[tommytabib]

I just managed to download/install mandriva, which now comes with the metisse desktop.

I guess im not so impressed because id heard great things about it, like people saying its more based on functionality and making your desktop easier to use when running many programs. Personally i don't think makes life any easier than beryl.

It just seems to be filled with a whole lot of little things you can do to windows (like putting a hole in them) that may look good to some but don't actually make life any easier.

So whats your opinions of metisse?

[Krendoshazin]

I don't see how it's meant to make your life easier, it's just eye candy and a waste of resources in my opinion, being able to peel back windows and all that jazz doesn't exactly strike me as time efficient. You could claim something as simple as the cubed desktop may save time, but again it proves much quicker just to use the scrollwheel to flick through them, a feature I know that both fluxbox and KDE have.
Let's call it what it is, eye candy.

[mahlerfan]

Being able to toggle transparency per window can be helpful, as is *slightly* bending windows for the same reason-- it allows you to work in two windows without having to toggle between them.

There is alot of stuff that I wouldn't use, like duplicating a window, but if you had a lot of people crowded around a big monitor, I could see why it would be useful.

I think the idea is that every feature has a use, but that doesn't mean that any one individual will find everything useful to him/her.

I haven't played around with punching a hole through a window, but I think that is also based on the same principle of allowing you to see multiple windows without shrinking them or toggling between them.

I only find two things useful in beryl-- previews and transparency (and is that only with moving) and there is alot of things that have no useful purpose like flaming windows that end up making the beryl control center overly complicated to show off all the useless crap that you can do.

I like the more localized controls (per window) of Metisse over the global control center of Beryl, and I find Metisse's tricks more helpful.

That being said, I still prefer the unaccelerated desktop.