> wrote:

well, either compiz or metacity as both are not possible ;) I think that
was what Florian meant.

Well yes it is very much possible to use both Metacity and Compiz at the same time, I am so doing right now. But the whole business is kind of a mess so it is not too odd that you mix things together.

Metacity is on a default Ubuntu desktop the window decorator, it draws the borders around the application. Compiz is the window mananger, it is what dictates the rules for how windows are handled and draws animations and other effects. Both Metacity and especially Compiz have many more functions than what is used in the default Ubuntu setup.

Now it might turn out that I have done some incorrect wording, which is not absolutely improbable considering the mess, so I would recommend a slightly less nit-picky approach.

hahaaah, yeah you're right, this is a great mess.

That is precisely why Metacity keeps quiet in the background, mature and stable, not logo, no homepage.

my findings:

gtk-window-decorator is the module within Metacity responsible for window decoration.

It can be used by other WMs without loading all the rest of Metacity..