In KDE 4 there are some great ways of managing those desktops. One of my favorite ways is using Active Edge Screen Actions to enable the Compiz Cube to switch workspaces. But the Active Edge Screen Actions can be used for much more than just switching workspaces. Let’s take a look at this feature and see just what it can do.

What are Active Edges?

To put it simply, Active Edges are locations on the screen where you can place the cursor and an action will occur. As the name implies, we’re dealing with the edges of the screen — specifically, the four corners and the center spot of each edge (center left, center top, center right, center bottom). That means there are eight different locations where an action can be set. When the cursor hovers over that location (the timing can be specified in the settings) the action configured will happen.

What actions can be configured? Any of the following:

• No Action.
• Show Dashboard.
• Show Desktop.
• Lock Screen.
• Prevent Screen Locking.
• Present Windows — All Desktops.
• Present Windows — Current Desktop.
• Desktop Grid.
• Desktop Cube.
• Desktop Cylinder.
• Desktop Sphere.
• Flip Switch — All Desktops.
• Flip Switch — Current Desktop.

For actions such as Desktop Grid/Cube/Cylinder/Spere and Flip Switch, those must be set up to work before the Action Edge can be set up. But once the action is working, it can be associated with an Action Edge.

Configuring an Action Edge

Figure 1

To do this click K > Computer > System Settings > Workspace Behavior > Screen Edges. When that new window opens (see Figure 1), right-click on one of the eight edges. When you do that a pop-up menu will appear where you can choose the action you want to associate with the edge. Select the action you want, and click Apply.

Once configured, test the Action Edge out. Remember, there is an Activation Delay for the edges. By default that delay is 150 milliseconds, so that action will not happen instantly.

A small conflict

You will notice, in this same screen, you can set edge flipping and window tiling. The Edge Flipping feature can be set up to flip to activate when either only dragging a window or always. Here’s the problem, if you have edge flipping and window tiling both set up, the window tiling will allow the edge flipping to work, but it’s a bit confusing and you could wind up with a tiled window instead of a flipped edge. I would recommend either one or the other. Also, if you configure Edge Flipping to be always on, you will lose four of your Action Edges (top/bottom center, right/left center).

Final thoughts

I’m a big fan of using multiple workspaces and Action Edges in KDE. These features do a great job of making your work more efficient and organized.

Run everything launcher

Figure 1

Of course, like every good desktop environment, Enlightenment has a “run dialog” that allows the user to run a command, without having to open up a terminal window.

The Everything Launcher is similar to GNOME Do, minus the ability to search for files. But by pressing the Alt-Esc combination a window (like that in Figure 1) will pop up allowing you to enter a command for launching. As you can see I have entered “claw” which instantly pops up both Claws Mail and clawsker. Both of these are applications. You can either click on one of the icons or finish the command and hit enter.

You can also click text and then copy whatever you have entered to the clipboard. Very handy, if you ask me.

But what if you want to make an icon or menu entry for an application? For that you have to (in E17 parlance) create a new application.

Creating new application

This actually isn’t creating a new application, but instead creates a launcher for the application, that can be added to a shelf or menu. Here’s how this is done.

Figure 2

1. Click Settings > All > Apps > New Application.
2. Fill out the basic information (The Application entry is the actual command for the application.)
3. Create an Icon for the application by clicking on the Icon tab and then entering the path to the icon in the field.
4. Add any options, if necessary.
5. Click OK.

You have now created an application. But where can you launch that application from? Let’s add it to the favorites menu. To do this, follow these steps:

Figure 3

1. Click Settings > All > Apps > Favorite Applications.
2. From this new window (see Figure 3) scroll up or down to find the new application you created.
3. Click on the application and then click Add.
4. Click OK to finish adding the application.

There is, of course, an easier way to do this. Once you have the application opened do the following:

Right-click the title bar of the application.

Select the application name and then either:

• Add to Favorites Menu
• Add to iBar.
• Create Keyboard Shortcut.

Figure 4

In order to create a Keyboard Shortcut do the following:

1. After you click Create Keyboard Shortcut the Keyboard Bindings window will open.
2. Click the keyboard shortcut combination you want to use.
3. Click on the Command entry under Launch.
4. Enter the command to be launched in the Action Params area.
5. Click OK.
6. Now test the keyboard shortcut.

If you make a mistake in the above steps, you can click the Escape key to get out of this.

Final thoughts

You will be hard pressed to find a desktop environment more flexible than E17. And with the help of tips like this, it becomes a very user-friendly desktop environment as well.

Yes, we’ve all heard the constant condemnation and kudos to Canonical for making such a bold move. I myself have even said the makers of one of the most user-friendly distributions are making a mistake. But the reality of it is — it’s just a user interface and it’s one that works well. It’s not perfect. It’s not flexible. It’s not remotely the norm. But it’s what Ubuntu is going with and there you have it. Ubuntu Unity will also not make or break Ubuntu. Why? Because users can choose from Unity or Classic GNOME. Or…users can opt for Kubuntu, or any other distribution based on Ubuntu.

