Yougo: Unity (via Compiz) is rendering the interface in the same way that a 3D video game work: people measure games in the number of Frames Per Second (FPS) displayed. For each new frame the interface gets wiped and is redrawn from scratch, when this is done enough times per second it appears smooth.
With OpenGL hardware GPU rendering it's possible to manage 60+ FPS per second. This is more complete FPS than the eyes can see, so the game, or Unity interface looks super-smooth. With OpenGL software rendering it is only possible to get 1-2 FPS which makes the interface jerky, unresponsive and uses up lots of battery and CPU. Without efficient and fast hardware OpenGL support it is better to swtich back to traditional 2D rendering (the GNOME Panel) which uses a different mechanism for drawing to the screen, where only what has moved is updated, not the whole screen. Doing software 2D rendering means that many of the effects that people have become used to are not possible. -- compiz can't load plugins and won't run in VirtualBox https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/675307 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs