Significant improvements coming to Kwin

Anyone who's used KDE for the past couple years has surely witnessed the vast improvements in performance it has experienced lately. These improvements were particularly evident once KDE 4.6 went live, so much so that, for the first time ever, I can't tell the difference in performance between my trusty Ubuntu 10.10 GNOME 2.32 desktop and my PCLinuxOS KDE 4.6.5 desktop.

Well, if you were happy about that, you'll be pleased to hear that things are about to get better very soon. Martin Gräßlin has shared some very good news on the matter in a recent blog ENTRY of his. The content of that article is somewhat technical, but I think anyone can follow and understand what the gains will be.

Long story short, Martin wanted to understand why Kwin couldn't reach 60 frames per second rendering and do so consistently, so he started an investigation, going through the code to try to spot a bug. Luckily for all of us KDE users, he did find a bug and fixed it, and anticipates considerable rendering improvements coming to KDE as soon as 4.7.2 goes live. Even more importantly, further and more significant improvements will be part of KDE 4.8, so I think we will see Kwin effects perform faster and smoother than ever very soon!! (even if 60 frames/sec. is still out of reach)

BIG Thank you, Martin!