Recently I covered the addition of RGBA support in Ubuntu (see my article “Enable RGBA support in Ubuntu“). I’ve had a lot of people contact me about various tweaks to that desktop to further refine the look. So I thought I would take the time to show you just how to tweak a Ubuntu desktop [...]

Categories: Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Tutorials Basic

Today we continue on with our Wallpaper theme! You’ve already seen how to Manage your wallpaper in GNOME as well as how to set up a changing rotation of wallpapers with Wallpaper Drapes (see “Desktop Drapes for GNOME“). Now it’s time for something a bit different. Most wallpaper applets pretty much do the same thing: They [...]

Categories: Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Software, Tutorials Basic

The latest “series” of articles for Linux here on Ghacks revolves around beautifying your desktop…specifically, desktop wallpaper. The first article was all about Managing wallpaper in GNOME.  I wanted to continue that particular subject by introducing a simple little tool (that hasn’t actually been updated since 2008 – but still works like a champ) called [...]

Categories: Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Software, Tutorials Basic

Sticking with our KDE theme this week, it’s time to learn how to make KDE 4.4 yours. You’ve downloaded it, you’ve used it, and now you want to personalize it. You might find things are  a bit different than the KDEs of yore (especially if you’re just coming into KDE from 3.5). But no matter [...]

Categories: Advice, Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Software, Tutorials Basic

GNOME is one of the more stable and user-friendly desktops around. And of course, like most of the Linux-verse, with a little tweaking you can make it even more user-friendly. The GNOME panel is one aspect of the GNOME desktop that certainly does not escape possible tweaks. In this tips and tricks article you will [...]

Categories: Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Tutorials Basic

Stardock has released the release candidate of their popular desktop management software Fences. Fences, which has been reviewed at Ghacks before (see: Unclutter Your Desktop With Fences), can be used to define groups on the Windows desktop that can be hidden easily so that the computer desktop appears clean and uncluttered. A double-click on the [...]

Categories: Software, Windows

Of all the Linux distributions, the consensus is beginning to become clear that Ubuntu is, hands down, the most user friendly of the Linux distributions. Naturally there are people that claim other distributions like PCLinuxOS, and Linux Mint are even more user-friendly than Ubuntu. But what exactly makes a Linux distribution user-friendly? I have been using [...]

Categories: ask the readers, Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems

Recently I instructed you how to “Manage your E17 menus“. In that article you saw how easy it was to add to the E17 favorites menu and handle some of the configuration options for the Main menu. The surprising issue was that the Main menu could not be edited (at least not with some serious [...]

Categories: Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Tutorials Basic

I like to think of myself as a Linux desktop power user. To that end I want my desktop to be very efficient and work with me on every level. I want as few clicks of the mouse as possible. Fortunately there are certain (nearly) universal aspects of the Linux that make this not only [...]

Categories: Advice, Desktop Manager, Linux, Open Source, Tutorials Basic, Uncategorized