Well after having experimented with XGL/Compiz yesterday using a live CD I could no longer wait to use it on Ubuntu. Originally I had planned to use it when Ubuntu Dapper Drake was out but a combination of boredom and lust for wobbly windows drove me to give it ago. First thigns first Google for a guide. The one I found was this Xgl and Compiz under Breezy I followed it pretty much to the letter but doing things my own way. The only important things to note because I'm currently running an ATI card are that I had to make 0=Xgl into 1=Xgl and the line command=/usr/X11R6/bin/Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:fbo -accel xv:fbo into command=/usr/X11R6/bin/Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:fbo -accel xv:fbo. Also this is probably regardless of graphics card type, I found the current animation when you lauch an program from a gnome panel launcher conflicted with Compiz and slowed it down, this is easily fixed via gConf and disabling /apps/panel/global/enable_animations

All of that took around five minutes. I have never even looking into installing XGL/Compiz on Breezy before so given that it only took five minutes I was very impressed to see it up and running in such time. XGL/Compiz are great and I use very little CPU which is what you'd expect from an accelerated desktop, infact moving windows around now actaully consumes less CPU than when I didn't have XGL/Compiz installed

EDIT: OK I have a few tweaks I performed later on that I thought I'd list here.

To get a UK keyboard layout:
xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.uk

To change window transparency with ctrl+shift and mouse wheel:
Download http://www.downwithnumbers.com/files/compiz_opacity.tar.gz.
Extract it and copy libopacity.so to /usr/lib/compiz.
Then in gConf editor edit /apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins and add opacity to the list and it should be activated instantly



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