I got bitten by the bling bug again. I listen to podcasts… It’s what I do. I’m a technologist, so many of those (read: most of those) podcasts are technology related. No, they aren’t all Linux related… I like to think I’m quite well rounded with my opinions. Sure, I evangelize Linux, but I can argue the pros to Windows, and the pros to OS X. When it boils down to it, you might as well be arguing Ford, Chevy, and GM… They all allow your average person to drive to work… It’s all preference.

So, I was listening to Windows Weekly on the TWiT network and they were talking about Vista. Specifically they were talking about whiny Windows users who moaned when OS X users got an accelerated GUI and they were still stuck in bitmapped boredom. Then when Windows ditched GDI for Aero, everyone’s moaning about the resource hog that it’s become… Well, all I could thing was, “Damn it! I’m stuck in bitmapped boredom, and I shouldn’t have to take it!” After all, I run Linux, and Linux is all about choice (usually at the sacrifice of ease of use)…

I didn’t like Beryl when I tried it, so this time I gave Compiz-Fusion a shot. As far as I can tell, there were two major projects, Compiz and Beryl, and they’ve “fused” to form Compiz-Fusion? … Don’t you wish sometimes, that you’d see something like that with Qt and GTK?

Anyway, I’m digging it so far. I’ve got my bling back! I did it because I was anticipating my buddy Kevin coming over to do some PHP shit, but he stood me up. :-P Well, at least I have my bling. :)

Just as I thought, I finally turned Beryl off. Bling just gets in the way of work. Some would argue that this is a direct admition that Aero is superior. My counter to that would be something along the lines of, “idiot.” I still like the bling of Beryl far better than Winders Aero. But, the Viewports concept was annoying me and Beryl was not allowing me to set startup points for windows and apps, even though the functionality is there. I suspect this is a Gnome vs. KDE thing maybe? Dunno, at any rate, I still approve, but I don’t want the bling THAT bad.

So, you salivating over Vista because it’s pretty? I don’t blame you one bit. Just before I finally became fed up with Microsoft (again), I was salivating over Vista too! I was totally willing to overlook the poorly thought out security enhancements. I will still admit they are on the right track with the whole running at the user level thing. But, seriously, with all the great examples of how it’s done in Linux and BSD, you’d think they could have stolen that code and made something a bit worthwhile. Mac OSX implements this perfectly — it is a BSD OS, but still.

Anyway, then I came to my senses after hearing about Windows 7, the little stealth update stunt that Microsoft pulled, and of course their desire to move toward subscription based revenue for Windows products.

I was a bit distraught. Happy to be back on Linux of course, but sad that XOrg hadn’t really made any leaps and bounds since I last saw it. No alpha transparency still!? Come on! Or so I thought. A friend of mine turned me on to the Beryl Project. Last night after a bit of fiddling I got it installed. It looks to be a gtk app, and thus built for Gnome, but it does work fine in KDE, and no real annoying inconsistencies.

If you are running Linux as your main desktop and you haven’t checked out Beryl, you must! It brings the pretty GUI to the Open Source community! So far no problems with it crashing, or getting along with KDE! Just had to give them a plug and a thanks!