If you are using Ubuntu Natty, and the Unity desktop, you will surely know that there are very little configuration options available. If you wanted to make any change, your best bet is to install the CompizConfig Setting Manager and search through the vast list for the options that you want to change. If you are looking for something simpler, GUnity is the one for you.
GUnity is a third party application with various options for you to customize the Unity setting. In short, it is the Compiz Config Settings Manager specially for Unity.
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One of the (most hated?) features in Ubuntu is the Unity theme that changed almost every aspect of the familiar GNOME environment that you are used to. You can’t add custom icons to the panel or to the system tray, you have to change your workflow and get used to the dash. To make it worst, you have to put up with a launcher bar that stays on the side and won’t go away until you place a window on top of it. While you won’t be able to change much of the interface, you can, however, change the behavior of the launcher bar and get it to go out of sight (autohide) when not in use. Here’s the way:
By default, Ubuntu comes with a set of keyboard shortcut that you can use straightaway. However, some of these keyboard shortcuts might not be desirable, troublesome, or obstructive and disrupting your productivity. For example, if you have a keyboard with a media button, that button is automatically mapped to Rhythmbox. If your favorite media player is Banshee, or Exaile, you might want to change the keyboard shortcut to your favorite application.
You’ve seen the wobbly windows, you’ve seen the cube, you’ve seen the raindrops. Compiz is just a bunch of useless eye candy right? Wrong. While the flashy effects get most of the attention, Compiz is a top-notch window manager in its own right. In fact, it’s got so many workspace and window management tools that many people use Compiz for years without ever knowing about some of the most useful features. This guide will cover each of the best window management plugins for Compiz and explain how each can be used to create a more productive desktop, with or without wobbly windows.
If you are into eye-candy and are always looking for ways to impress your non-geek friends with 3D graphical effects, here is another one to add to your collection.
Since the release of KDE4, a major overhaul of the KDE desktop, there’s been some grumbling among the Gnome community about if and when Gnome would have a major overhaul. Well with Gnome 3 we’ll have it in the form of
I love placing all the shortcut icons and files on my Desktop because it allows me to access to my data quickly and save me the trouble of searching for it in Nautilus.
What do you get when you put a stable operating system, an innovative desktop manager and plenty of eye candies together? You get nothing short of a beautiful and functional OS.