The Solution: Need to bind a keyboard shortcut for the left mouse click, and probably move the cursor around.

Apparently, this is very easy in Ubuntu (probably in other Gnome based distro too). Many tutorials will tell you to install xbindkeys and go through complex steps to map the shortcut key.

Here is one quick and dirty way:

1. Go to System Settings. Click on the Universal Access button.

2. Go to the Pointing and Clicking tab.

3. Under the “Mouse Keys” section, turn the “Control the pointer using the keypad” to ON.

That’s it. You can now move your mouse cursor around with the keypad and press ’5′ to activate the left mouse click. For right mouse click, you can use “Shift + F10″.

Note: This is just a quick and dirty trick. Once the option is turned ON, you won’t be able to enter number via the keypad anymore, even when the NumLock button is ON. The good thing is, it can be turned ON/OFF easily.

Image credit: Big Stock Photo

I have spoken to many people who dislike KDE solely based on its default appearance, the Air/Oyxgen set of styles and themes. Some have even argued that it looks too much like Windows (although evidence strongly suggests that Windows 7 mimicked KDE, rather than the other way around). What those people may not realize is that you can make KDE look as much like Gnome or any other desktop environment as you want.

The customizations in this guide are just examples. They will not give an exact Unity or Gnome appearance, as most people change those defaults anyway. Instead, this example will use some of the common customizations that Ubuntu and Gnome users often apply.

The Desktop Theme

KDE-Look has a plethora of desktop themes you can use. To change your theme, do the following:

1. Open “System Settings” from the kickoff menu (or press Alt+F2 and type it)
2. Click “Workspace Appearance”
3. Click “Desktop Theme” on the left-hand pane
4. Click “Get New Themes” at the bottom
5. Choose whatever theme you want and click “Install”. For this example, I have chosen the “Ambiance” theme.
6. Click “Apply”

The Window Decoration

Since you are already in Workspace settings, now is a good time to change the window decoration.

1. Click “Window Decorations” from the left-hand pane.
2. Click “Get New Decorations”
3. Following the same example, search for Ambiance Aurorae and click “Install”
4. Choose the decoration theme and click “Apply”.

If you want to really be like Ubuntu/Mac OS X, you can move the window buttons to the left side:

1. Click “Configure Buttons”
2. Check the box labeled “Use custom title bar button positions”
3. Simply drag each button type to the left in the order that you want them.

Application Appearance

Getting the application appearance you want is a little more tricky. That is because KDE does not currently offer users the ability to install new styles from within System Settings. Therefore, before you choose a style, you will need to make sure the one you want is installed. You have two options: 1. You can install the actual GTK style that you want and use it, or 2. Find an actual KDE or Qtcurve style that matches the one you want.

If you decide to go with the Qtcurve option, you can download something like Ambiance-like. Download it and extract it to the folder of your choice. To install it, do the following:

1. Open “System Settings”
2. Click “Application Appearance”
3. Choose Qtcurve and click “Configure” (If you do not have Qtcurve installed, it is probably in your distribution’s software repository)
4. In the “Presets” section, choose “Import”
5. Find the Ambiance-like theme (Ambiance-like.qtcurve) and then click “OK”
6. Click “Apply”
7. Click the “Colors” button in the left-hand panel
8. Choose “Import Scheme”
9. Locate the Ambiance colors (Ambiance-like.colors) and click “OK”
10. Click “Apply”

Alternatively, you can use the Ambiance color scheme from KDE-Look.

Panel and Launcher

In most distributions, the KDE panel is at the bottom and is rather large. To move it to the top:

1. Right click on the panel and click “Unlock widgets”
2. Click the cashew button on the far right
3. Click and hold the “Screen Edge” button and drag the panel to the top.
4. Click and hold the “Height” button to make it the size you want

KDE can use a global menu that works for KDE, Qt, and GTK apps. To use it:

1. Click the cashew again and click “Add widgets”
2. Choose “Window Menubar” and drag it to the panel

You have a couple of options for launchers. You can either use a KDE-native launcher like Daisy or Fancy Tasks, or you can use a separate launcher program like Docky (mono-based but very reliable), Plank (fast, light-weight next-gen Docky), AWN (robust and powerful), or Cairo Dock (all about options).

Icons

KDE uses a slightly different icon theme system from Gnome and Ubuntu. Therefore, it may not be the best idea to use those themes directly, but they will still work. The alternative is that you can find one specifically modified for KDE. Faenza-Cupertino is a very popular iconset for Ubuntu users, and KFaenza is an excellent KDE version.

To install it:

1. Open “System Settings”
2. Click “Application Appearance”
3. Choose “Icons” from the left-hand pane
4. Click “Get New Themes”
5. Search for “KFaenza”
6. Click “Install”
7. Select the icon theme and click “Apply”

Mixing and Matching

You are certainly not limited to the examples I have shown. You can mix and match whatever you like to get your KDE desktop looking exactly the way you want.

Gnome Pie has a slightly different setting as other application launcher. It is keyboard shortcut based and it appears as a group of applications instead of a single application.

To install, open a terminal and type the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:simonschneegans/testing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-pie

Once you launched Gnome Pie, you won’t see anything on your screen. You have to go to the system tray and select the “Preferences” option from the Gnome Pie icon.

In the Preferences window, you can configure it to startup on login, show indicator (aka the tray icon) and whether to open Pies at Mouse. What this means is that when you activate Gnome Pie, should it appear at your mouse tip or at the center of the screen. In addition, you can also change the theme of the launcher.

The Pies tab is where you will be spending most of your time on configuring. Each group of applications is known as the Pie while each application is known as the Slice. In the Pies tab, you will see several Pies (Bookmarks, Main Menu, Session, Multimedia, Applications, Window) with their own shortcut key.

Under each pies is a series of slices (applications/actions/commands) that you can configure. For example, under the multimedia pie, you have the various slices (Play, Stop, Next track, Previous track) to control the music player.