And, truth be told, when you see the version of Unity that should be shipped with the full release, you might start seeing it in a bit of a different light. Even though Unity has had little time for real polishing, it has a fairly sleek look and feel. It’s solid and it works exactly as you would expect.

What is new to Unity? Here’s a list:

• Unity is now the default Ubuntu Desktop session.
• Drag and drop re-ordering of launcher icons.
• Full keyboard navigation support.
• Launch apps from keyboard shortcuts.er activation through keyboard shortcuts
• Right-click context menu quick-list support.
• Ability to switch between running applications
• Icons can be dragged and dropped from the Dash to the launcher.
• Three session types in GDM: Ubuntu (Unity, requires 3D support), Ubuntu Classic (Classic GNOME), Ubuntu Classic No Effects (Classic GNOME with visual effects turned off).
• Classic GNOME panel applets not supported in Unity.

But beyond Unity, what are we getting with 11.04 beta? Let’s dig in.

kernel

The beta release will bring little new functionality. What was in the final alpha will most like be seen in the beta. The kernel release is 2.6.38-7.39 which is based on the mainline 2.6.38 kernel. One change is that vesafb has be re-enabled as a module to help prevent GPU hangs and screen corruption on boot.

Packages

I was quite happy to find out that LibreOffice 3.3.2 is included with the beta release. If you are not familiar with LibreOffice, it is the fork of OpenOffice created after Oracle took over the reigns and starting upturning the open source community.

Also included are:

• Gcc 4.5
• Python 2.7
• dpkg 1.16.0-pre
• Upstart 0.9

Of the above list, the major update is upstart which has a number of new features (such as being chroot-aware and support for basic job/event visualization.

Overall impressions

My first impression with the 11.04 desktop was surprisingly positive. I was very much prepared to be underwhelmed, but found quite the opposite to be the case. The Unity desktop ran smooth and was very efficient. After playing with the desktop for a while it becomes quite clear the ultimate goal is that of touch screens. But even being touch-screen-centric, the desktop still works well under the current norm of mouse and keyboard.

I was also pleased to see how quickly the startup and shutdown process was. 11.04 might well be the fastest I have ever experienced.

Ultimately the decision to use Ubuntu 11.04 is going to boil down to how much you like the desktop. But even if you do not like Unity, there is always another desktop you can use instead. That is one of the best features of Linux, after all — flexibility.

I believe Ubuntu 11.04 is going to continue the tradition Ubuntu started long ago, which means 11.04 will still be one of the most user-friendly Linux distributions available. If you want to give 11.04 beta a try, download it here.

Menu tips

One of the features I like most about Enlightenment (that has been available since the early days) is the mouse menu. This menu allows you to left-click anywhere on the desktop to get a main menu where you can open applications, open configuration settings, etc. Let’s take a look at some cool things you can do for that menu.

Add Favorites

To open up applications you navigate through Applications and then into the sub-categories you have in the main menu. But for those applications you frequently use you can add them to a Favorites menu, so they are much quicker to access. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Apps entry.
4. Click on Favorites.
5. Scroll through the list of applications and, when you see one you want to add, select it and click the + button.
6. Click the OK button when finished.

Now when you open up the mouse menu you will see the Favorites menu entry, at the top, housing your favorite applications.

Shorten (or lengthen) application name entries

Figure 1

If you look into your menu you will notice the application names might look like those you see in Figure 1. For my taste, those menu entries are simply too long. Fortunately, it’s very easy to shorten them. Follow these steps:

1. Left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Menus entry.
4. Click on the Menu Settings button.
5. In the Display section select if you want to display the Name (the application name), the Generic name (the category the application belongs to), and/or the Comments (a comment about the application.
6. Click OK when you’re done.

For the shortest menu entries, just enable Name.

Focus follows mouse and Autoraise windows

I was weened on Linux when the Window Manager was King. Because of this I grew used to focus follows mouse and autoraise. Focus follows mouse just means that whatever window the mouse is in will have focus. That way you don’t have to click on the window to give it focus.

To enable Focus follows mouse, follow these steps:

1. Left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Windows entry.
4. Click on the Window Focus button.
5. Select Window under mouse.
6. Click OK.

Now to enable Autoraise, follow these steps:

1. From the Settings Panel click the Windows entry.
2. Click on the Window Stacking button.
3. Select Raise windows on mouse over.
4. Click OK
5. Close the Settings panel.

Final thoughts

E17 has so many cool features, you could play around for hours and still only scratch the surface. We’ll come back and revisit this topic again, so you can enjoy E17 to its fullest.

