I haven't seen anyone mention this problem on this board, but it seems that the Xara Xtreme color picker doesn't work properly on systems that use XGL/Compiz. I'm currently using ubuntu 6.06 dapper with XGL/Compiz from the Quinn repos and the color picker only works if I choose colors directly from the color palette with the picker. When I try to choose colors from the drawing area with the picker, the colors are WAY off. For instance, when I choose white the resulting color is blue (#0000FF) and every other color is way off too. The only color that works right when picked in the drawing area appears to be black. Note that Gimp's and Inkscape's color pickers work fine, as does Gcolor2 which is what I've been using for my color picking with Xara Xtreme, but it is quite tedious to do this. I'm assuming, based on the above, that the problem is something exclusive to Xara Xtreme. If you need any more info on this problem, let me know.

I hope this issue can be corrected soon. There are already many Linux users using XGL/Compiz on their systems and many distributions are poised to include it or derivatives of it. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop has already shipped with it and the amount of Linux users using it are sure to grow even larger in the coming months and beyond. Aside from the current XGL/Compiz, work on the next generation XEGL which will implement many XGL features us underway.

For those of you not familar with XGL/Compiz, it is a 3D accelerated desktop for Linux that works in Gnome and KDE as well as other desktop environments. It provides composting and rendering similar to what Mac OS X currently has (Quartz Extreme) and what the upcoming Windows Vista will have when it ships(Aero). Though it may look like pure eyecandy at first glance, its benefits are numerous. For one, it makes your GUI faster and more responsive by offloading the task of drawing it to you graphics card. It also makes managing multiple applications and workspaces a dream and the window shadows help you distinguish focused windows from non-focused windows much better than before. All effects are plugins that can be completely customized and configured so you can have as many, or as little effects as you want.

Here's a video of XGL/Compiz in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz_2vKq5cZk