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Follow UsLast month we talked about a 3D desktop for Linux that allows you to flip through the virtual desktops. This month we are back with yet another desktop. This one is more powerful and jazzy. Metisse desktop is freely available and readily downloadable. It is also quite easy to set up on PCQLinux 2004.
Download the archives metisse -0.3.1.tar.bz2 and nucleo-0.1-2004 0705.tar.bz2 from:
http://insitu. lri.fr/~chapuis/software/metisse/metisse-0.3.1.tar.bz2
http://insitu.lri.fr/~chapuis/software/metisse/nucleo-0.1-20040705.tar.bz2.
Extract the archives by using the following command.
tar -jxvf metisse-0.3.1.tar.bz2
tar -jxvf nucleo-0.1-20040705.tar.bz2
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This will produce directories named metisse-0.3.1 and nucleo-0.1. Change to the directory nucleo-0.1 and issue the following commands.
./configure -prefix=/usr
make
make install
Change to metisse-0.3.1 and issue the same set of commands as above.
To start Metisse, open two terminal windows in X Window. In one of the windows, issue the following:
Xwnc -ac -geometry 1024x768 :1
Feel free to substitute 1024X768 with your preferred resolution. But, make sure that it is not greater than the current X Window resolution or the resolution supported by your monitor. In the second terminal window, issue the following:
metisse-start-fvwm
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This will launch the Metisse desktop. While you can launch a couple of applications such as Mozilla and Image Magick by clicking on the icons on the panel at the bottom, you can launch other applications through the terminal window. For example, to launch the Evolution e-mail client, click on the terminal window icon and type evolution.
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To try out the effects, click on an open window of any application and use the shortcut keys mentioned below the screenshots.
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Did we forget to mention that you need a good 3D graphics card to be able to see anything happening smoothly?
Shekhar Govindarajan
IT4Enterprise