Out of the box, some might say the E17 desktop on Bodhi is a bit lacking in the effects and eye candy department. Although that was my initial reaction, I knew my new desktop was but a few clicks away from having enough pizzazz to bring my desktop to life. So, I thought I would share those configurations.

Invisible shelves

Figure 1

By default, your E17 on Bodhi will have a solid shelf (panel) across the top (at least the Laptop configuration will). That shelf reminds me too much of a variation on the GNOME desktop, so I like to change it up (this is E17 after all, which is all about options.) Figure 1 illustrates what I am talking about. As you can see, the top shelf has been made “invisible” so the various applets appear to just sit on the desktop.

In order to make the “panel” portion of panels invisible do the following:

Figure 2

1. Right click one of the applets on the shelf and select Shelf NAME > Settings (Where NAME is the name of the name of the shelf in question.).
2. In the resulting window (see Figure 2) move to the Style tab.
3. Select Invisible.
4. Click OK.
5. The Shelf should now resemble what you saw in Figure 1.

Compositing

One of the best eye-candy features of E17 is the compositing. Not every video card will work with compositing, but if yours does, it’s worth turning on. In order to do this follow these steps:

1. Left-click on the desktop to open the main menu.
2. Select Settings > Modules.
3. In the resulting window move to the Look tab.
4. Click Composite and then Load.
5. Click Close.

Now you should be experiencing visual effects made possible by the built in compositor.

Themes

Figure 3

Of course you are going to want to theme your new installation and E17 won’t disappoint. You will find plenty of themes to download from the E17-Stuff. After you download a swell theme for your desktop, left-click on the desktop to bring up the main menu and click Settings > Theme. From the new window (see Figure 3). From within the theme window click the Import button, locate your theme, and add it to the Personal section. You can now select and apply your theme to see how it looks.

If you click on the Advanced button you can really fine tune the look of your theme by mixing and matching pieces of themes to other themes. Say, for instance, you like to borders of Theme A but all other elements of Theme B, you can use Theme B and then go to the Advanced properties and select the borders of Theme A and apply them.

Final thoughts

E17 is an outstanding desktop. Couple that with Ubuntu and you get a really nice, lightweight Linux distribution called Bodhi Linux. Although it might seem a bit plain out of the box, you can configure it to have as much eye candy as your heart desires.

What’s new?

There is a lot to be said in this category. The openSUSE 11.4 release offers the following updates:

KDE Plasma Desktop 4.6: openSUSE might well be the first distribution packaging the most recent KDE desktop by default. Although KDE 4.5 probably brought to the users the single most amount of bug fixes ever, 4.6 does a great job of upping the performance ante once again. KDE 4.6 is an incredibly solid desktop that any user would be happy to have as their default.

You will also find better KDE to Firefox integration in the 4.6 release. As well KPackageKit has become the default update applet.

Web browsers: Speaking of Firefox, openSUSE 11.4 ships with Firefox 4.0 and the latest release of Konqueror (The version of Konqueror installed is the Webkit version.)  But don’t think you are limited to those two browsers. You can now easily add Chromium to your desktop through the Add/Remove Software tool! Before you try to add Chromium, you will have to enable to community repos by following these steps:

1. Open YaST2.
2. Click on Configuration.
3. Select Repositories.
4. Click the Add button.
5. Click Community Repositories and click Next.
6. Check Main Repository (Contrib) and click OK.

Now you can search for Chromium and install it.

Office tools: I was pleasantly ssurprised to find LibreOffice pre-installed on openSUSE 11.4. I believe openSUSE might be the first of the distributions to ship with LibreOffice as the default office suite! You will also find the standard KDE office tools along side LibreOffice.

Multi-media: Banshee 2.0 has been added and is used as the default media player in openSUSE. In order to have this on your desktop by default, you will need to download the full DVD install and not the Live CD. If you do install from the Live CD you will be able to install Banshee from YaST2 by simply searching for “banshee” (no quotes) and installing. I would, however, suggest installing from the full DVD, in order to get the complete openSUSE experience.

Over all take

I have to say I was quite pleased with how well openSUSE runs. Not only is it quite stable, it’s also lightning fast. The only problem I came across was with the effects engine. The machine I tested on is able to use all visual effects in both Ubuntu and Elive, but openSUSE seemed to not be able to run KDE with visual effects running. So effects had to be turned off. Outside of that small issue, the experience with openSUSE 11.4 has been quite good.

Who’s it for?

Would I recommend openSUSE for a new Linux user? No. But if you are comfortable in the Linux environment, openSUSE and KDE 4.6 will be a welcome change. If, however, you are a new user who really wants to cut their teeth on something with a bit more power than Ubuntu, openSUSE might be just the distro you are looking for.

Thankfully there are handy tools out there that allow you to edit menus or even create new menus. One of those tools is 9menu. This tool is a simple command that allows you to create individual, moveable menus on your desktop that can run applications or run commands. This tool enables you to create temporary menus on your desktop to serve whatever purpose you need. Let’s take a look at how to install and use 9menu.

