A double-click on the desktop will automatically hide or unhide all groups and desktop icons unless they have been specifically configured to be always visible on the desktop. New groups are created easily by drawing a rectangle on the desktop with the right-mouse button. It is then possible to move that group on the desktop and place icons in it.

The last updates that have been released to Fences have made the program compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7. The developers have also announced a commercial version of Fences which will be released soon. The paid version will come with advanced customization options like theme support and to automatically create new groups when necessary.

Fences is a one-of-a-kind program, allowing you to draw labeled shaded areas on your desktop, which become movable & resizable containers for your desktop icons. These groups can help bring organization and consistency to your computer’s desktop, solving the “constant mess” problem that has plagued the desktop since its inception.

Fences also helps you finally appreciate the wallpaper you have hiding behind all that clutter.
In addition to its organizing features, Fences offers a patent-pending quick-hide feature. Double click your desktop, and all your icons will fade out. Double click again, and they’ll return.

The free version of Fences is available at the developer’s website.

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I have been using Linux for over ten years. My first induction in the “cult-o-Linux” was with Caldera OpenLinux 1 and Red Hat 4.2. Back then it was a completely different Linux. If you wanted to install an application you most likely were going to install from source or, if you were lucky, you could find an rpm package for your Red Hat installation. But so many day-to-day activities were handled from the command line. You mounted (and unmounted) floppy disks from the command line. Most likely you started your dial-up modem from the command line (and even had to write a bash script to get it connected – remember Minicom?)

Today, Linux is an all together different beast. But what makes it user-friendly? And what, in specific, makes Ubuntu so appealing that it could easily become the flagship Linux distribution? Let’s take a look.

Familiarity: As much as I hate to say it, in so many instances, you have to mimic Windows in order to gain a level of comfort with new users. In many instances, Ubuntu has done just that. But it’s not overt mimicry, it’s subtle. It’s changing the way users have to deal with removable media. Now you can plug in that USB key, write something to the key, and remove the key. Of course you should be unmounting the key before removing it (just like you should in both Windows and Mac), but at least it has become possible to, quite literally, plug-and-plug. Is this unique to Ubuntu? Not completely. However, Ubuntu has pieced together a system that is much more consistent with the methods of the “market share”.

Software management: Ubuntu has, and continues to have, one of the simplest tools for managing software. Open up the single tool, search for what you need, select it, and install it. And with Ubuntu 9.10 coming out, this task includes commercial software. What this does is, in many instances, keep the user from having to search the web endlessly for commercial-grade software for Linux. The next step – ease the adding of repositories.

Sudo: This is a very sore point for many old-school Linux users. Most see this as a security risk. But with regards to user-friendliness – why would you want to make the new user have to learn about a “super user” or “root” account? Most average users cringe at the thought of doing anything administrative to a computer. So you remove the idea of their needing an administrative user and you take one step towards giving the users what they want. With Ubuntu your user has administrative rights through sudo, so the worst thing they will have to do is enter their user password when handling administrative tasks. Most users can handle that.

Choice made simple: A lot of distributions have chosen one desktop over another. And let’s face it, the desktop ultimately will determine how user-friendly a distribution is. I can take a user-friendly distribution like Ubuntu, put AfterStep or E16 on as the desktop, and that distribution is no longer user-friendly. The desktop is the make or break for Linux and we all know, for user-friendliness, there are two serious choices: GNOME and KDE. Ubuntu makes this very simple: If you want GNOME you download the standard ISO and burn it. If you prefer KDE, download Kubuntu. Ubuntu goes even further than that by offering Xubuntu and Edubuntu versions of the distribution. So instead of having to download and install a distribution with one desktop and then install the desktop you want on top of that, you just download the version of the distribution that includes the desktop you want.

Installation: How much easier could it be than booting a Live CD and then clicking the install button once it is up and running? Not much. Of course many Linux distributions have a Live CD version (some only do Live DVDs) which is great. But the Ubuntu Live CD offers a cleaner, easier start up and installation than most. If you’ve ever tried the Elive Live CD you know EXACTLY what I am talking about.

