Compiz Fusion 0.5.2 Reunion Release

The developers of Compiz Extra and the Beryl fork decided to reunite four months ago to form Compiz Fusion. Compiz Fusion is the experimental branch in which new functions will are tested before making their way into the Compiz window manager. The first stable Compiz Fusion version 0.6.0 will be ready shortly after the release of Compiz 0.6.0.

After six months of work, and shortly after the release of Compiz 0.5.2, the first developer version of the reunited project has now been completed. Compiz Fusion version 0.5.2 contains a new plugin collection, the alternative window manager Emerald, the Libcompizconfig Compiz configuration system and the BCOP code generator.

The new plugins include new functions such as animations on opening, closing and focusing windows, along with extended zoom functions. Version 0.5.2 of Compiz uses the JPG image format. Up to now only PNG files were supported as cube caps. A crash handler has also been introduced to allow for error tracing in case of crashes, and which also supports the use of an alternative window manager. The release notes have a full list of new features.

The source code and binary packages for OpenSuse are available as downloads on the project website. The Compiz Fusion blog has screenshots and a video which give users a sneak preview of the new release.