You can easily create your own Pies/Slices. Simply right click in the window and select “Add New Pie” or “Add New Slice”. You can even drag and drop URLs/bookmarks/files/applications to the window and add them as slices.

Gnome Pie in action

Once you are done with your configuration, it is time to see it in action. To access your bookmarks, simply press “Ctrl + Alt + B” (or whatever shortcut you have assigned it to) and you can go round and round selecting the directory you want to access.

Similarly, you can press “Ctrl + Alt + M” to access the Multimedia pie and select the action for your music player.

As can be seen, Gnome Pie is highly configurable. You can customize the keyboard shortcut to your preferences and add your own pies and slices. It might take some time to get use to, but it is sure a fun and interesting way to access your applications.

Check it out and let me know if you like this way of accessing your apps.

Gnome Pie is available for Gnome only and works in both Gnome 3 and the Unity desktop.

Here are some ways you can use to make resizing the window an easier, and enjoyable task.

1. Alt + Middle click

At anywhere in the window, press “ALT” key and the middle button of the mouse and the cursor instantly become an arrowhead. You can then move in the direction that you want to resize.

2. Press At + F8

The “Alt + F8″ hotkey is a quick keyboard shortcut to activate the resize mode. Once in the resize mode (with a translucent overlay), you can use the arrow key to resize the window horizontally or vertically. Once you are done, hit Enter to return to the window mode.

3. Configure own hotkey via Compiz

If you are using Compiz, it comes with several more options that you can configure.

Open your CompizConfig Settings Manager (System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager).

Scroll down the list to find “Resize Window”.

Click on it to enter its configuration page. From here, you can enable and assign the hotkey for different resize mode. In this example, I have enabled the “Initiate Outline Window Resize” mode and assign the hotkey “Alt + Super + W” to activate it.

That’s it. This should solve your window resizing woes.

There are several ways to manage your keyboard shortcut in Linux. You can do it via Xmodmap (and Xkeycaps), Gnome Keyboard Shortcut or Compiz. In this article, we will focus mainly on Gnome Keyboard Shortcut and Compiz.

Gnome Keyboard Shortcut

The Gnome keyboard shortcut is by far the easiest way to assign/remap a shortcut key in any Gnome-based distro. Go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

From here, you can scroll down the list to find the particular keyboard shortcut you want to change, click on the existing shortcut (and see the entry change to “New Shortcut”), and press the new keyboard shortcut that you want to assign to. For example, the default shortcut to launch the Run Application dialog is “Alt + F2“. If I want to change it, I will click on the Alt + F2 entry, follow by the new key, say “Alt + F12“.

In addition, you can also create your own keyboard shortcut and assign it to run an application, a command or a script. Click the “Add” button. It will prompt you to enter the name and command.

After you have added the command, you will see a new entry with the shortcut field “Disabled”. Click on it.

Press the keyboard buttons that you want to assign to launch this command. That’s it.

You can also use the above method to overwrite a default shortcut key. For example, the default behavior of the “Delete” button in your keyboard is to move your file to the trash. You can, however, create a new shortcut and map the “Delete” button to shred the file beyond recovery. It will overwrite the default behavior.

Note: If you want to remove the overwrite, you can remove the shortcut entry and restart your current session (logout and login again). The default behavior will restore.

Compiz

Compiz is slightly more complicated than Gnome Keyboard Shortcut, but it is more versatile and give you more option.

Before we start, make sure you have Compiz Config Setting Manager installed, either from Ubuntu Software Center or from the terminal:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Launch Compiz Config Settings Manager (System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager)

Click the “Commands” option.

Enter the command in the command field. It can be an application, a command or even a path to script.

Next, go to the Key Bindings tab. Click the “Disabled” button for the command line that you have entered just now.

Check the “Enabled” checkbox and click the “Grab key combination” button. Press the keyboard shortcut and add any modifier key (Ctrl, Shift or Alt) if necessary. Click OK.

That’s it. What other ways do you use to assign/remap keyboard shortcuts in your distro?

Image credit: Mike Traboe

Wallch is a pretty new wallpaper changer app for Gnome. It has just released version 1.0 of its software days ago. Just like any other wallpaper changing app, it allows you to define a set of wallpapers to be rotated at certain interval.

Installing Wallch

There is no PPA for Wallch yet, so the next best option is to install via the deb file (unless you love compiling from source). Go to its SourceForge page and download the deb file (do not download the tar.gz file).

Double click the deb file to install.

Usage

Go to “Applications -> Accessories -> Wallch Walpaper Changer” to launch the app. The usage is simple. Add your wallpapers to the box, set the interval to change the wallpaper and press “Start” to run the program. That’s it.

One thing that you have to take note is that once you “start” the program, you won’t be able to change the configuration (add/remove wallpapers, changing interval etc) anymore. You will have to “Stop” the application to make changes to the configuration.

One feature about Wallch is that it allows you to create your own wallpaper, either from the webcam or take a screenshot of your current wallpaper.

Live Earth wallpaper

The most interesting thing about Wallch is the ability to set Live Earth images as the desktop wallpaper. Go to “Edit -> Preferences -> Live Earth Wallpaper. Press the “Activate Live Earth Wallpaper” button.

There is no detail instruction here, but the Live Earth Wallpaper module can’t work concurrently with the main wallpaper changing module. If you have “Started” the wallpaper changing module, you won’t be able to activate the Live Earth Wallpaper. In addition, the changing interval is set to 1/2 hours which you can’t change.

Other configurations

Creating a wallch album

Wallch allows you to create a photo album with your wallpapers. You can create multiple albums. Depending on your mood, you can then get it to load the wallpapers from your favorite album.

Notification sound and bubble

I find this to be very annoying, so I switched both (the sound and the notification bubble) off instantly.

History

Wallch keeps a history of the time the wallpaper is changed and the changed wallpapers. You can access the history file at the .config/WallpaperChanger/History folder. Seriously, I don’t see any use for logging the changes. Will you be interested to find out at which time of the day which wallpaper was set on your desktop?

