Opacity blur

[HTD]

When I first saw Windows Vista and its Aero, I was the most impressed with opacity blur on windows decorations. This was one and only breakthrough in utility graphics for me. For a long time it was only available to Microsoft products users. It looked so damn cool, but, to say the truth - it was pretty useless too.

Then came Compiz and for a very short time, we had opacity blur not only on windows decorations, but on any translucent interface element! This not only looked cool, this was actually useful. I used semi transparent background for terminals and could see content covered by them while the text still being perfectly readable. No - transparency alone cannot achieve this effect. It's not even close.

But how to make it in Gnome 3? How to make it without Compiz? Is there a way? Maybe a special terminal with this effect? Does anyone miss it too?

I miss it very badly since saying goodbye to Gnome 2. This is the only feature I miss. Other than this, Gnome Shell and it's new way of using desktop has won me completely. Finally - it's Linux which doesn't look and feel like Windows. It's better. If it only took opacity blur from Compiz...

[dritzominous]

Have you tried messing with the gnome-terminal's preferences?

[DrHu]

It seems it was either Compiz or RBGA, but maybe not for the Gnome 3x shell..
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/05/enable-r ... u-910.html

Gnome Shell and Totem have been blacklisted due to bugs so they won't support RGBA. This doesn't mean RGBA won't work globally, it just means these applications won't be transparent.

[HTD]

It seems to be for Unity only. But I'm not sure. However Unity uses Compiz and Compiz provides opacity blur. However it's one of the most buggy and poorly supported Compiz feature of all. To use gausian blur (the one used in Windows Aero) it requires FGLRX driver for Radeons. And since xorg 1.11 - I don't want to use FGLRX anymore. Gallium just works. What's more - it's perfectly capable of rendering opacity blur, because it does it for some Unity and KDE elements. It's pretty fast BTW. What's even more strange - this effect works well in Unity even if the corresponding option in Compiz is disabled.