Installation

I will demonstrate how to install 9menu on a Ubuntu system. Although you may not find 9menu in the Ubuntu Software Center, you are able to, by default, install 9menu from the command line (or Synaptic). To install from command line do the following:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install 9menu.
3. Enter your sudo password.
4. Accept any dependencies.
5. Wait for the install to complete.

With the installation done, you are ready to begin work.

Usage

You will notice there is no entry for 9menu in the menus. That is because the usage (creation of menus) of 9menu is command line only. The standard use is:

9menu -label 'LABEL' SPACE DELINEATED LIST OF COMMANDS

Hopefully the above sample makes sense. Let’s take a look at an actual working example. Say you want to create a 9menu for the following apps: Evolution, Firefox, Empathy, and Gwibber. To do this the command would look like:

9menu -label 'Net Tools' evolution firefox empathy gwibber

Figure 1

The command above will generate a menu that looks like that in Figure 1. If you click on any of the entries show, the application will run.

Of course 9menu has plenty of options to use at the command line. There are two very nice options that are nearly “must haves” for the efficiency of 9menu:

-popdown

-teleport

The popdown option will iconify the menu as soon as one of the buttons is clicked. When iconified the menu will live in your panel where you can un-iconify it by clicking whatever key combination your desktop uses to cycle through applications.

The teleport option means that when a menu appears (either from creation or uniconifying) it will automatically appear underneath your cursor. So to use both of the above commands with our sample it would look like:

9menu -popdown -teleport -label 'Net Tools' evolution firefox empathy gwibber

I like to run the 9menu command from the run dialog (click Alt-F2 to open this) so I don’t have a terminal window open. If you would rather run it from the command line, add the & at the end of the command so you will be returned to your command prompt. You can then exit out of your terminal if you like.

Final thoughts

The ways to transform, configure, or make efficient the Linux desktop seem to be limitless. The 9menu tool adds yet another level of efficiency to your desktop, quickly and easily.

The only problem with E17 is the installation. Getting this desktop installed on some distributions is a nightmare at best. So when there is a distribution that ships with E17 as the default, I always give it a good look see. One of the newest options for this is PCLinuxOS – Enlightenment edition. I thought I would share my thoughts on this special distribution.

What’s included

Besides the ever-wonderful E17 desktop environment, you will enjoy the following on the PCLinuxOS E17 edition:

• Kernel 2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs.
• Nvidia and ATI fglrx driver support.
• Multimedia playback support for many popular formats.
• Wireless support for many network devices.
• Printer support for many local and networked printer devices.
• Addlocale allows you to convert PCLinuxOS into over 60 languages.
• GetOpenOffice can install Open Office supporting over 100 languages.
• MyLiveCD allows you  to take a snapshot of  your installation and burn it to a LiveCD/DVD.
• PCLinuxOS-liveusb – allows you to install PCLinuxOS on a USB key disk.
• ark-4.5.3 – Archiving Client
• choqok-0.9.92 – Microblogging Program
• clementine-0.5.3 – Music Manager
• digikam-1.5.0 – Photo Client
• dolphin-4.5.3 – File Manager
• drakconfig-12.17 – Computer Control Center
• dropbox-0.7.110 – Online Backup Storage Program (2 gig free)
• firefox-3.6.12 – Web Browser (Chromium and Opera also available from repository)
• gimp-2.6.11 – Graphic Drawing Program
• gwenview-4.5.3 – Graphic Viewer Client
• k3b-2.0.1 – Burn CD/DVDs
• kcalc-4.5.3- Calculator
• kwrite-4.5.3 – Text Editor
• ksnapshot-4.5.3 – Capture Screenshots
• ktorrent-4.0.4 – Bitorrent Client
• liveusb-0.7.4 – Put PCLinuxOS on USB key disk (New on LiveCD)
• okular-4.5.3 – PDF Viewing Program
• nscd-2.10.1 -Caches name service
• pidgin-2.7.4 – Instant Messaging Program
• shorewall-4.4.11 – Firewall
• smb4k-0.10.9 – Samba Share Client
• synaptic-0.57.2 – Package Manager
• thunderbird-3.1.6 – Email Client
• tvtime-1.0.2 – Television Viewing Client (Requires a TV tuner)
• vlc-1.1.4.1 – Multimedia Video Program
• xchat-2.8.8 – IRC Chat Program

As you can see, oddly enough, PCLinuxOS E17 edition is heavily dependent upon KDE, as it is filled with KDE applications.

What you will not find, strangely enough, is an email client. You will also notice that PCLinuxOS E17 edition does not pre-install OpenOffice. You actually have to do this installation yourself. I have to admit I was a little shocked at the decision to not include a mail client and and office suite. Yes, KWrite is included, but why not add the entire KOffice suite so the distribution is complete?

