Video card giant AMD announced the release of new Linux drivers for its popular line of video cards today. The new drivers, Linux Catalyst 7.10, provide updates and features for desktop effects and gaming.

You can now reduce the wait for the latest graphic card driver in Ubuntu, which will only be available in a few months. There is an Ubuntu repository periodically updated with the latest open source drivers included in the xorg project.
These drivers may also solve some problems regarding desktop effects, especially on Intel card, in individual cases where these drivers are placed in the Compiz

In the new Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, Intel graphic (video) drivers 965 (x3000 or x3100) are blacklisted so you cannot run Compiz thus your desktop effects cannot be enabled. There is a way to enable desktop effects, though this is not recommended because

So, that proprietary 3D graphics driver you installed is now causing you some problems, so you got rid of it. But there's a problem. Your KDE 4 installation had those fancy desktop effects enabled, which now aren't working. Instead of a KDE desktop, you have a nice white screen.

Last year I wrote a rather strong blog when I was frustrated, titled Desktop Effects? Never more. I officially apologise for my words and retract all I said. I have been running desktop effects for months now, without a hitch.

Today we soldier on to Desktop Effects with Compiz Fusion. It can be safely said that few features are as keenly desired as Desktop Effects. Ever since Compiz was announced XXX years ago, users and developers have been playing with the bling-tastic effects and wondering when it will hit a desktop near them. Well, the wait is no longer.

So you’ve followed the latest series on KDE 4.5 and you are now using the spectacular latest release from the KDE team. You want to use Compiz, but quickly realize that it is not necessary as KDE has it’s own built-in compositing effects. In this article I am going to introduce you to the KDE Desktop Effects manager and how to use it to make your KDE desktop experience as sleek as it can be.

One of the coolest things about Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) are its new “Desktop Effects”. Desktop Effects are really a combination of two opensource components written by Novell’s David Reveman, Compiz and Xgl.

This tutorial shows how you can enable Compiz on a Fedora 16 GNOME classic desktop (the system must have a 3D-capable graphics card - I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce 8100 here). With Compiz you can use beautiful 3D effects like wobbly windows or a desktop cube on your desktop. I will use the free nouveau driver in this tutorial instead of the proprietary NVIDIA driver.