[SOLVED] am I using compiz and can I remove it?

[ternor]

Hi.  I posted this to another topic, then decided it was probably off topic.

How do I find out whether I am using compiz?  If I am not using it, can I remove the files relating to compiz?

[T6]

you are using compiz if you can have the cube, ctrl+alt+left click to move it(see image attached)

also you can know if you call system monitor by pressing ctrl+esc and you see something like compiz or fusion-icon or emerald

also you can verify if it is selected by opening pclinux control center/hardware/configure 3d desktop effects, no 3d desktop effects checked if not checked

you can uninstall it by removing the packages available in synaptic, maybe you added task-3ddesktop

any specific reason to have this desire to wipe it out before even knowing if you have it or what it can do for you?

in my machine it speed up video playback and desktop feels faster, looks nicer and very rarely crashes

compiz depends on the power of your video card to speed up some graphic stuff, it depends also on the driver used, if you are using vesa video drivers and everything is slow then you are not using compiz

[ternor]

Thank you for that information.  I am not using compiz.

Details of my video card are as follows:

Identification
Vendor: ‎nVidia Corporation

Description: ‎C51G [GeForce 6100]

Media class: ‎VGA compatible controller

A nVidia driver is being used:

Module: ‎Card:NVIDIA GeForce 6100 and later

My only reason for thinking about removing compiz is that there is no point having the files if I am not using them.

[T6]

i'm not sure if that is the right nvidia driver but i can tell you that if you have more than 1 gb of ram that integrated video card can use compiz very well

"My only reason for thinking about removing compiz is that there is no point having the files if I am not using them"

that is sort of see the glass half empty

if you haven't tested this app you haven't found why not use it or the benefits of having it, some of the features are very useful, it has many options available

about removing files you don't need, most of the apps in linux are so small, the few heavy weight ones are kde4base, openoffice, gimp, xbmc and very very few others

any other app is almost sure to be under 10mbs in size so remove those apps is more a waste of your time than any other thing

in general pclinux in livecd has very few apps so remove more is basically a invitation to start from clean with pclinux 2010.1 minime version

[ternor]

Ok.  Thank you.  I only have 1 gb of ram but I am thinking of getting more.  I'll leave the files in the meantime.

[T6]

i was verifying my memory usage, my system has video card so no memory theft here, 1280 gbs of ram here

it turns out that system is only using 480mbs with lots of things running so with your system and that video card stealing 256 mbs(bios could say 128 but it's not true most times) everything should be fine

compiz and emerald uses around 30mbs only

you can do boot and kde4 logon time comparisons and see if system performs well or not, speed gain or loss and possible system stability

[ternor]

Ok, thanks.  At times kde seems very sluggish on my system.  I am wary of borking the system by enabling 3D.

[T6]

that is possibly caused by the video driver used, as i said before is possible that you are not using the proprietary nvidia driver

[ternor]

Thanks.  The nVidia driver is selected in PCC, vesa is not selected.