Compiz is a Compositing Window Manager which implements accelerated 3D Visual Effects on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenSolaris desktop systems. Some combinations of graphic accelerators, video drivers, and video players conflict with the Compiz causing flickering, overall GUI slowness, and/or blank video output. It is possible to avoid those problems by changing video output settings. Although, some games and video players let the users change video output settings, many do not provide appropriate preference options. If you experience those problems, your best bet is to turn off the Compiz Desktop Visual Effects at the system level.
To avoid overall GUI slowness, conflicts with Mathematica, or flickering and/or blank video output while playing video games or videos using Flash Player, Totem, Mplayer or any other video player, individual users can turn off Compiz Desktop Visual Effects by using their desktop preference panel. However, system administrators can permanently disable Compiz Desktop Visual Effects, for all users.
Many recent Linux distributions enable Compiz Desktop Visual Effects by default but do not offer any obvious way to disable it system-wide, for all users. If you want to disable Compiz Desktop Visual Effects for all users, open an Xterm or Terminal window and type:
sudo chmod ugo-x /usr/bin/compiz*
On the next boot, the system will not load Compiz automatically but will use its second choice, usually Metacity or Kwin instead.
To enable the Compiz back, type:
sudo chmod ugo+x /usr/bin/compiz*
