http://youtube.com/watch?v=CcnLyYbnV18

Xgl was originally developed on public mailing lists, but for a long time, until January 2, 2006 most  development of Xgl was done behind closed doors. On that day the source to Xgl was re-opened to the public, and included in freedesktop.org, along with major restructuring to allow a wider range of supported display drivers. X server backends used by Xgl include Xglx and Xegl. In February 2006 the server gained wide publicity after a public display where the Novell desktop team demonstrated a desktop using Xgl with several visual effects such as translucent windows and a rotating 3D desktop. The effects had first been implemented in a composite manager called glxcompmgr (not to be confused with xcompmgr), now deprecated because several effects could not be adequately implemented without tighter interaction between the window manager and the composite manager. As a solution David Reveman developed Compiz, the first proper OpenGL compositing window manager for the X Window System as well.


Had the same effects on my desktop. I've been experimenting on it for weeks and so far did it perfectly. I like the effects more than vista offers... the wavy thing.. the rotation.... the transparency and of course its free and very lightweight, does not require to much on hardware.