I've been experimenting with xgl and compiz the last couple of days. My take on this whole deal - Microsoft should be worried! With xgl and compiz not only can we get all the fancy Aero stuff, but even more. There are already so many effects plugins and 'cgwd' themes, that by the time Vista is released 'Aero Glass' might look ordinary. To add to that, xgl works on most current and legacy video cards. You don't need any Directx9 or LDDM to get all these fancy graphics. In short, one can get all of Vista's Aero stuff and more without investing on new hardware! From my own experience, I couldn't get Aero Glass to work on my home PC due to lack of LDDM driver for my graphics card. But xgl and compiz had absolutely no problem with my hardware. They work great and the performance is not bad either. All the sleazy graphics work smooth. Seeing all this, I don't see how Microsoft can justify people to buy new hardware if they want the full Vista experience.
Below is a screenshot of my current desktop. And no, this is not Vista. It is Fedora Core 5!