Boot time: Ubuntu Linux has one of the fastest boot times of all the Linux distributions. The goal of Ubuntu is to reach that elusive 10 second boot time. They are coming very close. Along with boot time would be a clean boot. By clean boot I mean not giving the user more information than they need. Long gone is the boot up process that tells the user every single process, system, and sub-system that is starting up. The only users that want to see that are the old school users trying to debug various issues.

Remove the clutter: I am a big fan of virtual workspaces. I love (and use) the Linux pager. Most people, however, do not. Ubuntu has the right approach to this tool, strip the virtual workspaces down to two to appease the old school users AND not so easily confuse the new users. In all honesty, I think for the standard release, the pager needs to be disabled all together. Sure, leave it there so users who depend upon it can enable it, but why have more clutter than the average user can stand? Ubuntu is on the right path.

Final thoughts

Of course what you really need to do is define “user friendliness”. For many people that means “just be Windows”. But for some it’s much more than that. If you say “Just be Windows” – doesn’t that include Vista? And Vista was not the most user-friendly OS. User-friendly, to me, is an operating system (as a complete whole – not in pieces) that does not interfere with the user. A real user friendly operating system will allow the user to do what they need to do without confusing road blocks or cumbersome sub-systems. And, finally, a user-friendly operating system should be secure from the threat of viruses and malware without the inclusion of third-party software. Linux has that in spades.

What do you think? Is Ubuntu the most user friendly Linux distribution?

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In this article I am going to show you how to edit/manage your GNOME menus. This tasks in the GNOME desktop is actually much easier than it is in E17, plus you have the added bonus of actually being able to edit the “Main” menus. This article will illustrate this task with the help of Ubuntu 9.04 and GNOME 2.26.1.

The GNOME menus

In the GNOME desktop there are three menus: Applications, Places, and System. Only two of these menus can be “officially” edited: Applications and System. By “officially” I mean with the built in menu editing tool. The Places menu can be edited very easily as well, and only requires the use of the Nautilus file manager.

With that said, let’s edit some menus.

Places

Since the Places menu is the easiest to edit, we’ll start with that. In order to do this you need to open up the Nautilus file manager. When you are in this application you will notice a Bookmarks menu. That is the key. Click on that menu and take a look at the list of bookmarks. Now go to the Places menu and click on that. Do you see a similarity? You should, because they are the same. When you add a book mark to the Nautilus file manager it automatically adds itself to the Places menu.

Figure 1

To add a bookmark to Nautilus you just need to navigate to the directory you want to add and then click the Bookmarks menu and select Add Bookmark. You can also edit the bookmarks by select Edit Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu in Nautilus. When you select that a new window will open (see Figure 1) where you can manage your bookmarks. The “Jump To” button, when clicked, takes you (in Nautilus) to whatever bookmark you have selected.

Applications and System menus

Figure 2

Both of these menus are edited with a handy tool called Alacarte. You access this tool by right clicking the menu area (upper left) in GNOME and selecting “Edit Menus”. When you do this the menu editor will open (see Figure 2).

This menu editor is quite simple to use. Let’s create a new menu entry. The entry we will create will be an entry to open the Firefox browser automatically to the Ghacks website. To do this click on the Internet menu (in the left pane) and then click the New Item button (in the right pane). A new window will open where you will enter the following information:

• Type: Application
• Name: Ghacks
• Command: firefox http://www.ghacks.net
• Comment: Ghacks

The icon should be picked up based on the Command you enter. Since it is an URL the web-mime icon will automatically appear. Enter the above information and click OK. The menu entry will automatically appear in your menu.

From this same window you can:

• Reorder your menu entries.
• Show or hide menu entries.
• Add sub menus.
• Delete menu entries.
• Add separators.

Final thoughts

The GNOME desktop has one of the easiest to manage menu systems of any desktop (Linux or not). Give these tools a try and you will find you can make your GNOME menus into exactly what you need for your desktop.

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There are three particular aspects of the desktop I take advantage of in order to make it as efficient as possible, each a sub set of Focus: window focus, auto raise, and window tab cycling. In this article I will highlight each of these so you can see how efficient your desktop can be.

These tips should work with most every window manager or desktop you can find in Linux. I won’t go into the actual configuration of each because that configuration will be different for each window manager or desktop.

Focus?

First let me make sure you understand the idea behind window focus. It’s very simple: A focused window is the window you are working in. In most operating system desktops you have to click on that window in order to give it focus. In Linux there are other ways to give a window focus. Let’s take a look at them.

