Bring on the bling with Beryl: a look at a new Linux window manager

Window management with a twist... or an explosion

Desktop computing technology has evolved considerably since the first graphical user interface was developed by researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in 1973. Thirty years after the conception of the window and the cursor, developers are now challenging conventional interface paradigms in order to provide users with a whole new generation of visually responsive and aesthetically provocative software technologies. Microsoft's Aero Glass, Apple's Quartz 2D Extreme, and Sun's Project Looking Glass are all poised to transform the way that users interact with computers. Also at the forefront of innovation, the Linux community has some prodigiously impressive new user interface technologies of its own. Beryl, a new open-source window manager for Linux, features compelling visual enhancements like support for transparent windows and elaborate window animations. Based on David Reveman's Compiz window manager, Beryl leverages hardware-accelerated rendering to provide support for unique and innovative graphical functionality.

On the Linux platform, window management software is generally responsible for controlling the size and position of windows and drawing window borders. Window managers are what allow users to minimize, maximize, close, resize, and move the windows that appear on their desktops. Most desktop environments, like KDE and GNOME, come with a supported window manager that is designed for the environment. KDE, for instance, uses the KWin window manager. When used as a replacement for conventional window managers like KWin or Metacity, Beryl adds a lot of exciting new functionality and amazing 3D effects to standard Linux desktop environments.

Installing Beryl

In the past, setting up Beryl or Compiz was a relatively arduous process because users had to manually install complex X11 server replacements like Xgl. Fortunately, the recently released Xorg 7.1 includes integrated AIGLX support and is available in the latest releases of several mainstream Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora.

To install Beryl on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft), users can simply add the official Beryl repository to APT and install the relevant packages. Those of you who aren't using Ubuntu may be able to find installation instructions for your own distribution at the Beryl wiki. The Beryl wiki provides installation instructions for a relatively broad selection of mainstream distributions, but there are some popular distributions that aren't included. If you can't find installation instructions for your distribution on the wiki, you can ask for help in the Beryl forum.

Keep in mind that Beryl is still experimental, and it won't work properly on all hardware. Additionally, some users may need to install proprietary graphics drivers in order to use Beryl. I have tested Beryl on a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop with embedded Intel graphics hardware and on my desktop computer, an Athlon 64 X2 with two NVIDIA GeForce cards.

Emerald

Beryl uses the Emerald window decorator to draw window borders and title bars. Emerald is highly flexible and supports theming. Users can make, install, and configure Emerald themes with the Emerald Theme Manager. To launch the theme manager, click the Beryl icon in the notification area of your panel and select Emerald Theme Manager from the context menu. The Themes tab contains a list of all of the themes currently installed on your computer. To switch to a specific theme, you can simply click its entry in the theme list. The Edit Themes tab provides complete access to all of the settings used to construct the currently active theme. Users can change the images used for the title bar buttons, change the size and color of the window drop shadows, alter the font and layout used by the title bar, and alter the settings used by the decorator theme engine.

The Repositories tab provides two buttons that will automatically download and install new themes from the Internet. Additional themes can be found in the Themes section of the Beryl forums, and on the official Beryl themes page at the Beryl web site. Users can also find new Beryl themes at the GNOME-Look.org web site in the recently added Beryl section.

To import a theme downloaded from the Internet, go to the Themes tab in the Emerald Theme Manager, click the Import button, select a file with the .emerald extension, and then click the Open button. The new theme will be added to the Emerald Theme Manager theme list. The latest version of Beryl, 0.2.0, also supports existing KWin and Metacity themes with the Aquamarine and Heliodor window decorators.

In most of the screenshots included in this article, I'm using Zammi Khan's Murrine Glass theme modified to use the Truglass engine.