The article of the week should be Lunapark6's Preview of Beryl 0.2.0. And this is scaring me. A lot.

This is because what we can see in Beryl 0.2.0 RC2 is simply amazing, in terms of eye-candiness:

• The Window Preview function (for the taskbar applications) shows LIVE videos, not still thumbnails!
• The Application Window Switcher (ALT+TAB / CTRL+ALT+TAB) also has previews.
• There is a circular view of it: WinKey+TAB!
• The Scale (Exposé) with either F8 (doesn't this interfere with apps's shortkeys?!) or pointing the mouse to the top-right corner of the screen supports Zoom (WinKey + scroll wheel).
• The eternal (and useless) rotating cube... (CTRL+ALT+Left/Right) supports transparency and an Inside Cube view!
• Extras: Water Effects, Wobbly Windows, Animations, Blur Effects, Fading Windows...

Luna6 provides information on how to use Beryl 0.2.0 on (K)ubuntu Edgy Eft and Fedora Core 6.

What is annoying me is something most of you will not be able to understand (I'm saying this because I know who my readers are!) — but you already know what it is: I don't judge this as being a productivity enhancer. Furthermore...

• This will distract people (developers included) from the real problems of Linux and of the real software in general.
• Hey! Who cares if an application doesn't do what it's expected to do? Enjoy the visual effects!
• Hey! Who cares if an application crashes, if it's slow, if it's crappy? Enjoy the 3D desktop effects!
• Hey! Who cares if a Linux distro is stable, supported, regularly patched, and so on? The winner will be "the most 3D distro" anyway!

With Luna6's own words: «This is the stuff that makes OS X and Vista look dated.»

When the white people conquered Africa, they handed nice-colored glass beads to the local populations. They were mostly happy with them. The 3D desktop stuff is doing just about the same thing: Vista, Compiz, Beryl, they're all speculating the shallowness of the regular John Doe.

Quality of the code? Stability of the system? Security? Non-bloatness? Efficiency? Productivity? Elegance through simplicity, not through Sci-Fi effects? Who cares?

I do care.

A commenter cared too, enough to write: «let us be realistic here: will such stuff really improve your computing?»

This was enough for blackbeltdbz to reply: «Does a Ferrari provide a better road trip than a Chevy Cavalier? It's not just about looks, It's about a whole new experience. A big problem with computing today is that although we can have 20 different apps open at once, we can't navigate them efficiently. With the 'scale' feature in Beryl, you navigate effortlessly through a forest of already running applications.»

To give honest answers:

• Yes, I can navigate through 20 open applications. BTW, isn't that the users of the 3D desktop usually make use of a single virtual desktop (workspace)?
• While I despise cars that are built for dandies, or for people trying to attract hookers, with Ferrari there might be something about quality too. I am not sure the 3D desktop currently meets any standards of quality, as the "technology" and the code are too new to meet any enterprise-grade stability. If you want your Linux desktop to be as stable as Windows Millennium Edition, go for 3D effects!
• If it wouldn't be about money, how many people would be driving a Ferrari? Is that car supposed to be comfortable for a family car, for an executive's car, etc.? Certainly not.
• Some visual effects (which are by no means "3D"!), like the Scale (Exposé), the Window Preview for the taskbar (but with static thumbnails) and the previews in the Application Switcher shouldn't need any "special technologies", as they could have been implemented in the "regular" window managers and associate tools (panels, etc.)! These features will never be part of the "regular" window managers namely because some guys who have watched too many Sci-Fi movies or cartoons started to develop some "3D desktop technologies"...

I guess I will go into a cave with some "old-school" window managers, while the outside world will crash under the "quality" of some desktop operating systems where the only thing that matters is the 3D desktop!

I hate Brad C when he hates me: «I hate the people who comment on Compiz/Beryl claiming that it is just all eye-candy and nothing productive, especially when most of these people have probably never even used it. First off, if it makes YOU less productive then by all means DO NOT RUN IT. Secondly, it absolutely makes ME many times more productive, especially given that it makes managing open applications many times more efficient. Yes, some of the features/plugins are absolutely eye-candy but there are also extremely useful ones.»

I guess there are people that don't actually need a Linux desktop, or a *BSD desktop, or a Mac desktop, or a Windows desktop: they need something to look like a Playstation game, only to be listed as "an operating system"!

If "the desktop revolution" is brought by the so-called "3D Desktop", then this "revolution" will be more harmful to the computing than the "Great October Socialist Revolution" was to the world.

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