Bonus – Download 1000 cool HD desktop wallpapers

To encourage its users to use the app, the developers of Wallch are giving out 1000 desktop wallpapers (400+ mb) for free. I have downloaded it and I must admit that the collection is pretty cool.

Download the wallpapers here

Things that Wallch are lacking

Being a long time wallpaper changer app user, here are some things that I found lacking in Wallch.

1. Unable to select multiple folders when adding images – You won’t be able to add images in multiple folders at the same time. For example, I have a main “Wallpaper” folder with several sub folders containing my wallpapers. I would love to have the option to select the “Wallpaper” folder and add all my wallpapers inside the folder and subfolders. (update: Fixed by developer)

2. Unable to watch a folder for new wallpaper – It would be great if it can watch my Wallpaper folder and add new addition to the library.

3. Switching the close button should minimize to tray, not exiting. (update: Fixed by developer)

4. The tray icon should provide a one-click access to change the current wallpaper. (update: Fixed by developer)

Wrapping up

Wallch is still new, so there are still plenty of feature that it is lacking. The ability to display Live Earth wallpaper is cool though. For the time being, the trustworthy Desktop Drapes still remains my favorite wallpaper changer app.

Wallch

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ripps818/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wingpanel

Note: This is not the official PPA for WingPanel, but some kind soul who has created it for us to use.

To get it running, press “Alt + F2″ and type wingpanel.

At the moment, WingPanel is very minimal and doesn’t come with any configuration option. It will display whatever indicator-applets you have placed on your Gnome panel, but it doesn’t allow you to add/remove any applets. Nor does it comes with an option to exit the app. This is still an initial release, so I believe all the above will be ironed out in the future.

Making your Gnome panel behaves like the Wing Panel

As mentioned above, while the concept of WingPanel is nice, it is still not very usable at the moment. Those who like the concept can improvise and implement it with the Gnome panel. Here’s how:

1. Other than the applets in your system tray (the right side of the Gnome panel), remove everything else from the panel (right click and select Remove From Panel).

2. Right click on the Gnome panel and select “Properties”. Uncheck the “Expand” box and check the “Autohide” box. Click Close.

3. Drag the Gnome panel to the far right corner.

4. Press “Alt+ F2″ and type gconf-editor.

5. Go to “apps -> panel->toplevels” and select your panel configuration. Look for the ‘hide_delay’ in the options and change the value to anything large enough. The maximum value you can give is 2147483647 (in milliseconds that equals to almost 600 hours).

That’s it. Your Gnome panel should look like the WingPanel now, with the exception that it is fully configurable.

via Justin Stories

Desktop with Cairo Dock (Click to enlarge)

GIMP (Click to enlarge)

Gnome Application Menu (Click to enlarge)

Nautilus (Click to enlarge)

Installing Elegant Gnome Pack

There is a detailed installation instruction over at the Gnome-look home page, but for those who prefer to see it visually, here is the typical Make Tech Easier way of installation instruction, coupled with lot of screenshots.

Note: The following instructions are based on Ubuntu and Linux mint

Open a terminal. Add the Elegant Gnome Pack repository

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elegant-gnome/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Elegant Gnome

sudo apt-get install elegant-gnome

If you are using Linux mint, use this command instead:

sudo apt-get install elegant-gnome-mint

Once the installation is completed, go to “Applications -> Accessories -> Elegant GNOME“. Select the first option “Install the pack” and click OK.

It will proceed to install the theme.

Next, select the “Configure Nautilus” option and click OK.

In the next window, select the version of Nautilus that you are using. If you have installed Nautilus Elementary previously, select the second option. If not, keep to the default (first option).

Configuring Elegant Gnome for Google Chrome

The theme only include theme package for Firefox. If you are using Google Chrome, download the Elegant Gnome for Google Chrome here.

Extract the tar file. You should see three files with the .crx extension in the extracted folder. With Google Chrome running, drag and drop the three files (one at a time) to Google Chrome. You should see a warning popup at the bottom of the Chrome browser, click “Continue”.

That’s it. The last thing that you are going to do is to logout and re-login to your computer. Your desktop transformation is now completed.

Uninstallation

To revert back to the original settings, go to “Applications -> Accessories -> Elegant GNOME“. Select the “Restore to previous settings” option.

Are you enjoying the Elegant Gnome theme?

(via Gnome look Elegant Gnome Pack)

/usr/share/xsessions

The list is populated by looking at the contents of the /usr/share/xsessions directory. In here you’ll find files with the .desktop extension (extension hidden in some file managers). As these files are in a system folder, you will need root privileges to change or delete them.

These .desktop files contain basic information on what this menu item will launch. Removing (or renaming) one of these files will take it off the Sessions list.

Modifying an Item

As noted above, you’ll need root privileges to modify any of the files in /usr/share/xsessions. Ubuntu users, for exaple, can hit Alt+F2 to open the command box and enter

gksu gedit

to run the gedit text editor as root. Open any .desktop file in the /usr/share/xsessions directory that you wish to edit.

Creating a New Entry

Using the above screenshot as a template, you can design your own entry for the menu.

The Encoding line is referring to the character encoding used in the file, and can safely be left at UTF-8 for nearly all purposes.

The Name is what will be displayed on GDM’s Sessions list, followed by a brief description in the Comment line.

The Exec line is probably the most important in the list. This is the section where you specify the command to run when the menu item is clicked. It will accept command line arguments as well (ie gnome-session -f). This line can also be set to a custom script that you have made.

Next is the Icon line, which in some circumstances can be used to specify the icon for an application, but it is not mandatory for the launchers in the session list.

Since .desktop files have uses beyond just GDM, they include a Type field to specify what the file represents. It can be left at Application for these purposes.

A complete list of the properties and their meanings can be found here.

Once your files is saved, you’ll now see it listed on the Sessions list when GDM starts up. You also have the option of setting it as the default desktop session. To do from within Gnome, click System -> Administration -> Login Screen. In the dropdown box, select your new custom entry.

