Ubuntu – Fast, lightweight alternative to Compiz’ Expo Plugin

alternativecompizsoftware-recommendationunityworkspaces

Are there any fast, lightweight alternatives to Compiz' Expo Plugin (which are compatible with / capable of running alongside Unity & Compiz) in standard Ubuntu?

I'm looking for sth that's almost 1:1 like Expo is today, in particular the alternative should feature

  • an overview of (four) workspaces, with a resolution comparable to Expo's
  • no animations

Drag-and-drop of windows across workspaces, on the other hand, is not necessary. Only if the additional resource/CPU-demand thus incurred would be negligible even on older systems, this feature would be nice to have; otherwise not.

Likewise, it would be nice, but again not necessary, if the Unity Launcher could be shown (hides on my system, when not in use) in that alternative's "Expo view".

PS: Does Lubuntu have an equivalent to Expo? What is it?

PPS: Rumour has it that Compiz has more or less been abandoned… 🙁

Best Answer

As mentioned before, unity is stuck with compiz.

But if you are willing to experiment, I suggest the Gala WM of elementary

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gala
gala --repÄșace

I am unaware if this plays ok with Unity, I removed Unity on my mschine. I personally pair this with MATE Desktop.

For expo you would also need dconf-editor to tweak when its Expo is used. It does have default keypress but you can also assign a hot spot to activate Expo.

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