So, at home, I have a Mac. At work, I have a Linux box running Hateful H-word.
I have rather too many windows on my work box, and I'm missing Exposé. Apparently, Linux can do it. So I look, and I find a config option, and I turn it on. Sod all happens. Friends tell me "ah, you need to turn on a compositing window manager" There was no warning when I was configuring something that "frobbing this entire rats nest of dialogue box options will do sweet Fanny Adams with your current settings" because, oh no, that would be helpful. So, I dig down and find the other tickybox somewhere else, and turn on the thing. "Appearance, Visual Effects", which makes no mention of metacity or compiz, or whatever they'd called. I do this, and all my windows ping back to my first virtual desktop. Cheers mate. It had taken some time to arrange them correctly. But OMFG yuck. I have Exposé, but the pact with the devil also inflicts all sorts of eye-vomit I don't need. But this is OK, it's Linux, *everything* is configurable. (To the point of pain). So yes, I can turn off window closing animation, drop shadows, and $deity (who probably does not exist) knows what, but the one thing I can't do is make windows without focus have opaque borders. They're all bloody translucent, and I don't like that. But is there an option? Is there hell! It seems to be the *one* thing you can't configure anywhere. Even gconf-editor can't spot it. Hate. I think I might have to live without Exposé. Year of the Linux desktop? Well, I'd like to use my desktop for the entire year, rather than have to wait until December to get it to a functional state. I think that it's spelled "Macintosh". Nicholas Clark
