Anyone that saw how cool Beryl was on older Ubuntu releases will appreciate this.  It appears that Beryl has merged with Compiz and thus isn’t available for Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) like you might be used to. That’s because it’s actually enabled by default!  If your system has an Nvidia card, and you have the “Restricted drivers” in use, you can right click on the desktop and choose “Change Desktop Backround”.  On the “Visual Effects” tab, you can enable the “Extra” settings.  This gives you some great effects for your windows and desktop by default, but what if you are like me and want more, especially to dig in and tweak it just the way you want it?  Glad you asked …

Pull up a command prompt and install the Advanced Desktop Effects Settings manager, after making sure you are fully up to date:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Once complete, this should add the Advanced Desktop Effects Settings icon to the System -> Preferences menu.  Click that puppy and go crazy!  You can setup all kinds on nifty stuff now, enjoy.