Focus Follows Mouse (sometimes called Sloppy Focus) instructs the desktop that the window under the mouse pointer has focus. With this set you do not have to click on a particular window in order to start working in that window. Of course this can lead to a problem when you have a smaller window over a larger window and you want to give the larger window focus. With just Focus Follows Mouse set alone your lower window will have focus but it will be difficult to work with because it will have another window hiding what you’re working on. To resolve this you set the Autoraise feature.

With Autoraise set the window that has focus automatically raises to the top. This is a great feature, but, it can get in the way. If your mouse moves outside of the currently focused window, into another window, that window will automatically raise up. To solve this problem you can set a delay to the auto raise. This is a good practice because it will save you the headache of your windows constantly losing focus as the mouse escapes from the borders of your current working window. Autoraise delay is set in miliseconds so remember that when you’re setting a delay. Play around until you get the perfect setting for your needs.

Window cycling

Figure 1

While working on your Linux desktop hit the Alt-Tab combination and you will see something similar to that in Figure 1. In this example you see cycling through windows in the Window Maker window manager. To get to the to the next window you hold down the Alt key and tap the Tab key. When you land on the window you want to work in you release the keys and the window will have focus.

This, of course, can be used in conjunction with the workspace switching key combination of Ctrl-Alt-left/right arrow. When you press that combination you will warp to the next workspace to either the right or left of where you are (depending upon which arrow key you use.)

Final thoughts

It is possible to make your Linux desktop as efficient as you want it. By employing these easy to use tips you will find yourself spending more time working and less time clicking and dragging windows.

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Some of you may scoff and say “There is nothing Linux does better than Windows.” To that I would say you might want to reconsider that opinion. We all know (or at least I hope we know) that every operating system has its strengths and weaknesses. Many of you may have never really considered the strengths of Linux. Well, it’s time you did, and I am going to help you with that process.

The list below is in no particular order.

1. Evolve. After ten plus years of working with Linux I have seen few set backs. Each release of the various distributions has, nearly without fail, been a step forward. Trying to recall when a release has been a bump in the road akin to Vista or Windows ME has me drawing a blank. Yes Ubuntu had some performance issues with 7 and 8 but those issues didn’t cause either of the releases to suffer.

The Linux kernel itself has been nothing less than a grand climb uphill that gets easier and easier. What was once a large hurdle to most users, the Linux kernel has become almost an afterthought. And if you take a look at the evolution of the Linux desktop you can see a perfect example of how a PC interface should evolve. Although KDE took a minor step back with the initial release of 4, it quickly recovered with grace and aplomb.

The evolution of Windows hasn’t be nearly as smooth. With service packs causing major issues left and right, and…well…Vista.

2. Interoperability. Let’s face it, Windows plays well with Windows. That’s it. If you attempt to introduce a foreign object into your Windows-only network you’re in for a long day. Linux, however, plays well with just about every operating system out there. Just try to find an operating system Linux can’t communicate with and I will gladly say “I was wrong.” I have yet to find an operating system that can not communicate, in one way or another, with Linux. I have found plenty, however, that can not communicate with Windows without having to add either third party software or a bridging piece of hardware.

3. Package management. To say that Windows actually manages packages is a joke. You know that portion of the Control Panel in Windows that says Add/Remove Software? How exactly do you do the Add part? Do you click on that and then check the repository of some 23,000 different applications to purchase? Oh no, you actually purchase your software and that software uses one of the different installation systems to install the package. There is no centralized repository. There is no package “management”. Linux, however, has true package management. Synaptic, apt, yum, Yumex, rpm…Linux has package management that makes the installation and removal of applications a snap.

4. Flexibility. One of the greatest things about Linux is that if it doesn’t work the way you want it to…change it, or find a different way of doing things. I have tackled the same task in Linux many different ways, each way had it’s pros and cons. But the best thing about it was I could do it differently. I could find an application to handle a task, I could write a script to handle a task, I could piece together various applications to handle a task…you name it, the field is wide open. Even the kernel itself. If I don’t want the kernel to load a module I can recompile the kernel myself. I can fine-tune a kernel to meet very specific needs. With Linux there are no limitations.