Conclusion

With knowledge of how to control the GDM session options, you’re now in a place where you can create your own custom desktop environment by piecing together the individual components you like. As it so happens, that is the subject of an upcoming article – “How to Create Your Own Custom Desktop Environment”. Check back in a few days or follow us on RSS, Facebook or Twitter for that and more MTE goodness.

For the most part, the operating systems a child uses are determined by the child’s parents and school. As the parent and Linux user yourself, you may prefer your child to use Linux at home.

One feature of Linux desktop environments like KDE and Gnome is that they are extremely customizable. You can have one panel, two panels, or no panel at all. Just as easily as icons, menus, and widgets can appear, they can also disappear.

For that reason, you may find it necessary to set parameters for your children when using Linux. Whether you need tools to lockdown the desktop or filter Internet content, there is free software out there to help you. What follows is a short guide to preparing a Linux desktop for a child, complete with game recommendations.

Desktop Restrictions

Even if your child has his own computer, he may become very frustrated when he accidentally deletes the icon he wants to use. You can prevent such accidents with desktop restrictions.

KDE has a Kiosk Admin system that is controlled in the kdeglobals configuration file. You can find the file at ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals. Kiosk settings are added using keys in the following format:

[KDE Action Restrictions][$i]
action/<key>=false

For example, if you want to disable print properties so that children can print but cannot change or add printers, you would enter:

print/properties=false

A complete list of available keys, including plasma keys is available at: KDE Techbase.

Gnome has a similar feature for desktop restrictions called “lockdown”. The keys for Gnome lockdown are found in gconf. The easiest way to edit gconf keys is with gconf-editor. If, for example, you want to lock down the panel, you would edit the following key:

apps -> panel -> global ->locked_down and set the value to “true” to enable it.

For a detailed list of lockdown functions, visit the Gnome Desktop Administrator’s Guide.

One important thing to remember is that these restrictions will primarily prevent your child from accidentally modifying the desktop settings. Children who attempt to do so intentionally will more than likely be smart enough to figure it out, and that is an issue requiring parental attention, not increased restrictions. For very young children, however, this is an excellent way to keep things in order.

Internet Restrictions

There are a couple of methods for filtering the Internet for your child. One is to essentially block all sites and only whitelist the ones you want your child to visit. Young children will probably only have a few sites they like anyway. The second method is to use a more traditional filter to block sites you deem inappropriate. Filters like these are not 100% effective, but they should prevent a lot of accidental visits to inappropriate sites.

An example of a Firefox extension that can be configured to use either method is ProCon Latte.

Like desktop restrictions, an Internet filter will not stop older children from purposely visiting sites you believe are inappropriate, but it will reduce accidental visits.

Aside from filtering content, you can also filter ads with browser extensions. This will prevent children from following ads that may lead them to sites asking for personal information. Adblock Plus is available for Firefox  and Adblock for Google Chrome

Fun Stuff

Kids ultimately will use their computers for fun and learning, so here is a brief list of games and learning activities for kids. It is not a complete list, but should give you an idea of the wide range of games and activities available for children.

Super Tux Kart (Racing)
Secret Maryo Chronicles (Super Mario clone)
GCompris (Educational game suite)
Pink Pony (Trone clone with ponies)
KTuberling (a.k.a. Potato Guy)
Bouncy the Hungry Rabbit
Fizzball (commercial game)
Acorn Drop
Jammer the Gardener
TuxPaint (art)

As you can see, with just a little work on your part, Linux can be educational, safe, and fun for your children.

Cortina is a simple wallpaper changer for the Gnome desktop. It does not come with any fanciful features that other wallpaper changing app don’t have, except that it is pretty lightweight and perform all its task quickly and swiftly.

Installing Cortina

In Ubuntu Karmic/Lucid/Maverick, you can install via the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cs-sniffer/cortina
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cortina

For other distros or other versions of Ubuntu, you can download the deb, or tar file in the download page.

Handling Cortina

The first time you run Cortina (Applications -> Graphics -> Cortina), it will prompt you to select the folder where you contain all your wallpapers.

Once you have selected your wallpaper folder, you will see an icon appearing at the system tray.

Right click at the Cortina icon to bring up the option page. You will see two tabs: Display and Preferences.

The Display tab is where you can see your collection of wallpapers waiting to be rotated in the desktop.

The Preferences is where you can configure the wallpaper and application settings.

You can configure Cortina to Auto start when login and to switch wallpaper on start. There is also the lapsed time before every switching of wallpapers. Lastly, there is also the wallpaper search directories where you can add/remove folders of wallpaper images.

At the bottom of the preferences pane lies two confusing buttons: Tray and Close. Most people will tend to think that the Close button is to exit the Options page, not quitting the application. This is the confusing part: the Close button actually closes the Option page as well as quitting the app. If you just want to close the Options page (without quitting the app), you will have to press the Tray button.

Seriously, I don’t see the need to have both the Tray and Close button. It’s kinda confusing and misleading. (To the developers) Having the Close button to close the Option page will do.

Update: The latest version of Cortina has fixed this issue. There is only one Close button now instead of two confusing buttons. Thanks to Eric for listening.

Conclusion

Cortina is not a very impressive wallpaper changer. Nor does it comes with any killer features that make it a must-have app. However, if you are looking for a lightweight application that can get the work done with speed and no hiccup, then Cortina is a good one.

In Gnome based system, there are several panel menu applets that you can use. Some of them are great eye candy for spicing up your desktop while others are small and fast and aim to improve your productivity. Let’s see what choices do you have:

1. Gnomenu

If you are looking for a pretty menu to spice up your desktop, then GnoMenu is the one to go for. This application menu supports themes, regardless you are using a composited or non-composited desktop. It is also fully compatible with apps like Gnome-Panel, Avant Window Navigator, Cairo-Dock, XfApplet, Kde Plasma and the system tray.

A good feature of GnoMenu is that you can right click on an application and select from a variety of actions. For example, when you right-click on the Firefox browser icon, you can either open the app as Administrator, Add to Favorite, Create Desktop Shortcut or even Add to system startup.

