New and improved Metacity

The constraints_experiments stuff is now done and merged to head, and Metacity 2.13.2 has been released with the changes. The full ChangeLog can be viewed or the super-summarized version that basically just lists the bugs fixed (though bug 86644 should have also been on that list), the new enhancement, and major structural code changes.

It’s probably worth noting that I expect many will dislike the screen timeout resistance at first. This is because everyone has been trained that if they want to move their window to the screen edge then they have to move slowly or they’ll overshoot. Therefore they won’t take advantage of the new feature and the only time the new ability will kick in is the times when someone really is trying to move their window offscreen, in which cases it’s a hindrance. But see bug 106740 comment 39, which really applies to all edges and not just the top. Slamming windows to the screen edge should be a more common use case then moving windows off the screen, and so we should enable users being able to do that and do so at *maximum velocity* (i.e. users should be able to “throw” their windows to the screen edge). I might tweak the screen timeout later, but for a while at least it will be left where it is (the other numbers, however, will likely be tweaked much sooner). Sorry if you hate it at first, but I expect that once people have retrained themselves and start making use of it they’ll start loving the ability to throw their windows to screen corners. I need to give everyone enough time so that the retraining has taken place or the feedback won’t really be fair to the tradeoffs involved.