If I were to utter the phrase "OS for the eye-candy lovers" to the general public, many would probably be inclined to respond with "Oh, you mean Mac OS X".  They wouldn't necessarily be wrong, but too many people have the misconception that Mac OS X is the only OS for people that like a pretty computing environment.  I have to admit, OS X have a very well designed GUI and it's very attractive to the eyes, but there aren't many options if you'd like to customize to your own personality.  When you use Mac OS X, you're being told what's pretty.
    Windows XP is not generally considered an eye-candy OS.  Sure, there are many applications that allow you to skin your XP box, making it look pretty, and there are also entire shells out there that replace Explorer, but the OS itself was not designed to have all those pretty, nifty, smooth animations that most people associate with Mac OS X.  Microsoft is trying to alleviate that with some of their work on Aero in Vista, but that's still some time to come(Not to mention it'll be a hefty hole dug out of your wallet, but OS X users are already used to paying for software additions that make navigation and the experience of OS X as a whole more enjoyable anyway).
    Now, it used to be that if one were to mention Linux(Any Distro) the common folk would generally think "Oh man, that's that geeky OS where you have to type and stuff and the GUI's all rigid and ugly" and that's fine, because back a few years ago, that was pretty true for the most part.  But in recent years though, Linux distros have become much more user-friendly and have gotten more mainstream attention.  Of course, most have heard of Ubuntu by now, that it's very easy to install and use.
    Something that not many people know though, is that by the fact of nature that GNU/Linux OSes and applications thereof are most of the time free(As in both free lunch and free will) there were multitudes of options for a Linux user to customize their experience.  That includes anything from choosing what Desktop Environment they want to use(Gnome, KDE, among others) there were applications that ran in those that could modify their experience even more.  Though there was bountiful choice of eye-candy, there wasn't much option if you wanted the nifty special effects that exists in OS X.  That is, until now.
    XGL, in a short explanation, is an X Server architecture that has OpenGL layered on top of it.  Essentially, what that means is that it can utilize the pretty 3d effects of OpenGL and apply it to your regular desktop computing experience.  Compiz is a compositing window manager that works with the power provided by XGL and it's what provides the effects.
    The effects that I speak of are thus:


    I've been using it for a few days now and I'm really loving it.  It's really surprising how a nice, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing environment can do so much to improve the computing experience.  I haven't bothered to take screens or videos but I've got a video that I've "Borrowed" from Kroneage, who's written an article about Compiz as well.
The video runs thus:



Sources and other information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl
http://www.compiz.net/

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