Other than eye-candy, GnoMenu also comes with plenty of configuration options. You can install new themes (skin, button, sound and icons), change key binding to bring up the menu and also edit the commands when an application is clicked.

Installation

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomenu-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnomenu

2. Ubuntu System Panel

Ubuntu System Panel give you lot of customization option as to how you want the information to be displayed. The default interface is a big broad window that show almost everything it can put on it, but you can easily minimize those options to the side pane and save up screen space.

The best thing about USP is that it supports plugins and is highly configurable. You can add new plugins to the list and arrange them in the order you want. The configuration option allow you to change the width and height of each pane, the font size of the wordings and the command for each option. Best of all, you can even adjust the menu size to accomodate to your screen size. Cool!

Installation

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:malacusp/ppa
 sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install usp2 usp2-extras

3. Cardápio

While Cardápio is late to the party, it is in no way inferior to the rest. Other than a panel menu, it can also acts as a launcher, just like Gnome-Do.

At any point of time, you can press the Super + Space button to bring up the menu and perform a search. It is well integrated with the tracker, so you are able to find what you want quickly.

One thing that I like about Cardápio is its responsiveness. It is fast and does not clutter your desktop. The Gnome-Do feature is also very useful, although the stock Gnome Do is much better.

On the other hand, it will need a GUI to access its backend configuration. Currently, the way to configure it is via the gconf editor and its own config.ini file. Cardápio has a lot of potential, but it definitely need to make it easier for newbies to use it.

Installation

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tvst-hotmail/cardapio
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cardapio python-keybinder

4. Mintmenu

MintMenu needs little introduction. It is the default application menu for Linux Mint, and it has the best layout (in my opinion) in this list.

What I like about MintMenu is its well integrated design with quick access to Places, Applications (alternating between All Applications and Favorite Applications) and System Menu without cluttering the whole window. All I can say is, it has the right thing at the right place.

The configuration section offers some options for you to change the appearance and layout of the menu. It also comes with a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + Super by default) that you can press to bring up the menu.

Installation

wget http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mintmenu/mintmenu_4.9.9_all.deb
wget http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mint-common/mint-common_1.0.5_all.deb
wget http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mint-translations/mint-translations_2010.06.12_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

Other panel menu not in the list

Gnome Main Menu

Gnome Main Menu has been around for quite some time. The package in the repository (version 0.9.13) is lacking in feature and the latest version (0.9.15) has some issues with the Gnome desktop. Those who are interested in testing it out still can access it via:

sudo apt-get install gnome-main-menu

or download the 0.9.15 version here.

Gimmie

Gimmie used to be a great project that bring great eye candy and accessibility. However, the development has been stalled for 3 years (since 2007) and there is no news whether it will be continued. Until now, there is no official PPA (or deb package). Users who are keen to test it out will have to compile from source.

Which alternative application menu do you like best?

Getting Exaile

To install Exaile, Ubuntu Lucid users can click here or use the Ubuntu Software Center to fetch the exaile package. For other distributions, check the Exaile website.

Multiple Playlists

This is a feature I can’t believe is missing from so many media players. Exaile allows you to keep several playlists open at the same time and drag files between them. This is immensely useful for those of us who like to create playlists for compilation albums or specific occasions.

Smart Playlists

Exaile supports compound search filters so you can generate playlists based on certain criteria on the fly. If I want a random selection of 10 songs from all VAST albums, except Music for People, I could specify that like this:

And each time I load this playlist into Exaile, the contents are generated on the fly.

File Browsing

Of all the annoyances I have with music players, there is none more infuriating to me than the program’s insistence on reorganizing my music into its own arbitrary library. I know many people like to browse their music based on tags, and that’s all well and good, but I have my files sorted on disk for a reason. Any music player that does not allow me to access my music based on disk location as easily as by tag is immediately junk to me. Exaile understands this, and leaves a perfectly functional file browser handy.

Stream Browsing

Even a huge music collection can’t have everything you’ll ever want to listen to, so it’s handy to have stream support built right into your player. Exaile has an extensive list of streams built in, and you can add your own with the Add Station button at the top.

Speed

Exaile isn’t the fastest player out there, not by a long shot, but when compared to many of the larger players it seems to fly. In my experience, it’s much faster than Amarok and Songbird and better integrates into the Gnome desktop.

Conclusion

For me, Exaile is faster than Amarok, more useful than Audacious, smarter than VLC, and better organized than Rhythmbox. I can’t claim it’s my dream player, but it’s the closest thing I’ve yet found. For what it is, I’ll pay Exaile the highest compliment I’ve given a music player in years: it doesn’t suck.

If you’re curious about the software that has failed me, the following music player programs have all been tried and rejected for one reason or another: Amarok, Audacious, Songbird, Rhythbox, XMMS, VLC, and Banshee. Amarok had it closest, then broke itself with later versions.

If you’ve used Exaile or would like to share your complaints with music players, sound off in the comments below.

What’s wrong with the panel?

This version of UNE comes with three desktop sessions – Ubuntu Netbook Edition, Ubuntu Netbook Edition 2D (for older PCs) and Gnome. The default UNE sessions lock the gnome panel and a few other GNOME settings in order to separate the UNE interface from the normal GNOME interface. When you right click on the panel, you will find that all the customization options are greyed out. There is no way for you to add/remove applets or to delete/move the panel.

If you want to customize the panel (or even delete/move it), the only way is to switch to Gnome and use it as the default session.

Here’s how you can switch to Gnome, unlock the panel and yet maintain the looks and feels of the UNE.

How to unlock the Gnome panel for customization

Open a terminal and type the following:

sudo ln -s /etc/xdg/xdg-une/autostart/maximus-autostart.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/
sudo ln -s /etc/xdg/xdg-une/autostart/netbook-launcher.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/
sudo ln -s /usr/share/gconf/une/default/20_une-gconf-default /usr/share/gconf/defaults/
sudo ln -s /usr/share/gconf/une/mandatory/20_une-gconf-mandatory /usr/share/gconf/defaults/
sudo update-gconf-defaults

The above commands will create a bunch of symlinks from the UNE configuration file to the Gnome configuration file.

