Running Beryl on Windows.

Hobbes

For those that don't know Beryl is the new Desktop killer for linux. It makes Vista/XP look primitive.

However I just read that it is possible to install Beryl to run on windows, so I am in the process of doing it now. Just wondering if anyone else has managed to do it yet?

DonkeyStyle \o/

Got any promising links / starting points on this?

kaimera

Would this be what you're on about?

8T8

Beryl is a GPU accelerated Window Manager like those found in Vista/OSX while a step over XP's outdated UI render & other Linux equivalents it arguably is not any superior to the commercial offerings most of the ooh & aahs are from fancy demo's which have limited usability when it comes down to it & are just as repeatable under Vista\OSX. For example here is a proper Expose clone for Vista that works even with 3D games running at the same time in a Window.

Where it is superior is in it's openness of course and being supported through OpenGL for older GPU's though I suspect there must be some trade off like in OSX where the CPU takes over for some rendering tasks if the GPU is not a more modern one.

Vista takes a different approach with no in-between you get GPU accelerated desktop or you don't both approaches have their pro's & con's.

As for Beryl running atop XP never heard of that myself in fact I didn't know it had even been ported, I would be interested to see it but I can't imagine it will be very useful as XP is still running underneath so at most it might be a shell UI you can't just take XP's own directdraw out of the picture. Stardock use Direct3D in their Object Desktop/WinFX which does the same fancy demo stuff under XP if you really want that sort of thing but it's still not the same as running a true 3D accelerated desktop native to the OS.

kaimera that Toy'd project is interesting but it looks like it is still in early development. I think they are using Compiz or something they cooked up themselves but not Beryl.

Stephen

I'd be wary of this considering how unstable it is on Linux anyways...

Hobbes

The latest version of Beryl (just out recently) is very stable. I've had a 3 day uptime so far, and thats only because I was finished with the machine for then.

As for the CPU, the latest version for Linux at least all the rendering is done all in the GPU and can bypass XGL (which is what caused the most headaches/crashes for me). So I have it writing directly to my nVidia card. So I even have Eve/CS:S working fine with it.

As for setting up in windows. You can run X11R7.2 in windows now and run Beryl in that.

Currently just downloaded the X11 sources and figuring out how to build them. Believe it can be built/run via cygwin.

As for Vista vs Beryl, I've played with both and Vista is no where near as good as Beryl. For all its fancy stuff it has a lot of stuff that is very useful over Vista.

8T8

Yeah ubuntu went with Compiz instead as well.

Edit: Beryl may do some fancy effects which some may or may not like but it is obviously no where near as stable as Vista's DWM is, as your post above proves Hobbes.

Anyway comparisons are somewhat fruitless Microsoft designed its DWM for Windows not for other platforms like Linux and for what it does under Windows it does well.

311

kaimera wrote:

Would this be what you're on about?

I loaded this on my laptop ,now I can't use it .

Anyone know what command line file ,will bring up a windows uninstall screen so I can uninstall TOY'd.
I tried looking for a uninstall file in the Progra~1 directory of Toy'd ,but it doesn't have one:(

I know it said to install with two users on the system ,but I wasn't expecting no use of windows :eek:

Hobbes

8T8 wrote:

Edit: Beryl may do some fancy effects which some may or may not like but it is obviously no where near as stable as Vista's DWM is, as your post above proves Hobbes.

What point did I put across? I said that I had my machine running non-stop for three days because it was running something. Beryl hasn't crashed at all since I installed the latest version. I haven't even gotten any kind of UI based hangs (where as xGL I would normally have to CTRL-ALT-Backspace at least once a day).

Also my comparisons are not if something under one OS can run under the other. Beryl has a lot more features that are beyond eye-candy which I never saw in Aero.

I loaded this on my laptop ,now I can't use it .

Are you able to get into Safe mode? Try uninstall that way.

311

I controlled alt deleted and closed a program called virtual root.
Then I had to Add/remove from control panel because there was no sign of TOY'd on the program list ,to uninstall from:(

Sorry for rockin off topic Hobbes ,
Thanks.

8T8

Hobbes wrote:

Also my comparisons are not if something under one OS can run under the other. Beryl has a lot more features that are beyond eye-candy which I never saw in Aero.

Well of course Beryl has more plugins due to it being open source but just because you haven't seen something on Vista or OSX doesn't mean they are not capable as an example the Expose clone I linked to above, Microsoft had to design the DWM to accommodate the tastes of a wide spectrum of users so they couldn't throw everything and the kitchen sink into it.

