Compiz Fusion

It seeks to provide an easy and fun-to-use windowing environment, allowing use of the graphics hardware to provide impressive effects, amazing speed and unrivalled usefulness. The first Compiz Fusion developer release was Compiz Fusion 0.5.2 on August 13th 2007, shortly after Compiz 0.5.2 was released.

Compiz Fusion, as well as Compiz, is an open-source software project, meaning anyone can use it and contribute to it freely.

It is important to note that Compiz and Compiz Fusion are not the same thing (see: Compiz Fusion Vs Compiz). Shortly said: Compiz Fusion is a community-driven extension pack for Compiz. There is close co-operation between the developers of Compiz and the developers of Compiz Fusion, though; in fact, many Compiz Fusion developers are also Compiz developers.

Features of Compiz and Compiz Fusion

• Hardware-accelerated window management and desktop compositing through OpenGL, using rendering paths like AIGLX, Xgl and direct rendering solutions on some hardware.
• Powerful and flexible plugin interface, allowing almost limitless extension possibilities.
• ARGB rendering, allowing true transparency when the applications support ARGB visuals.
• Compiz Configuration System
  • A library which offers transparent support for gconf, kconf and ini settings storage.

  • A GUI Plugin Configuration Manager, CCSM

• Many community and developer contributed plugins

  • Main Plugins - Plugins which many users will find useful

  • Extra Plugins - Plugins that add eye candy or less sought after functionality

• Window Decorators, which provide window frames and titlebars

  • GTK Window Decorator - Window decorator that supports GNOME Metacity themes

  • KDE Window Decorator - Window decorator that supports KDE KWin themes

  • Emerald - Window decorator that is custom themeable and supports full Alpha blended themes.

In addition to these technical features, Compiz Fusion has a significant focus on community interaction.

Compiz HomePage