What it looks like

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows what the default PCLinuxOS E17 desktop looks like. The only thing I have done is install The GIMP (in order to take a screenshot).

As you might expect, the desktop behaves very much in the way a standard E17 desktop would. The only thing missing (from my perspective) is the Ecomorph module. If the makers of this distribution want to take this to another level, they should consider adding that particular module to give it a broader appeal (with a great 3D compositing engine).

How it performs

Even using this distribution in “live form” you immediately feel that you are using a distribution built for speed and simplicity. What really surprised me was how stable the distribution was. With serious claims of HEAVY DEVELOPMENT you would think PCLinuxOS E17 would be more prone to bugs than it is. I have yet to come across one (other than the lack of an office suite and mail client – but you can’t really call that a “bug”).

Who should try it

If you are one of those that prefers an alternative desktop, or if you’ve been wanting to give E17 a try, this might be your best bet. Since PCLinuxOS is one of the most user-friendly distributions, you will get the Enlightenment experience with little to no headache.

The answer to those questions, and more, will be answered here.

What is Unity?

The Unity experience will be different, depending upon your hardware. If you have hardware capable of compositing you will have a far richer experience than you would with non-compositing capable hardware. If your hardware does compositing your Unity experience will be similar to that of GNOME Shell. SIMILAR – not exact. If your hardware does not do compositing, your experience will feel very much like a netbook interface.

Now you have to understand, Unity is young. So your experience, depending upon the release of Ubuntu you are using, and your hardware, will vary. But let’s see how this is installed and used.

Installation

The installation of Unity depends upon the release of Ubuntu you are using. If you are using Ubuntu 10.10 then installation instructions look like this:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-dx-team/une.
3. Issue the command sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity.
4. Close the terminal window.

If you are using 10.04, your instructions will look like this:

1. Open the Ubuntu Software Center.
2. Search for “netbook” (no quotes).
3. Mark ubuntu-netbook for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.
5. Accept any dependencies necessary.

Once the installation is done (regardless of which method you use) you will then need to log out and choose the Unity session (or Ubuntu Netbook Edition – depending upon your release number) at the GDM login screen.

What does it look like

Figure 1

When you first see the Unity desktop you might think how overly-simplified it is. And it can be thought of that way. Of course it is early in the development so naturally it’s going to seem a bit less-than-stellar.

Figure 1 shows the full Unity desktop. This particular installation is on a laptop will full compositing support as well as RGBA support built in.

I do not know if any of the constituent pieces have been given official names, but it’s pretty obvious what you are dealing with. On the right you have the launcher (which can not be hidden). At the top of the screen you have a panel that includes some fairly standard objects. The panel will change as I understand. For example, the current notification system is going to change completely.

You can add launchers to the Favorites “Tab” by searching for the launcher, right-clicking the launcher, and selecting “Add to Favorites”.

As you are working in a window the entire screen fades away so you can concentrate on your work – a nice touch.

As far as configuration goes, about the only thing you can do is change your background and change the theme. To change the background right-click on the desktop and select the only option (Change Desktop Background). To change the theme open up the Gnome Control Center and change the theme as you would in GNOME. That won’t be around much longer and I have no idea what will take its place.

When you have applications open you will see their icons in the upper left corner. To switch back and forth between applications, click on the icon you want to work with and that application will come back to focus. NOTE: You can have more than one application opened up on the screen.

Final thoughts

It’s a bold move but Canonical is making these bold moves with the big picture in mind. Give Unity a chance and hopefully, once it is fully matured and contains all of the elements and configuration options, Unity should be an outstanding desktop option.

What is KDE

Interestingly enough, there has always been speculation about what “KDE” stood for. Quite some time ago (circa 2000) I spoke with one of the lead KDE developers who informed me that “KDE” stood for “KDE Desktop Environment”. Linux always loves its recursive acronyms.

KDE is a complete desktop environment which means nearly all of the bundled components are fully aware of one another.

Originally (up to the KDE 3.5 release) KDE was a very standard desktop with a taskbar, start menu, desktop icons, etc. When 4.0 was released KDE was completely rebuilt. Although it still contains the standard items, KDE 4 now offers many other features that might be considered more advanced. To take a look at these features, see the KDE 4.5 content here on Ghacks.net. Let’s now take a look at the different pieces that make up the basic KDE 4.5 desktop.

Panel

As you would expect, KDE has a panel. Unlike GNOME, KDE has only ONE panel. The KDE 4.5 panel is used as you would expect it. This panel contains the following:

• Start Menu: Where you launch applications (including System Configuration tools).
• Winlist: Where applications are minimized.
• Notification area: Small area of the panel that contains dock-able applications (such as the clipboard, interactive sound icon, battery status, clock, etc).
• Pager: This is a feature unique to UNIX variants. This tool allows you to have more than one workspace at a time.

You can add items to the Panel but, unlike GNOME, you are limited to only adding application launchers.