5. Desktop. Many users just use their PC and don’t care much about their desktops. There are many others that do care. But it goes well beyond that of aesthetics. The Linux desktop can really serve your needs very specifically. I have deployed Fluxbox desktops on kiosk systems because I can create a very basic menu system that will allow users to do only what I want to allow them to do. And it doesn’t take much effor to do so. Or I can deploy a virtuoso-like desktop that will do anything and everything the user wants. And that’s the key – the Linux desktop CAN do what you want. The Linux desktop can look and feel EXACTLY how you want it to look and feel. You like certain aspects of OS X and certain aspects of XP or Vista? Linux has a desktop just for you. With Windows, if you want to really tweak the desktop, you better be ready to search for a third party application and hope it doesn’t eat up more ram than, say, Vista already eats up. Oh and all that eye candy on Vista? Linux has had that for years – and does it better.

And there you go. You can argue each point if you want. But the truth of the matter is, there are certain aspecs of the Linux operating system that are just plain better than Windows. And, of course, there are certain aspects of the Windows operating system that are better than Linux. And…of course…there are certain aspects of OS X that are better than either Windows or Linux. It’s a three way street here.

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Icons can also be piled up on the BumpTop desktop easily. It is for example possible to create a pile of all Word documents or photos on the desktop. They can also be fanned out quickly to see what files it contains. The pro version adds flipping through the pile with the scroll wheel to that. Icon sizes can be altered manually to give them more room on the desktop which makes it easier to identify them. The pro version will grow popular files automatically.

The search as you type feature will identify matching icons on the computer desktop instantly and it only takes the enter key to open them. Other options include sorting them or bundling them together no matter where they are located on the desktop. Icons can also be tossed around or pinned to walls.

Tossing icons around on the desktop applies to interfaces as well. Tossing a document on the printer will print it while tossing a photo on the Facebook icon will upload it to the web portal. Facebook, Twitter and Email are currently supported by BumpTop. Several other features can be accessed like adding photo RSS feeds to the desktop or utilizing the capabilities of touch-screen interfaces.

BumpTop is fun to play around with. It does take some practice to get used to the new interface though. It is a well thought out Windows desktop alternative.

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So where do you take control of runaway process and/or frozen applications? Does Linux have a system monitor the Windows system monitor? Yes. There are a number of ways. Since this is a “Get to know Linux” article, I will show the easiest (read: GUI) method of achieving this goal. Later I will focus another article on a command line method.

GNOME

Gnome System Monitor

When using the GNOME desktop the GNOME System Monitor is the tool you use to control processes and applications. You will find that in the System Tools entry of the Application menu. GNOME system Monitor will be labeled “System Monitor”.

As you can see, in the image to the left, there are four tabs within this application. The most important tab you will use is the Processes tab. When you click on that tab you will see every process running on your system. Some of these processes the standard user can not kill (they require root privileges.)

To kill an application (or process) scroll through the list, select the target application, and click the End Process button. You will get a confirmation window asking if you are sure you want to end the process. Confirm this and the process will end.

Instead of having to scroll through a long list of processes, if you know the application is sucking up a lot of your CPU you can click on the %CPU column until the arrow is pointing up (at which point the most CPU intensive application will be listed on top.)

KDE

KDE System Monitor

The KDE desktop has a very similar application for ending processes. This utility works in the same way that the GNOME System Monitor works. Locate the application or process, select the listing, and click the Kill Process button.

Like the GNOME version you can click the CPU % column to bring the CPU-intensive applications to the top.

The KDE version of this tool also allows you to filter the processes by All, System, User, Own, and Programs only. This helps you to locate your problem child quicker. You can also do a search for a process or application with this tool. Simply enter the name of your application in the text area and the entries will update automatically.

Final Thoughts

Controlling rogue applications or processes is just as easy in Linux as it is in Windows. With outstanding graphical utilities, you can ensure your system doesn’t have applications eating up your memory or your CPU cycles.

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For most old-school Linux users, creating archive consisted of dropping to the command line and issue a command like tar cfz directory.tgz directory (where directory is the name of the directory to archirve). But new users fear the command line. So, thanks to GNOME, there is an easier way to achieve this.

The folder right click menu.

If you open up the Nautilus File Manger and right click on a folder you will see the menu shown in the image to the left.

