To use the Xscreen savers on my KDE plasma desk, I went to the Synaptic package manager and installed the xscreensaver. It autoselected its dependencies and I added the xscreensaver-gl-extra. After installing I went to System settings and in the screensavers list all the screen savers from the xscreensavers were there.
Select, use and enjoy.
Its amazing how disturbing a performance glitch in your prefered desktop can jar your nerves. One of my Gnome 3 desktops - well the only working one now - since bloody Gnome 3 and Ubuntu have done a disappearing act so that all I get is my desktop wall paper when I log in - I digress thats another story. Anyway I recently noticed that once I have a window open in KDE Plasma - the desktop cube stutters when I move to another desktop, when there is nothing on the desktop its smooth as butter - hardly useful though. I have Linux Mint Katya running on another computer and the smoothness of Compix is a wonder to behold - 6 desktops with Eclipse, browsers and all sorts and the thing just races. This anoying behaviour fo KWin irritated me to the point where I started to work almost exclusively on Linux Mint Katya. Then I remembered that I had once experienced this when I was customising another computer. The cube was smooth until I chaged the Window decoration and then the styttering between cube faces started. When I changed it back all was well.
Well it seems thas was the same issue - I changed my WIndow decoration to deKorator and that was that - My KWin is smooth as butter again. You might want to try that if your desktop animation is not as smooth as you would like it to be
In Unity, the default windows manager in Ubuntu 11.11, there is no
obvious way to change the number of available workspaces/virtual
desktops. This is how I did it:
1. Go to the Dash Home and search for CCSM.
2. Open CCSM - Compiz Config Settings Manager
3. In the Compiz Config Menu select 'General Options'
4. Go to the 'Desktop Size' and change your desktop settings by adjusting the number of vertical desktops.