Menus

KDE has but one menu on the panel – the “K” menu. From this menu you can launch applications, add applications to favorites, open up the system settings or open your file manager (Dolphin) to various locations (such as Home, Network, Root, or Trash).

You will also find a desktop menu when you right-click anywhere on the desktop. This menu allows you to do the following:

• Run a command.
• Add widgets.
• Add a panel.
• Switch between your desktop activities.
• Lock widgets/screen.
• Log out.
• Open up the desktop configuration tool.

You will notice, missing from the above menu is the ability to create new items such as Launchers and files. These have been replaced by widgets.

Windows

As I mentioned in the GNOME article, I am not speaking of Microsoft Windows. Very much like GNOME, you will notice your applications nicely housed within windows that look very much like anything you have ever used in any other environment. At the top right you will see three buttons for Minimizing, Maximizing, and Closing your windows. You will also notice a button in the top left corner (not the application icon) that allows you to pin that window to all workspaces. Typically, when you open up an application on a Linux workspace, that application is only visible to the workspace it was opened in. If you click this button that application will then be visible on all workspaces.

Run dialog

Figure 2

If you know the command you want to run, but do not know where to find the launcher within the menu, you can always open up the run dialog (see Figure 2) and enter your command there. To open the Run Dialog click the Alt-F2 keys together. Type your command and hit Enter and the command will run.

KDE Kontrol Center

Figure 3

Just like GNOME, KDE has a control center. This control center (see Figure 3) is a one-stop-shop for all of your KDE configuration needs. To open up this tool click Start > Computer > System Settings. From here you just need to click whatever it is you need to configure.

The Cashew

An odd little name for a very useful tool. In the upper right corner of your screen there is a small icon, commonly referred to the “Cashew”. When you click on this icon the rest of your screen will fade out and a menu will appear. On this menu you can:

• Add Widgets
• Switch desktop activities
• Shortcut settings (for keyboard shortcuts)
• Desktop settings
• Lock widgets

You may wonder why the “Lock Widgets” entry. This is simple. If you want to make sure your current state of widgets (as well as the panel) are not accidentally changed. If your widgets are locked you have to unlock them in order to make any changes.

Final thoughts

There are a number of topics that were mentioned in this article that you should take the opportunity to further read up on. One in particular is Desktop Activities. Once you feel comfortable using the KDE desktop, you should definitely learn how to take advantage of this outstanding feature.

The Search and Launch Containment Activity was only recently introduced in the 4.5 branch and is a fairly significant in the KDE desktop. In this article I am going to explain this Activity and show you how to take advantage of it.

What is Search and Launch?

If you have experienced GNOME 3 yet then you have a fairly good example for what Search and Launch is. In the GNOME 3 desktop, when you have the Activities Menu open that is, effectively what Search and Launch is. The Search and Launch Activity allows you to search through your desktop for whatever you need to find and view, launch, or use the results. It’s a fairly amazing tool that will make your desktop experience all the more efficient. So much so, you might wander, with the Search and Launch Activity, why did the Developers keep the old Panel lying around.

Let’s see how to include Search and Launch on your desktop.

Adding a Search and Launch Activity

Figure 1

In order to add this activity click on the “cashew” in the upper right corner of your desktop and select Activities. When the Activities Panel opens click New Activity > Search and Launch Containment. If you are not immediately transfered to this new Activity, you can click Super-Tab to cycle through your activities until you reach the Search and Launch Containment. When you finally see it (Figure 1) you should not be surprised at how clean this Activity looks. And, as you would expect, it’s very simple to use.

Figure 2

In the center of your screen you have default menu buttons. If you click one of those buttons that menu will open up to reveal the launchers for that menu (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 shows the Internet menu opened to reveal all of its contents. When you click menus and launchers on the Search and Launch Activity page you get very clean and unobtrusive animations (click this link –> out).

At the top of the Search and Launch Containment you see a row of Favorites. You can add to this by finding the launcher you want to add and then clicking and dragging it to the Favorites Bar.

Configuring Search and Launch

Figure 3

If you click the Cashew for the Search and Launch (this will be in the upper left corner) you can click the Configure Search and Launch Containment. In this configuration window (see Figure 3) you can configure the background, the name of the activity, the mouse actions, enable/disable plugins, and what is included in the main menu.

For the menu inclusion you can add your various system and administration menus as well as remove any menus you might not use very often (or want people to see).

Final thoughts

The Search and Launch Containment Activity is quite an advancement on the KDE desktop. It seems as if they could very easily make the leap to where GNOME is going and use this as the primary interface for the desktop…just a thought.

In this article I am going to show you how to upgrade both Fedora and Ubuntu so that your KDE becomes as snappy and reliable as it was back in the good ol’ days of 3.5.

Before we begin

You will want to make sure that your distribution is fully up to date. So use either your Update Manager or run an update from the command line. Once you have done this you are ready to go.

