The simplest method to get a composit manager installed is to install Compiz. Compiz is an outstanding window manager all on its own that is, by default, ready for compositing. With Compiz installed you will have a composit manager that E16 can deal with already installed.

In Ubuntu if you issue the command sudo synaptic you will open up the Add/Remove Software application. From here do a search for compiz. When the results come up select compiz and allow the system to install all necessary dependencies. Finally click Apply to install all of the packages.

Once Compiz is installed you should be able to set compositing up in Enlightenment. With a right mouse click the Settings menu will appear. Select “Composite Settings” to open up the configuration window.

Composite Settings

Once the settings window opens you will see a few configuration options to choose from.

Composite Settings Window

The first option to take care of is Enable Composite. Make sure that is checked. The rest of the options are all up to user taste.  I prefer to have  Fading Speed set to slowest (slider to the far left), Shadows Blurred, Default Unfocused Window Opacity near 1/2, and Default Pop-Up Window Opacity around 3/4 on. Once you have selected these options click Apply to set them.

The final effect can be pretty amazing for just a “simple window manager”.

The full effect

Final Thoughts

What I love about Enlightenment is that it is a lightweight desktop that manages to pull off enough tricks to impress yet doesn’t drag your machine to a halt. With a little hackery, Enlightenment can make Windows Aero look like a sad attempt at a modern desktop.

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But with the plethora of terminal emulators available, why would you add yet another? Aterm offers some features that most other players can not touch. One of the more obvious features is that of transparency. I know, I know – both GNOME and KDE terminals do transparency, but not as easily and as well as aterm. Let’s see how this is done.

First and foremost to get aterm to open with various forms of transparency you will be issuing a command. Once you have settled on the exact combination of arguments you like you can then create an icon, launcher, or menu entry to suit your needs.

With that in mind let’s take a look at some of the options to allow you to get some funky-ness with aterm.

the first thing we will do is basic transparency. To get basic transparency you execute the aterm command like so:

aterm -tr

To expedite coolness I am going to add a couple of switches:

aterm -tr -fg white -bg blue +sb

The above command will produce an aterm like you see below.

Basic aterm transparency

What I did with the above command is:

• tr – Enable transparency
• fg – Change the forground color (text)
• bf – Background color (highlight)
• sb – With the “+” symbol the scroll bar is turned off

That is not all we can do. Let’s add the following:

tint – Add a tinting color to the transparency

fade – Fade the contents of the aterm window when it no longer has focus. The amount is from 0-100 with 0 being the most fade.

Here’s what the command aterm -tr -tint blue -fade 50 -fg white -bg blue +sb will look like.

Aterm with Fade

Naturally you’ll want to play around with colors and fade amounts depending upon your theme/background.

Final Thoughts

This has given you but a taste of what the aterm terminal emulator can do. If you’re like me, and you like some desktop eyecandy, this is a great way to get it without having to pump up your resources or spend all day tweaking.

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Since you can set the transparency level to be fully transparent you could effectively a state on your system where you do not see Blend anymore which means you cannot change the transparency level anymore; Unless you reboot that is. But that only happens once, don’t you think. As I said Blend can make all Windows transparent or set individual transparency settings for selected windows which is probably the better and safer way.

Individual windows can be selected by adding the path to their executable to Blend or by dragging a little icon from Blend to the open program window which will have the effect that Blend adds this program automatically to the list.

The memory footprint of Blend is extremely low with only three Megabytes and 120 Kilobyte on the hard drive. If you like and use transparency in Windows then Blend is the application for you. Oh, and it’s version 0.0.0.1. Maybe a joke of the author because it runs perfectly on my system.

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That is of course not all that auto window manager can do. It is able to change the way windows reacts when you click on the minimize button. You may send minimized windows to the tray instead of sending them to the task bar. This is great if you want to run a program in the background and don’t want that it wastes some space in the task bar. You may also configure windows to stay on top all of the time.

Another nice option is the transparency one that gives you a similar transparency effect that windows vista ships with. You may choose a transparency rate between 0% which means no transparency to 100% which means absolutely transparent.

Last but not least you may specify a location where the windows should appear on your desktop. All options are accessible when you right-click the window.

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