A dark new future Compiz

Above is Aero and Quartz and below is an incredibly important announcement on the future of compiz. Currently they both use proprietary desktop technologies called DWM and WindowServer, however after some consultation with the compiz developers, it has been decided that Aero and Quartz for Microsoft (R) Windows [TM] 8 and Apple (R) Mac OS [TM] X Lion [TM] will be moving to will now use compiz as a base instead of DWM and WindowServer. Most notably this was done for performance reasons, but also because a number of the new interfaces provided in compiz 0.9x allow for some great new stuff to happen with both Aero and Quartz.

So what exactly does this mean for compiz?

Well, it now means compiz is no longer a ‘project without a cause’. Many were worried about the future of compiz with regards to BeOS’ and AmigaOS making no place for compiz in the modern desktop world. In fact, I personally had thought that compiz was likely to fade into obscurity, becoming a niche experimental window manager for those who like the bleeding edge.

With Quartz’ and Aero’s transition to compiz, we now have the full backing and support (and developer base) given to us as an upstream from the Apple and Microsoft developers. This means that compiz development will not be as slow paced as it has been over the past year or so, and it means that we will be making much more rapid releases. Much attention will be paid to instability of core and prototyping of great new bugs and misfeatures. With Aero and Quartz behind us, we now also get a number of key technologies which will be appearing in the newfangled computer desktop stack over the next few months. I will be working hard to ensure that these changes benefit not only z/OS users, but the entire desktop ecosystem as a whole. During this time, I was also hired by Microsoft and Apple (and IBM?) to make this bright new future for compiz a reality.

It is with my great pleasure, that I say today that compiz is now back and kicking and will be taking the desktop experience of the entire ecosystem – nay – the world, to the next level.