You might not have heard of Compiz and XGL, the new desktop rendering technologies pioneered by Novell. They rely on the processing power of 3D cards, via OpenGL, to produce clever special effects that enhance the usability of both GNOME and KDE desktops. XGL and Compiz are slowly making their way into next-generation distros; they’re part of SUSE Linux 10.1 and will most likely be in the next Ubuntu release, Edgy Eft (although they can easily be retrofitted to Ubuntu Dapper).

You can read more about Compiz and XGL at their Wikipedia pages, but for an impressive demo of the technology–synchronized to music (!)–click here. Scroll down to see the video link. Sadly it’s a low-res YouTube video, and the music is of the annoying hard rock variety (think coin-op games), but you should get the idea. (A downloadable 45MB version can be found here, although it’s in WMV format.)

Frankly, on this evidence, XGL and Compiz blow away anything on offer with Vista and Mac OS X, both in terms of eye candy and also sheer usability. I have some concerns about how useful all of this will turn out to be in everyday life (OS X is subtle and sparing with its effects), but some ideas on offer with Compiz are just profound, particularly the ability to fold back the edge of a window to see what’s behind. Why hasn’t anybody thought of that before now?