All examples are done using multiple workspaces – 3 wide and 3 tall.
Desktop Wall
This plugin arranges your workspaces into a table, and allows you to switch between them with the keyboard. The default key binding is to hold Ctrl+Alt and use the arrow keys to move around the table.
The wall is semi-transparent so you will be able to see the screens below it as you move between sections, however it does not include “live previews” of the contents of each workspace. Because of this, you cannot tell from the wall alone whether any given workspace is empty, or otherwise what the contents may be. This makes it faster, though possibly less useful, than our next plugin, Expo.
Expo
It is this author’s opinion that Expo may be the single most useful plugin in all of Compiz. Much like the desktop wall noted above, Expo will treat your workspaces as a table and allow you to move between them, however it also offers quite a bit more. For starters, Expo does not use a visual overlay to represent your workspace, it IS your workspace, and all the others.
When you activate Expo, you “zoom out” of your desktop to the point where you can see all workspaces at once – live and active. The video clip in the screenshot above keeps on playing in its shrunken state, no matter what workspace you’re on or what Expo is doing.
Individual windows, such as the video clip above, can be dragged from one workspace to another, or left sitting in the space in between. Expo is an extremely handy plugin, and expect to see a video post in the near future containing a few Expo tricks.
App Switcher/Static App switcher
The previous two plugins both dealt with workspace management – the idea being that you could have individual applications residing on their own workspace. Some people don’t like multiple workspaces, and those who do sometimes have multiple windows on one workspace. Whatever the reason, it can get ugly when you’ve got a dozen windows on one workspace to sort through. The standard solution is an application switcher that will let you tab through those windows, and Compiz comes with two tools to perform that basic task – Application Switcher and Static Application Switcher.
Both are nearly identical, the main difference being that App Switcher will fade out background windows while switching, whereas Static will remove them entirely and only show the selected window. The screenshot above is using Static.
Scale
As an alternative to the plain application switchers above, Compiz also includes the Scale plugin. Instead of displaying a selection box, Scale temporarily shrinks the windows themselves and arranges them into a grid for your choosing.
This lets you see all open windows on that workspace and choose the right one directly instead of tabbing through a list.
Ring Switcher
The final approach Compiz can take toward window management is the Ring Switcher. It’s a combination of the two previous takes. When you activate it, all windows on the current workspace will be thumbnailed and arranged in a ring. You tab between them much like the App Switcher, but you’ve got full live previews like Scale.
Conclusion
All plugins listed here, while occasionally flashy, are meant for real world productivity. The usefulness of plugins like Expo and Scale demonstrate that Compiz isn’t just a bunch of eye candy – it’s a genuinely effective window manager with some quality features. These Compiz plugins, when combined with other desktop tools like Gnome Do, Specto and Conky can be invaluable to a Linux user who really wants a slick and productive system.