Adding the repositories

As I said, I am going to be showing you how to do this in both Fedora and Ubuntu. This means we’ll be dealing with apt and yum repositories. The first thing you have to do, in order to make your package manager aware of the new KDE updates, is to edit your repositories. Let’s first do this in Fedora.

For Fedora you will create a new repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d. We’ll call this file kde.repo. The contents of this file will be:

# kde.repo, v2.1

[kde]
name=kde
mirrorlist=http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/fedora/mirrors-stable
gpgkey=http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/kde-redhat.RPM-GPG-KEY
#gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-kde-redhat
enabled=1

[kde-testing]
name=kde-testing
mirrorlist=http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/fedora/mirrors-testing
gpgkey=http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/kde-redhat.RPM-GPG-KEY
#gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-kde-redhat
enabled=1

[kde-unstable]
name=kde-unstable
mirrorlist=http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/fedora/mirrors-unstable
gpgkey=http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/kde-redhat.RPM-GPG-KEY
#gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-kde-redhat
enabled=1

Now, the Ubuntu version is a bit different. Open up a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/beta && sudo apt-get update

With the repositories in place you are almost ready to begin. But first you have an extra step in Fedora.

Enabling the repositories

Figure 1

In Fedora you need to fist make sure you have the repositories enabled before the system will be aware there is an update. To do this click on the start button and then enter “kpackage” in the search string. KPackageKit will pop up. Click on that entry to start up the tool you need.

Within this tool you will want to click on the Settings “tab” (see Figure 1) and then scroll down until you see KDE Testing and KDE Unstable. Check both of those and click Apply. Once you have done that you are ready to check for updates. To do this click on the Software Updates “tab”. You should see numerous updates available, all pertaining to KDE 4.5. You are ready to update.

Updating

You are already in the location you need to be in for Fedora. Click the Select All Updates button in KPackageKit and then click Apply. The update process should now begin.

If you are updating KDE in Ubuntu, from the terminal window, issue the command:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If, however, you are installing KDE for the first time, issue the command:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Completing the upgrade

Once your upgrade (or install) is complete all you need to do is log out and log back in. You can open up the Dolphin file manager and click Help > About KDE to see that, in fact, you are now running KDE 4.5. Enjoy the experience!

In the meantime, let’s take a look a some Plasmoids that are sure to make your desktop a bit better. If you’re not familiar with Plasmoids, they are small little applications, widgets if you will, that live on your desktop. Plasmoids range from the simple “Hello World!” to some very complex tools. Some of the Plasmoids you will see listed might seem, well, worthless while others are very handy. In this article we’ll avoid the worthless and introduce you to a couple of these really handy Plasmoids.

How to add a Plasmoid

If you look at the top right of your KDE desktop you will notice a small bubble with a reverse comma. If you click on that a menu will pop up containing a few entries. One of those entries is Add Widgets. When you click the Add Widgets entry what looks like a new panel will pop up at the bottom of your screen (see Figure 1). From this you can scroll around and, when you see a Plasmoid you like, drag and drop it to your desktop. Simple.

Now, let’s take a look a couple of the Plasmoids.

Web Slice

Figure 2

This Plasmoid has a simple purpose – show a web page on your desktop. It uses the Konqueror rendering engine and does a fine job of previewing web pages. When you first load a web page with Web Slice it’s nearly impossible to read (it’s so small), but you can handily resize it with the drag-bar at the bottom of the widget (see Figure 2).

Web Slice also features a bookmarks system and, from within the preferences window, network sharing (you can share the widget across a network), and auto-refresh. The auto-refresh feature is handy if you are just wanting to watch a particular page for changes.

File Previewer

This widget is very handy. What this allows you to do is drag and drop files from the Dolphin file manager  into the widget for preview purposes. It uses the KDE preview tool which can show just about any type of file.

Figure 2

As you drag files into the File Previewer you will see they remain on the left side with a scroll bar that allows you to scroll through the files you’ve added. If you hover your mouse over a file it will preview in the right side of the Plasmoid (see Figure 3).

If your Previewer is too small, the right-side previews will be too small to actually view. If you enlarge the Previewer the thumbnails will eventually get large enough to be seen. If you do not want to enlarge this Plasmoid such that the previews can be seen in the window, you can just double click a file in the previewer and it will open up a separate preview window displaying your file.

Final thoughts

The KDE desktop keeps getting better, and so does its Plasmoids. The two you have been shown here are only a tiny portion of an ever-expanding set of tools available for the KDE desktop.

But in order for you to use KDE you will in, in many cases, have to install it post-distribution install. Of course, if you’re not interested in installing KDE after you have installed the OS, you can always download the Fedora KDE spin. This will install, by default, the KDE desktop. If, however, you want the best of both worlds, you will need to install the KDE desktop manually…that’s where this article comes in play. In this article I will show you how to install the KDE desktop on Fedora 13 using both the command line and the Add/Remove Software tool.

