Another thing worth noting is that Ubuntu's /default/ effects via Compiz are very modest. In fact, they provide the same general features as Metacity's compositor does by default with about a quarter the standards compliance. (A stand-out example for standards compliance being the fact that GIMP's utility windows are totally dysfunctional under Compiz but work fine with Metacity). Metacity, when we filter in its elegant behaviour, is far prettier than Compiz even if it does just give us shadows and a fancy window switcher.
Further, the fact is half of Compiz's effects are entirely out of scope for a window manager and rely on horrible, kludgey, unsightly workarounds. All of Metacity's effects are in scope and only exist if they're going to work consistently. Everything else, for example fancy window previews on the window list applet, can and should be implemented by the individual child applications. This is because the window manager is not the only thing capable of pretty visual effects! I think users get confused when they switch between Compiz and Metacity, because the two have profoundly different feels, and in some cases different key bindings. Metacity uses workspaces, while default Compiz uses viewports (and a different number, if I remember right). One follows the extended window manager hints spec to precision, another has quirks. Because of that, switching the window manager should not be considered standard operation. I definitely don't think it is acceptable to dump it as a prominently displayed option as if it is something user friendly to do. So, I for one strongly recommend that Ubuntu migrates back to Metacity by default. Here's another reason: One obvious next step in GNOME's evolution as a desktop environment is the more rigid integration of the window manager with everything else. For example, GNOME-Shell is based on a heavily modified Metacity. In the future a lot of cool stuff will depend on Metacity (or whatever it comes to be called later on). It would be a shame to miss it.
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