How to run game on one monitor and have programs on other monitor still visible?

How can i make programs on second monitor still visible while playing game (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)?

I know that i can use windowed mode, but playing in windowed kinda feels different, like game has a lot of tiny video lags.

EDIT1: I am running gnome on latest ubuntu, and while one monitor has game on it and other is completely black (my notifications are set up so they pop up on second monitor) i can see notifications (libnotify and skype).

Solution 1:

Windowed is as good as I've got, I'm afraid but to be fair, doing it any other way will be just as laggy because the system is rendering more. It's overlaying your game on a desktop as well as the other uncovered desktop and those applications, so yeah, it's a little more intensive and that's going to hurt in-game performance.

Coincidentally, I also use Compiz to make certain screen-sized windows render with fullscreen hinting (so they show above the panel, without window decoration). You can do this by opening CCSM (compizconfig-settings-manager), heading down to Window Rules, enabling it and entering a rule for your game's window.

This won't help performance, it'll just make it look how you'd expect.