07.04.06
Xgl vs. Google Earth
A while back Installed Suse 10.1 because of it’s new Xgl features it comes with. With Xgl you can change the transparency of windows, switch between desktops with a nice 3d animation, alt-tab has a pretty new look (like windows vista), and moving your mouse to the top right hand side of the screen will sort your windows all pretty like on the desktop so you can select which one you want. There are also a few effects that are pointless like making it rain on your desktop and mouse rippling effects.
Here are just a few Xgl screens:
xgl01.gif
xgl02.gif
xgl03.gif
Xgl is fun to play with but the big thing that pissed me off was it’s inability to play nice with other 3d apps. I can’t imagine using Xgl permently until they get it work work well with other applications that require opengl. I will also be switching back to fedora soon. I’m not very pleased with suse. They load it up with too much useless software on install (which is why I dumped ubuntu), also it doesn’t come preinstalled with a program like yum or apt. Yeah, there is YaST but it is not my favorite tool to use.
I do not know how long ago google put out a linux version of GoogleEarth but when I found out I installed it immediately. I have been waiting a while for google to port it. For months i have been trying to get the windows version to work in wineX but nothing but constant failure. So since this linux release of Google Earth I have been wasting my life away in it. The biggest difference between the linux version and the windows version is the navigation controls. The last win version of Earth that I played with the controls were inside of its own widget on the bottom part of the window. In this linux version the controls are hidden away in the top right hand corner, which seems more efficient. You get to have a bigger viewing window this way. Below are a few screens of Google Earth in Linux:
Google Earth screen 1
Google Earth screen 2
Google Earth screen 3
Google Earth screen 4