By clicking the “Create Archive” entry a new window will appear that allows you to configure the archive you want to create. This new window allows you to configure the type of compression, the location and name of the archive, and (if you have encryption enabled), add encryption and split into volumes.

Configure your archive

Once you have configured your archive click the Create button and the archive will automatically be placed in the Location you chose.

Take note of the file extension. This extension will determine if the archive is compressed or not. There are eight possible options to choose from. If you want compression I would suggest going with either the .tgz or the tar.bz2 extensions.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve ever wanted simple and fast archiving, GNOME has just the tool for you. This method of archiving folders can not be topped for ease of use.

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While that alone would not be really spectacular Fences comes with one of the easiest ways to hide all or specific fences. Hiding and unhiding the fences can be done by a simple double-click on the desktop. This means that you can work with a icon free desktop for most of the day. If you need any shortcuts you simply double-click the desktop, the fences containing the icons appear and you can launch them normally.

Fences does come with the possibility to exclude areas from being hidden by the double-click which is great if you need some shortcuts visible all the time.

The program offers the ability to group all icons on the computer system automatically after installation. The alternative would be to create empty fences and move the shortcuts in those fences manually.

A new fence can be easily created by right-clicking on the computer desktop and drawing a rectangle on the screen. New icons places on the computer desktop will not automatically be moved into fences. It is up to the user to perform that operation.

Another interesting feature of the software program is that it will automatically scale if the screen resolution changes. Fences can be downloaded at the Stardock website. The software is compatible with the 32-bit editions of Windows XP as well as both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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What I like about the setup is the simple lines and design despite the complexity and elaborate nature of the configuration. Despite my distaste of over-complex designs, I am impressed, because it functions as a “dashboard” should, it gives you a lot of at-a-glance information. RSS feeds from your favorite blog, the time and date with weather, and a whole bunch of other stuff, like the handy Gmail notifier.

While this may not appeal to the hardcore “clean desktop” people, I urge you all to give these setups a try, some of them might work. the reason I stray from them is that when I am working on something I tend to generate a lot of icons on my desktop which ruin the nice looks. I could of course use a different directory, but this is the most readily accessable place. if you know of any other cool desktop configurations like this be sure to drop us a note in the comments!

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The first thing you need to do is make sure you have installed a theme that supports verticle titlebars in a way that makes them actually usable. Most themes will offer some form of verticle titlebars but some are not as well done. One of the best themes for this configuration is the Chromium Noise theme. Download this them for installation. If you’re not sure how to install the theme it is simple. As the root user move the theme .gz file to /usr/share/e16/themes. Before you unpack the them create a new sub directory for Chromium. Do this because many theme creators do not (for some strange reason) place the contents of their theme within a directory, so that when you unpack the directory all of the files just spill all over your current working directory. With that in mind issue the command mkdir /usr/share/e16/themes/CHROME. Now move the Chromium tar file into the newly created directory with the command mv chromiumnoise-0.60.tar.gz /usr/share/e16/themes/CHROME/.  After you change to the CHROME directory (cd /usr/share/e16/themes/CHROME) issue the command tar xvzf chromiumnoise-0.60.tar.gz to unpack the file.

Go to your desktop and do a middle mouse click to bring up the menu that includes the Theme directory. You should now see an entry for CHROME. Select that to switch to the Chromium Noise theme.

Chromium Noise Theme

By default Chromium Noise is a pretty slick theme. But let’s make it slicker. There are three small squares in the top left corner of each window. If you right mouse click the left or middle square a new menu will appear with a Set Border Style Entry.

Set Border Style

There are three entries for verticle titlebards: Side-1, Side-2, and Side_Shade_Right. Select Side-1 and your border will instantly change.

Side-1

Now you have an aterm window with a cool verticle titlebar.

You can make this change stick if you like. If you don’t want to have to go through this process every time for certain windows (the change only applies to the application configured – not all windows) you have to have Enlightenment remember the configuration. Go back to the right mouse click menu on the middle square of the window (upper left). In that menu you will see an entry for “Remember”. Select that to open the Remember Application Attributes window.

Remember Attributes

Select Border style from the list and click OK. Now every time you open up that particular application the titlebar will be verticle.