Next, log out of your current session. At the login screen, change the session to Gnome.

Login to your desktop. You should be able to mess around with the panel now. Don’t forget to check out the 13 ways to customize your UNE for better usability.

Reference: Ubuntu Community Documentation

Design Concept

Not everyone has the same goals for their desktop interface, so before we get much further I’d like to explain the reasons for this design. The single most important aspect of this design is the “info bar” on the right.

As you can see, this setup is designed for a widescreen monitor. Without that extra space on the side, the info bar (as configured in this guide) would take up too much screen space.

I have a lot of requirements for my info bar, and finding and configuring the software necessary to meet those requirements took a lot of research and testing. No single solution met all my needs, so I had to combine several tools.

The standard Lucid Lynx Gnome install, as of Beta 2, is the basis for these modifications. All software, unless otherwise noted, is available in the standard repositories. The wallpaper is from wallpaperbox.eu, and I’m using the Dust theme for Gnome.

Panel – Gnome Panel

Some may be surprised that with all the fancy 3D docks available, I stuck with gnome-panel. The main reason is simple – applets. Specifically, the Gnome Panel in Lucid was the only dock or panel available that includes a useful interactive notification area for chat clients.

From the standard Gnome desktop, remove the lower panel completely, and open the properties for the top panel. Change location from Top to Right, and increase the size to 64. In the screenshots, the panel is set to solid black with about 60% opacity to match the Gadgets sidebar. Choose your panel applets at will, but if you’d like to copy my setup the objects are ordered as follows (from top to bottom):

• Main Menu
• Indicator Applet
• Indicator Applet Session
• Application Launchers (Moblin Icon Theme, desaturated)
• Weather Report
• Shutdown
• CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor

Full panel can be seen in the desktop screenshot above

UPDATE: Download link added for icon theme

Google Desktop Gadgets

There are two features of Gadgets that make it essential to my setup – the Gmail app, and the ability to block off a section of the screen. With the Gadget sidebar active and set to Always On Top, maximized windows will not cover the sidebar. Without it, Gadgets would be far less useful to me as they’d always be covered by running applications.

There are other mail-checking panel applets out there, but only the Gadgets version gives me a fully interactive interface where I can read, compose, and reply without ever opening up a web browser or email client.

Conky

Conky is an extremely powerful system information tool. To use it, you edit a text file to list the items you want displayed, and Conky embeds itself into your desktop background, frequently updating itself to show real-time system information.

Configuring Conky is beyond the scope of this guide, but fortunately we’ve already taken care that. By using the Gnome Panel weather applet, we can greatly reduce the complexity of our Conky setup. If you’d like to copy my Conky setup, you can download my .conkyrc file here.

Important Note: If the Gadget sidebar is set to Always On Top and you want Conky to sit behind it, you’ll need to edit your Conky config file to include own_window yes and own_window_type override. If you’re using my config file, those entries are already set.

Desktop Management – Compiz Expo

I can’t live without virtual desktops, sometimes called workspaces. X has supported them for decades, but until recently there’s been very little innovation. The Expo plugin, part of the Compiz package, provides a fast, beautiful, efficient way to view and manage your virtual desktops.

If Compiz and Expo are already installed, you can activate it with the Win+E key combo. If not, Expo can be activated from within the Compiz settings manager. The 3×3 pattern in the screenshot is a result of setting Gnome’s workspaces to 3 rows, 3 columns.

Guake

Finally, there’s Guake, the drop-down terminal. If you’ve played a lot of PC first-person-shooter games, you’re probably familiar with the concept of a drop-down command terminal. Guake and similar apps like Yakuake for KDE are extremely useful for heavy users of the command line, as you no longer need to alt-tab or switch workspaces to get to a terminal.

Room for Improvement

The biggest problem with this setup is that it requires several different applications to get the proper functionality from the info bar. For this to truly be a top-notch setup, we’d need a sidebar application capable of handling all the required tasks. I’d like to abuse my position as an internet writer to ask the software community to help with this. Can we create an application that can act as system info center, notification area, messaging center, and dock? Google Gadgets bring you pretty close, but I think we can do better.

If you’ve got any suggestions or other desktop customization tips, let us know in the comments!

Now, if you are using a Linux distro with Gnome environment, you can easily install the Dropbox client and get it to work with Nautilus. However, if you are using other desktop manager like KDE, Fluxbox, Openbox etc, you will have no luck with the installer. Here’s the fix to get Dropbox to work in non-Gnome environment.

Note: This tutorial is based on Kubuntu KDE desktop manager. The steps for other desktop manager are the same, except for the location of the autostart menu.

First download the Dropbox generic binary files.

Extract the tar file. You should see a .dropbox-dist folder. If not, go to the View option and enable View Hidden Files

Move this .dropbox-dist folder to your Home directory. If you cannot see it, enable the view hidden files option.

In the terminal, type:

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

to run the dropbox graphical interface.

You should now see the Dropbox configuration window. Proceed on to configure your account, including where to place the Dropbox folder. Once done, Dropbox will automatically sync your local folder with the online folder.

Lastly, you need to configure your system to run the dropbox daemon everytime you log in. In KDE, you can simply create a symlink to the Autostart folder:

ln -s ~/.dropbox.dist/dropboxd ~/.kde/Autostart/dropboxd

Note: Depending on the desktop manager that you are using, the method to add the Dropbox daemon to your Autostart menu might be different.

Using this method, you won’t get to see the small sync icon that tells you that your files are in sync. However, rest assure that your files are correctly sync to the server.

That’s it.

Azenis

Arch Dark

Abstract

Black Ice

Dusty

Dark

Antract

Aurora Black

Gnome Zen

Sleek Dragon

DeSk

Pirates of Gnome

Mushroom Lake

Arch Darch

Linux4u-Modernity

Installing Themes

Each of the titles above links to the theme’s download page, or if there’s no page, the theme file itself. All the themes (except DeSk) are tar.gz files and do not need to be extracted manually. In the case of DeSk, the tarball is there but it’s inside a ZIP. You save the tarballs into any directory you choose, and then open the Login Manager which will handle the rest. You can find that in Gnome under System > Administration > Login Window.

