Compiz
Shares rank 8 of 30 window managers by recommenders
Compositing window manager that adds wobbly windows, cube desktop and other 3D effects on Linux; people remember it fondly. Critics call the effects a gimmick and say it faded.
Compositing window manager that adds wobbly windows, cube desktop and other 3D effects on Linux; people remember it fondly. Critics call the effects a gimmick and say it faded.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fun desktop effects and animations
“It felt magical to switch between windows and Ubuntu specially with all the compiz animation goodies”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics” “compiz was amazing, I remember playing with the wobbly windows for hours”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Knoppix” “I think it had KDE with compiz-fusion. That was awesome.”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Knoppix” - Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Windows 10 quietly gets one more year of support and updates”
- Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design”
- Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root”
Fond memories of the Linux desktop
“compiz was amazing, I remember playing with the wobbly windows for hours”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Knoppix” “I think it had KDE with compiz-fusion. That was awesome.”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Knoppix” “My own Linux desktop experience peaked with Compiz”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” - Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Dismissed as a flashy gimmick
“it turned out to be a passing gimmick that looked flashy but didn’t really add anything”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics” “Compiz 3d effects were ultimately a useless gimmick and I predict this is too.”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics” “Compiz 3d effects were ultimately a useless gimmick”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics” Lost momentum, people moved on
“lost almost all that additional functionality, as well as most of the momentum it had”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Dumb Ways for an Open Source Project to Die” “at this point I just don’t miss it”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Separating the Wayland Compositor and Window Manager”
Other window managers people recommend
The four most recommended other window managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyprland | 82 | 33 | 71% | 12 | 1 mo4 owners | Approved |
| Rectangle for macOS | 67 | 3 | 96% | 11 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| Enlightenment window manager | 51 | 19 | 73% | 8 | — | Approved |
| FVWM | 28 | 4 | 88% | 8 | 25 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| CompizThis page | 15 | 9 | 63% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 25 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“seeing all the cool Compiz effects”
“Generally it meant every app needed a texture (more like 2/3) to draw into, and compositing itself has increased latency.”
“Woefully underused - even on Linux!”
“My own Linux desktop experience peaked with Compiz”
“Pleas do not fall into Compiz trap”
“the Compiz cube looked awesome”
“compiz was amazing, I remember playing with the wobbly windows for hours”
“I think it had KDE with compiz-fusion. That was awesome.”
“wow factor that gets people to jump in and try it”
“Compiz with Unity was very unstable, and that wasn't the user's fault”
“lost almost all that additional functionality, as well as most of the momentum it had”
“It felt magical to switch between windows and Ubuntu specially with all the compiz animation goodies”
“it turned out to be a passing gimmick that looked flashy but didn’t really add anything”
“Compiz 3d effects were ultimately a useless gimmick and I predict this is too.”
“Compiz 3d effects were ultimately a useless gimmick”
“Nobody picked Ubuntu because of Mir, or Compiz, or Upstart”
“at this point I just don’t miss it”
“note that compiz is also a windowmanager, so already then compositor and window manager were one unit.”
“the modding there was superior (and then compiz appeared)”
“Compiz et al. were clumsily imitating”
“why it needed to have at minimum 3 "waves" before it minimised the window”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.