Some examples of what it does for Vista;
Excellent resource management between system RAM & GPU RAM
No performance impact from the DMW being enabled & playing 3D games
Ability to have vector based apps
Much better video renderer
Thumbnail support, alpha transparency, shadows etc

So what exactly does the average home user need more than that because I can't think of anything & if there is something a particular person wants some third party can cook up the feature using the API's in Vista.

Blowfish

Demo since no one has posted one yet.

mickoneill30

Is it just eye candy? Or is it worth installing? I normally turn off the bells and whistles on Windows / Linux as I don't really care about spinning boxes or translucent objects. Is there anything else to it?

311

I think that rolling menus and controls ,will become more popular.
I'd love to use an operating system where the movement of a mouse would roll a selection ,it would be faster than pointing to menus I think.

The 3d box in beryl ,would be great I'd say if you could have several boxes with various programs running in each.

Through the envoirnment ,floating colours could be user selected as entering certain system settings etc. That would be along the lines of my ideal operating system:)

andrew163

mickoneill30 wrote:

Is it just eye candy? Or is it worth installing? I normally turn off the bells and whistles on Windows / Linux as I don't really care about spinning boxes or translucent objects. Is there anything else to it?

I've been using linux/beryl on my desktop an laptop as my primary OS/window manager for about a month and a half now. Some of it is just visual fluff (like the wobbly windows), but some elements of it (such as scaling, and thumbnail previews) are very useful.

The cube, despite probably seeming like just eye candy, is actually quite useful too. It's the only thing thats ever made me use gnome/kde's multiple desktop feature (it was always far too clunky/disorganised beforehand). It's much easier when you can visualise them in 3D space..

Properly transparent terminals are also nice too

-Andrew

Hobbes

8T8 wrote:

Well of course Beryl has more plugins due to it being open source

Probably more to do with the fact it has been around longer.

but just because you haven't seen something on Vista or OSX doesn't mean they are not capable

OSX has the same features or can run Beryl. Vista is playing catch up and a lot of it looks nicked from OSX.

Some examples of what it does for Vista;

Which is exactly what Beryl does as well and more.

So what exactly does the average home user need more than that

Theres the crux of the argument. Aero does not ship on the average home user PC version of Vista. You have to pay extra for it.

8T8

Probably more to do with the fact it has been around longer.

I disagree it's in the public domain so people had had a chance to work with it, Vista wasn't till very recently what do you expect.

OSX has the same features or can run Beryl. Vista is playing catch up and a lot of it looks nicked from OSX.

That's funny because QuartzGL isn't even enabled in OSX and OSX Lepoard is playing catch up to Vista. Followed by the stock nicked from OSX response so Apple owns exclusivity on shadows, alpha transparency and nice icons wow so Beryl is stealing from OSX too :eek:

By the way Microsoft contracted the Icon Factory to do all the icons for Vista in the first place it wasn't in house.

Which is exactly what Beryl does as well and more.

I doubt it otherwise it would be the default on Linux desktops.

Theres the crux of the argument. Aero does not ship on the average home user PC version of Vista. You have to pay extra for it.

Wrong the DWM with the Aero look is enabled on plenty of systems the requirements are not high even the most basic of DX9 GPU's can power it. The Home Basic version is intended for bottom of the barrel systems that don't feature the necessary hardware.

So all this was just to do some some thinly veiled trolling & promote Linux in the Windows forum :rolleyes:

Stephen

The avarage home version of vista that ships on most OEM boxes is home premium, which does have all the fancy aero stuff.

Hobbes

8T8 wrote:

So all this was just to do some some thinly veiled trolling & promote Linux in the Windows forum :rolleyes:

No it was you who started trolling over which is better. I just expressed a preference. my initial post was for anyone who's got it running in Windows yet. So it is arguing apples over oranges in that one has more features and is free and the other may have more features in the future but isn't free.

So far where I am is trying to get the KDE running in Cygwin (which is one of the prereqs for building Beryl).

I was posting this for Blowfish but it took ages to upload.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1sv2u_beryl2

8T8

It makes Vista/XP look primitive.

Your words not mine. I responded to your remarks and if you'll note I never implied that Beryl was inferior from which you decided to take the route that if it comes from Microsoft ergo it must be crap or stolen & Beryl is clearly superior in every way.

Good luck getting it to run on XP, I will take my leave & not "troll" this thread any further.