disable effects in ubuntu

There are some you can disable using the unity-tweak-tool.

install:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool
run:

unity-tweak-tool &
Click on general and turn desktop magnification to off, set texture quality to fast, set window animations to off.

Then click on overview and then click on launcher. Turn autohide to off, set Urgent animation and launch animation to No animation, set icon backgrounds to no coloring.

Click on the search tab and set background blur to off.

Additionally, you can turn off more animations in ccsm.

install:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
run:

ccsm &
In the effects category, untick all of the boxes.

In the accessibility tab, untick all of the boxes.

There are probably more you could disable in compiz as well.