Use the Add button to pick your tarball, and you’ll see it show up in the panel to the left. You’ll see your new theme next time you login or switch user.

As the name implies, it’s Ubuntu with some tweaks to make the size and speed of the OS more appropriate to the hardware you’ll find in your average netbook. The most noticable difference is that they’ve completely re-skinned the standard Gnome desktop into something more closely resembling Gnome Shell than the Gnome you’re used to.

Preparing USB Media

Since many netbooks have no CD/DVD drives, you’ll need a USB thumb drive (1GB minimum) to perform the installation. The second thing you’ll need is the image file that we’ll be putting on the thumb drive, which can be downloaded here. The requirements for UNR list an Intel Atom processor for CPU, however I am writing this from UNR running on a Core 2 Duo so it seems the Atom is the “minimum” CPU, not necessarily the only supported type.

Installation will proceed in 2 steps. First, we put the live image on the USB stick (using Linux, Windows, or Mac) then we insert the USB stick into the netbook and install to the netbook’s hard drive. The USB stick is the temporary storage, replacing the CDROM in a typical Linux install.

Linux – Ubuntu

If you’re copying the image file to the USB drive from an Ubuntu system, you need the usb-imagewriter package. Ubuntu users can install it from the repositories with apt-get/aptitude/synaptic like any other package. With apt-get, it would look like:

sudo apt-get install usb-imagewriter

or simply click here to install it in your computer.

Once installed run the program from Applications -> Accessories -> Image Writer.

Choose the image file downloaded earlier, and the device it’ll write to (your USB drive). THIS WILL WIPE ANY DATA CURRENTLY ON THE USB DRIVE. Click Write when ready. Once it’s done, you’re ready to plug the thumb drive into the netbook and proceed to the Installation section.

Details for writing the image from other operating systems can be found at the Ubuntu Netbook Remix website.

Booting UNR

Once the image file has been written to the drive, it’s time to take it to your netbook. Shut down the netbook, plug in our newly formatted drive, and turn it back on. On some netbooks, you may need to manually specify that you want to boot from the USB drive instead of the netbook’s internal storage. If this is the case, you can normally set the boot order in the netbook’s BIOS settings. Some even have a option when first started, that says something like “Press F12 for boot menu”.

Running UNR

Here’s what we’ve all been waiting for. Once booted, you won’t see the normal Gnome desktop. Instead, you’ll get a custom desktop menu system devised specifically for UNR. Regular MakeTechEasier readers will immediately notice the resemblance between UNR’s menu system and that of Gnome Shell.

Your normal panel on top has been replaced by a black bar containing some of the items normally seen in Gnome’s panel, such as the Network Manager, clock, and power management applet.

When you run any app from the new menu system, it will automatically be maximized to fill the entire screen. Instead of having a box for each running application filling up the panel, UNR gives each app an icon next to the menu button, and the rest of the screen space is used for the title bar of the currently active (maximized) window. Here, for example, is my top bar while running Firefox, Rhythmbox, and The Gimp.

Some whitespace in the titlebar was removed to avoid shrinking the image and losing clarity.

You may also notice in the full screenshot that all my storage devices were detected and are listed along with Home, Music, Documents, etc on the right hand section of the menu screen. This is roughly the equivalent of the Places menu on a normal Gnome installation. At the bottom of that last is the Quit/Shutdown button which is normally found in the top-right corner of a typical Ubuntu system.

A nice feature of UNR is the very first menu section, Favorites. As the name implies, this holds your most frequently used applications. As someone who despises the traditional hierarchical menu system, I appreciate anything that speeds up and simplifies the act of finding and running my favorite apps. The only thing I found lacking in the left pane’s menu setup is a Run box, allowing me to type in the name of my preferred command instead of hunting through menus.

Installing UNR to Netbook Hard Drive

UNR uses the standard Ubuntu installer, which can be found in the Favorites menu. The process for installing from USB to hard drive should be no different than any other Ubuntu installation, which we’ve covered here before. You do not need to install UNR to the hard drive in order to use it, you can simply boot from the USB stick any time you like if you want to run UNR, however there are a few drawbacks to this. For one, any changes you make are not persistent. Next time you reboot, any changes made the the files on the USB drive will be reverted back to their original state. This means no (useful) software upgrades, and no persistent settings and preferences. Each boot on to your USB drive will be like the first.

Caveats

I had a few complaints about the UNR menu-driven interface. For starters is the auto-maximization of pretty much any application. I can see how, in theory, the small screen on your average netbook would mean you’d only want one app on screen at a time, however that’s not always the case in practice. You still have the option of right-clicking the titlebar and choosing “Unmaximize” to drop a window into normal mode, but then you have a semi-transparent version of the menu sitting behind all your apps, giving it a cluttered look.

The biggest drawback, to me, was the lack of multiple workspaces. I use these “virtual desktops” extensively, and so far I haven’t found a way to enable them on UNR. I suppose the idea behind UNR’s interface is that people will generally only be running a few full screen apps like web browser and email, due to the low power of your average netbook. That’s another thing that sounds fine in theory, but has caused me frustrations when attempting to use UNR as a desktop system.

Finally, there’s the issue with multi-windowed apps, such as The Gimp. I briefly mentioned above that whenever an app is NOT maximized, you can see a semi-transparent menu floating on your desktop. While not a real problem, I find this very annoying as it makes my workspace feel cluttered and disorganized.

Conclusion

As far as the real guts of the system, UNR is roughly the same as any Ubuntu installation, with approximately the same set of software and whatever pros and cons they provide. Regarding the interface, I wasn’t particularly impressed. Some of the design choices seem good at first, but over time have caused me some frustrations. I suppose, though, that if you’re using UNR exactly as intended (light use, small amount of full-screen apps) it could provide a cozy, simple setup that sure beats some of the pre-installed operating systems many manufacturers provide (I’m looking at you, Xandros). Perhaps in the next iteration of UNR, some kinks will be better worked out and the UNR interface will more closely match the clever design we’ve seen in projects like Gnome Shell.

