Comment 27 for bug 863154

@cvargas-z compiz is a compositing manager that uses 3D graphics hardware to create good looking and fast compositing effects on your desktop. In the newer Ubuntu versions, it is primarily used by the Unity graphical shell. When using 11.10 without compiz, your system probably fell back to Unity-2D, which is a Qt/QML based version of the Unity shell. This is not really a bad thing. For better graphics cards, using Unity/compiz makes your shell (the windows, launchers etc.) have better effects and run faster, but the difference is not that big (I am personally using Unity-2D all the time).