Compiz Fusion adds some very nice 3D-effects and better handling to your desktop. Of course you need 3D-acceleration w/ e.g. an Nvidia or ATI card.

Compiz has not been added to Wheezy, apparently due to halted upstream development. Most window managers support compositing out-of-the-box anyways, especially in KDE you can choose almost the same effects offered by Compiz as well. So I think this no longer will be included in the future either.

In Debian Lenny or later the installation is very easy.

First, install Compiz. The package choices may differ if you run any non-GTK Window/Desktop manager.

apt-get install compiz compiz-core compiz-fusion-plugins-extra \
compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-gnome compiz-gtk compiz-plugins \
compizconfig-backend-gconf compizconfig-settings-manager fusion-icon

Second, add the command “fusion-icon” to your session¹⁾, re-logon and use the “CompizConfig Settings Manager”²⁾ or the Compiz Fusion Icon in the Systray to configure some stuff.

That's really it already! No editing of the xorg.conf involved.

In Debian Etch it isn't very easy to get Compiz Fusion running, at least as far as I know. But Beryl isn't such a big hassle, there is a nice HowTo available on the internet.

Follow it, run it and be happy!

If there are no Window Decorations and you're not able to move or resize windows after installing and activating Compiz, you may need to enable some plugins. At least in Squeeze, all plugins are disabled by default.

To solve this problem, start the CompizConfig Settings Manager and enable at least these plugins:

Section “Effects”

• Window Decorations

Section “Window Management”

• Move Window
• Place Window
• Resize Window

If you experience bad performance with an Nvidia card, you may want to enable “Loose Bindings” (e.g. by using the fusion-icon in your systray). This really gives you an enormous performance boost. For more information on this topic please check the Compiz Wiki.