Installation

It’s important to note right away that Gnome Shell is still in fairly early development. There is no stable release or package, we’ll be downloading and installing from source code using an auto build script. While I had no trouble at all with the installation, things could change at any moment so there’s certainly no guarantees that it will build, let alone run. That said, Gnome Shell has so far given me no trouble at all.

First, we’ll need jhbuild, a tool that’ll help with the installation. It’s probably in your distro’s repositories. Debian/Ubuntu users an fetch it with:

sudo apt-get install jhbuild

Next we download and run the installation script:

wget http://git.gnome.org/cgit/gnome-shell/plain/tools/build/gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
bash gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
jhbuild build

This will take a little while. It ran for about 10 minutes on my Core 2 Duo test machine. Fortunately, there were no errors during any part of it during my installation.

Running

BEFORE RUNNING GNOME SHELL, make sure to disable Compiz if you’ve got it running. Ubuntu users can do this by opening your normal Gnome panel to System -> Preferences -> Appearance and turning off desktop effects. Once you’re sure any desktop effects have been disabled, save any work you’re not willing to risk, and enter the following in your terminal:

~/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell/src/gnome-shell --replace

If you find yourself liking Gnome Shell and running it often, I’d suggest making an alias in your .bashrc file for the command above.

Launching Applications

The main difference in working with the Gnome Shell desktop is that your panel on the top is not your normal panel, Once you click Activities, you’ll see a completely different interface from what you’re used to.

You can also open the Activities screen by hitting the Super (aka Windows) key on your keyboard. On the left, you’ve got the equivalent of the old menu system. The top of that panel is the Find box, which operates like many of the desktop finder tools out there. You can type in the name of a program (like “firefox”) to run it, or you can specify a word in the program’s description, like below.

The other method of launching programs is to click the Browse button under Applications, if you prefer using menus.

Multiple Desktops

No Linux desktop environment would be complete if it wouldn’t run multiple desktop screens to manage all your apps. Gnome Shell is no different, and provides an interesting take on these often-used workspaces.

With the Activities screen up, you’ll see a small round “+” icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. Click that to add new workspaces to your desktop.

Even though Gnome Shell is still in pretty early stages, they’ve already included some great usability features. For example, with the Activities up, you can click an application icon to launch in your current workspace, or drag the launch icon onto the appropriate workspace. So in the screenshot above, for example, I could drag the Firefox icon onto the third desktop to make it open there directly. Once a window is open, you can easily drag it from one workspace to the next. This video demonstrates exactly what I mean.

Sidebar

This is a nice little feature that’s not much right now but my guess is that it could evolve into a great little tool. If you click your username in the top right corner of the screen, you can choose to enable the Sidebar. If enabled, it sits at the left edge of the screen and can be collapsed to a thin bar or expanded into a small box by clicking the arrows at the top.

Eye Candy

The most obvious comparison for a composited window manger like Gnome Shell would be to Compiz. They’ve both got window animation effects for things like minimizing and opening windows, as well as transparencies and everything else you’d expect from a composited setup. The difference, so far at least, seems to me to be the purpose of those effects. Compiz puts much more emphasis on pure decoration like rain drops and wobbly windows whereas the Gnome Shell effects are generally more practical. That’s not to say Compiz doesn’t have some handy features, and this could all change as Gnome Shell development goes on.

Conclusion

My overall impression of Gnome Shell is most certainly positive. There’s clearly been a lot of thought put into its design, and some equally impressive coding behind the implementation. The visual effects are pleasing but not overwhelming, and the interface is very intuitive and takes almost no effort to understand.

That said, there’s still plenty of room for development. So far I’ve found essentially no configuration options of any kind, so at the moment it seems you’re stuck with having the shell exactly the way it was installed, like it or not. Fortunately for me, I like it. I’m sure configuration options will improve as development continues and more tools and features are added, so that’s not so much a complaint as a suggestion to be patient. It looks like it’ll be worth the wait.

This happened to me recently while trying out Gnome for the first time in a while. I attempted to set the key combo for “Switch workspace” to a combination of Super (aka Windows Key) and an arrow key for left or right. This would allow me to use the same key combo to switch workspaces in all my systems. I was shocked to find that in Gnome, as of the time of this writing, you cannot use Super as a combo key, it only works on its own. Every time I would try to enter “Super + Left Arrow” or “Super + Right Arrow”, it would stop right at Super and not let me create a combo.

Some searching online showed that many others have had this problem, it seems I’m not the only one who wants to use Super in combination with other keys. With that in mind, I decided to share my solution to this problem.

Remapping the Super Key

Chances are, your keyboard has two Super keys. They can be easily spotted, usually in the lower row, and bearing the Windows logo. What we’re going to do is tell Gnome to treat the Super key as something else, so that it doesn’t have to follow the rules Gnome has set for how that key should be used.

Open up your Keyboard options (NOT Keyboard Shortcuts) from the System -> Preferences menu. From that screen, choose the Layout tab. On the Layout page should be an icon for Layout Options.

From within the Layout Options page, choose Alt/Win Key Behavior. From there you can choose to map the Super key to “Meta”, allowing it to bypass normal Super key behavior.

Now that we’ve “tricked” Gnome into thinking the Super key is a different key, we can use it for combinations in the Keyboard Shortcuts screen. You can find Keyboard Shortcuts in the System -> Preferences menu. As I mentioned above, my reason for wanting to set this behavior was so that I could use the same key combo to switch workspaces that I use on all my other systems, which is Super + Left or Right.

Now that we’ve remapped the Super key, Gnome will let it be used in combination with other keys. Anytime we hit that key, Gnome treats it as “Mod4″, which it WILL allow to be used in combinations. Now I’m all set, I can use the same key combo on all the computers I use, no matter which operating system or desktop environment I happen to be running.