Final Thoughts

Why do this? Because you can. Adding verticle titlebars is a simple means of differentiating between windows for various reason. And while you’re at setting your titlebars to verticle, check out some of the other cool features in the Window Attributes settings.

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The simplest method to get a composit manager installed is to install Compiz. Compiz is an outstanding window manager all on its own that is, by default, ready for compositing. With Compiz installed you will have a composit manager that E16 can deal with already installed.

In Ubuntu if you issue the command sudo synaptic you will open up the Add/Remove Software application. From here do a search for compiz. When the results come up select compiz and allow the system to install all necessary dependencies. Finally click Apply to install all of the packages.

Once Compiz is installed you should be able to set compositing up in Enlightenment. With a right mouse click the Settings menu will appear. Select “Composite Settings” to open up the configuration window.

Composite Settings

Once the settings window opens you will see a few configuration options to choose from.

Composite Settings Window

The first option to take care of is Enable Composite. Make sure that is checked. The rest of the options are all up to user taste.  I prefer to have  Fading Speed set to slowest (slider to the far left), Shadows Blurred, Default Unfocused Window Opacity near 1/2, and Default Pop-Up Window Opacity around 3/4 on. Once you have selected these options click Apply to set them.

The final effect can be pretty amazing for just a “simple window manager”.

The full effect

Final Thoughts

What I love about Enlightenment is that it is a lightweight desktop that manages to pull off enough tricks to impress yet doesn’t drag your machine to a halt. With a little hackery, Enlightenment can make Windows Aero look like a sad attempt at a modern desktop.

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It is a software that can produce a variety of desktop effects and even comes with an editor to create new effects. The default application comes with about 15 desktop effects that range from snow to stars and more unique effects like northern lights, an aquarium or beer.

The effects take place on part or all of the screen and several additional visual effects can be added to make them more interesting. Three main effects can be added: Water Drops, Pixelate and Inverse.

All three effects will add effects directly to open windows which will stick for as long as the application is running. There are options to apply the effects in screensaver mode or rest mode. Screensaver mode acts like a normal screensaver while rest mode will start the effect after a given time.

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The desktop manager provides several methods of accessing the parts of the desktop that are not visual. It displays a slider in the upper right corner of the screen that can be used to access another part of the desktop. The second and probably most comfortable solution is to use the mouse-wheel while clicking the left or middle mouse button to scroll left or right. The third and final option is to open the quick nav bar by clicking on the slider and use the navigation bar to access another part of the desktop directly. The desktop scrolls seamlessly by connecting the end and beginning together.

By default only the Windows Taskbar stays in place all the time to provide access to its functions. All other windows and applications will remain in place which means that some of them will not be accessible when in the wrong part of the computer desktop.

This can be changed in the options of the 360 desktop manager so that applications will always be in the visible area of the computer screen. New desktop layouts can be downloaded or created at the official 360 Desktop website. Downloaded desktops can be loaded directly in the application or by dragging and dropping them afterwards in the 360 Manager.

It is furthermore possible to manage so called widgets in the 360 Manager which can only be created on the 360 Desktop website by registered users. Widgets can be pretty much any element that is available on a website like video clips, eBay listings or RSS news feeds which will always be displayed when the desktop manager starts.

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ZoneScreen offers two possibilities. The first is to mirror a computer desktop on another computer while the second extends the screen of the first computer. The only requirements are at least two computer screens and a network connection between the two computers. The software developer provides download versions for most Microsoft operating systems beginning with Windows 98 up to Windows Vista and even a Windows Mobile 2003 version.

So what could you possible do with this? It would be possible to run an application on a Pocket PC next to your PC, for example the Task Manager or an email program which would still display information while using another application in full screen mode.

It basically works by running ZoneScreen in server mode on the main computer and in client mode on the other computer.

The data that is send over the network is not encrypted which should be taken into account when using ZoneScreen.

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What I find most interesting is that both developments have a very similar aim or goal, but at the same time are very different. G.ho.st is not so ambitious as to try and become the next major web platform like Mesh, but it is trying to become the focal point of all our web interactions.

G.ho.st began as an online desktop with some uploading and synchronising capabilities while Live Mesh is a synchronisation service with some form of online desktop.

You can access the new release of G.ho.st at test.g.ho.st although be warned that it is currently even more alpha then the existing release. I actually didn’t notice any increases in instability but maybe that’s just me.

