Compiz Reloaded instead of v0.9 for UM?

[terrowin]

I used @tiox helpful guide here Installing Compiz Reloaded to install beloved compiz reloaded. Is there a reason the UM dev team decides to go with 0.9 over 0.8 reloaded? I have been using reloaded for over a year now, and imo it is superior compared to 0.9 (including Emerald is a bonus) and is under active development, while 0.9 seems as though it may be soon abandoned, at least by some who maintain the project, due to Unity being dropped.

Just wondering if someone can shed some light on the reasoning behind this. If there is some specific feature added to 0.9, it could most likely be added to 0.8 if it was requested. Before posting I read through this thread as well https://github.com/compiz-reloaded/compiz/issues/24

[mrtribute]

Unity and Compiz 0.9 are still in the main repo so it might be difficult to get Compiz 0.8 in there. Emerald rocks.

Ubuntu MATE is an official flavor so they can’t include software outside of main repo. We just have to convince Canonical to drop Unity from main repo. Boy, that would make a lot of people angry…

[tiox]

There are alternatives. If a package called compiz-legacy is made, as an example, it can conflict with compiz and uninstall it, then also pull in emerald, ccsm-legacy, simple-ccsm-legacy &c along with a legacy suite of plugins, and emerald can be installed stand-alone to go with unity, new Compiz (sans Unity) or be used by itself.

[tiox]

Yeah, going to revive this topic for this reply. Canonical’s dropping Unity like a hot rock, so I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point. Still no use talking about 0.9 0.8 in main repo as that’s never happening but hey, them giving up on their convergence play isn’t such a bad idea.

[bornagainpenguin]

In this post Wimpy says the reason so many of the plugins from Compiz Reloaded are missing is because they break on the ARM architecture:

New default layout in Ubuntu MATE 18.04

Compiz 0.9 is shipped in Ubuntu MATE, offers first class MATE support and gtk-window-decorator provides seamless theme integration. You can even enable Compiz with a single click via MATE Tweak. The Compiz plugins absent from Compiz 0.9 are missing because they don’t offer OpenGL and EGL compatibility, if I we’re to provide them it would cause Compiz to fail on ARM architectures. ARM is our biggest user base BTW. Compiz 0.9 has been working a treat in Ubuntu MATE for three years on multiple architectures. I follow the Compiz Reloaded project closely and see no reason to switch at this time.

So in addition to the reasons previously given, there is unlikely to be any changes on this for that reason also.

I miss Emerald as well, so I feel the OP’s pain. I wish I knew how to convert the one theme I like so I could keep on using it.

EDIT: somehow Emerald became Elementary. Fix’d

[stillwinter]

Compiz-reloaded won’t make it into the debian archive until it is renamed and the files don’t conflict with compiz 0.9. Plus somebody has to package it and commit to maintaining it (replying to people’s bug reports etc…). Compiz 0.9 contains all the popular plugins and is more advanced than 0.8/reloaded so it would be a backwards step reverting to 0.8. Modern versions of Emerald (and reloaded’s gwd) work with both 0.8 and 0.9.

Having said all of that, I have to disagree with Wimpy’s quote. The only ARM device that Ubuntu-mate targets is the Raspberry Pi 2/3 and as far as I can remember compiz is not installed by default on the image. Compiz 0.8 and compiz 0.9 work equally as well on the pi.

The only reason to switch to compiz 0.8/reloaded would be if it gained the ability to handle client side decorations correctly.

[tiox]

Correction: I meant 0.8 but fat-fingered 9 instead.