So far the changes I have noticed seem to be largely cosmetic. I requested the desktop context menu be simplified a few months ago and that seems to have happened, the start menu has also been streamlined slightly and I have noticed a few new icons scattered around the place. It could possibly be a little faster as well, but I really am not sure on that one.

I had a look around for some release notes, or a blog post from the G.ho.st developers but couldn’t seem to find one anywhere, so beyond what I’ve noticed so far I couldn’t tell you any additional changes although I’m sure there are many. I’ll keep fiddling around and see what I find.

Have any of you been using G.ho.st lately?

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I did feel a little bit overwhelmed by the plethora of options and settings of the application. It too almost 15 minutes before I thought that I had seen all of the functions of the program.

Zen Key is an application manager that can launch, manage and manipulate applications. Most of its features can be executed with a few keystrokes. Alt Space opens the Zen Key menu by default which puts everything at your fingertips.

zen key

Zen Key, among other things offers the following features:

• Work and play on an Infinite desktop (almost)
• Launch a program or a file
• Control program windows
• Automatically make windows transparent
• Iconify windows
• Open folders
• Control Media Applications
• Open Websites, perform an Internet search
• Issue a Windows System command
• Simulate a series of keystrokes

Zen Key uses only 6 Megabytes of memory when running which is really astonishing. Two windows had been iconified and the virtual desktop was displayed when I checked the memory usage.

The major problem that users might have with Zen Key is that it is quite complex and takes a while to get just to. It does add a few nice features that seem pretty unique to me though and that alone makes it a program that is worth that time.

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Frankly, the one makes the other irrelevant, although I would have been very, very impressed if 360 Desktop worked across two displays creating a huge scrolling desktop. In fact I hope its a feature they consider introducing.

"Give someone a second monitor, let them use it for while, and then try to take it away. It just isn’t going to happen.",

Suzanne Ross, Microsoft Research

I couldn’t agree more.

I had a quick Google and found Display Fusion, a awesome little application to customise your dual monitors, either by having different wallpapers on each, or by having one stretched across the two.

I favour the latter, as nothing looks better then a huge, high resolution image displayed like so. For some truly amazing dual monitor images try Mandolux and Digital Blasphemy.

After the initial buzz of using two monitors I also found myself getting annoyed with the fact you have to share one taskbar between the two.

The pretty self-explanatory Multi-Monitor Taskbar puts a taskbar on the second monitor and lets you have programs minimise to this instead of the one on the main display. gHacks has covered this before and this is where I found it.

As some people pointed out in the comments for that article, Ultramon is possibly a better alternative and a beta for Vista is available, but unfortunately its shareware, not freeware.

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One big advantage Linux users have over Windows is that Linux has multiple desktop environment’s built right in, Windows doesn’t. Sure you can get applications to get them, but to be honest I’m yet to discover one which does a completely satisfactory job.

360 Desktop was developed to break the desktop out from the ‘box’ we’re accustomed to and instead provide a panoramic desktop looping in three dimensions and hosting widgets and web gadgets.

Give it a little time when you load it up the first time, don’t get annoyed if it lags a little, you’ll find it soon speeds up. Memory usage is pretty low and scrolling the desktop around is smooth and fluent.

You can use the scroll button on the mouse to move across the desktop rapidly, while a little box in the upper-right hand corner notifies you exactly where on the desktop you are.

I’m going to be using it for a few more days before giving my opinion on it as being more, or less productive then the standard desktop.

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Some of you where pretty interested in the topic and there where a few debates in the comments over which was the best, so I’ve decided I’ll share a list of every online OS that I have found up to now.

Enjoy.

Since last week I have discovered one Webtop which is worthy of a special mention- iCloud. You’ll need an invite to access the iCloud beta, but apply and it’s likely you’ll receive it within a couple hours.iCloud comes with a UI that is well designed and varies a little more then the other Windows clones. It also comes with some very handy applications, check it out.

G.ho.st
DesktopTwo
myGoya
Ulteo
GlideOS
Jooce
iCUBE
youOS
Starforce
Purefect Desktop
ZimDesk
Online Operating System
CosmoPOD
Webdesk.in
MyBooo
goPC
Psych Desktop
AstranOS
SSOE

If I have missed any let me know.

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