Pre-installation

Before you run through the steps of install KDE manually, it would be a good idea to make sure your system is fully up to date. To do this click on System > Administration > Software Update. If the updater finds anything to update, go ahead and let that happen. Once the system is updated you are ready to go. NOTE: If your kernel is updated you might be required to do a system restart. Go ahead with that restart BEFORE you install KDE. NOTE 2: All of the below will need to have super user privileges. For the command you will need to first su to the root user.

Installing KDE using command line

Let’s start with the command line version first. You might think this is as simple as issuing the command yum install kde. It’s not. But it’s not as challenging as trying to figure out every software package to install and then list them all out via command line. For that yum has the groupinstall option, which will install an entire group of packages. If you are curious to see what groups are installed and available you can issue the command:
yum grouplist

This will first list all of the groups you have installed followed by a listing of all the groups available. In the list of groups available you will see “KDE Software Compilation” which is what you want to install. To do this issue the command:
yum groupinstall "KDE Software Comilation"
and hit Enter. This will download and install the entire KDE desktop for you.

Installing KDE using the GUI

Figure 1

This is equally as easy as the command line. To install KDE using the GUI click System > Administration > Add/Remove Software. In this GUI tool you will want to click Package Collections from the left pane (see Figure 1).

When you are in the Package Collections scroll down until you see KDE Software Compilation. Mark KDE Software Compilation for installation then click Apply to install. That’s it.

Final thoughts

KDE has come a long way and is certainly worth giving a go. If you use Fedora you are only moments away from the KDE desktop.

I am going to start by showing how to install and start using Xfce 4. I have already introduced this lightweight window manager way back in my article “Get to know Linux: Xfce 4“. That article only skimmed the surface of a window manager that is only barely shy in the feature listing of either GNOME or KDE, and requires much less in the resources category. Let’s take a look at how to get it up and running and how to begin using this desktop.

Installation

The installation of Xfce is actually quite simple. I am going to show you how to install in Fedora 13. The easiest method is to open up Add/Remove Software tool and do a search for “xfce” (no quotes). What you are going to find in the search results is a LOT of possibilities. What you MUST find is a listing for xfce-desktop. Beyond that, here are some of the applications I would recommend you install:

• xfce-utils
• xfce4-taskmanager
• xfce4-settings
• xfce4-session
• xfce4-panel
• xfce4-notifyd
• xfce4-icon-theme
• xfce4-doc
• libxfcegui4
• libxfce4util
• libxfce4menu

You can look through the full listing and see if there’s anything else that strikes your fancy. Mark all of the above for installation (Don’t worry, the installation tool will pick up all dependencies) and click Apply to install. It may take a while for the installation to complete, but once it does log out of the current desktop and then log in again, choosing Xfce as your desktop environment.

The desktop

Figure 1

When you log into the latest Xfce you might be surprised to see that it looks like a standard: Complete with a panel, icons, notification area, and more.

Let’s take a look at some of the features of the Window Manager as the Window Manager (xfwm4) is what you will do much of your interaction with.

The Window Manager

You will be surprised to know that Xfce is not a Window Manager. Xfce is a Desktop Environment. The Window Manager that controls the drawing function of windows is xfwm4 and is a very stable, very lightweight WM. If you look at the upper right corner of each window in Xfce you will notice four icons. From the left to the right they are:

• ^ Roll up.
• - Minimize
• + Full screen
• X Close

Very simple. The Window Manager is configured in two places. The first place is Start > Preferences > Window Manager where you can configure the style, keyboard, focus, and advanced features. I, for one, always like to change the default focus model to “focus follows mouse” as well as set the autoraise. These are always the first things I change when using a new desktop.

The second location for configuring xfwm is Start > Preferences > Window Manager Tweaks. This configuration tool allows you to “tweak”:

• Window cycling (using <Alt>Tab).
• Focus
• Accessibility
• Workspaces
• Placement
• Compositor

That’s correct! Xfce 4 has compositing built in. And in our next article, we’ll take a look at that and other “tweaks” you can have fun with in the Window Manager Tweaks tool.

Final thoughts

You will be surprised how well Xfce 4 works. It’s amazingly fast, user-friendly, and has some bells and whistles you would think only came with bigger Desktop Environments. I hope you enjoy our little exploration of Xfce 4. And who knows, maybe it will wind up your desktop of choice?

Has KDE 4 reached the point where it is poised to reclaim its throne as the desktop for the Linux masses? Has 4.x shaken off the buggy, slow stigma that has been plaguing it since it rose out of the fiery 3.x ashes? In this article I am going to highlight some of the new features and fixes you will find in 4.5 and show you how you can install this desktop so that you can  draw your own conclusions. NOTE: Public release of KDE 4.5 is set for this August.

Features

Many of these “new” features were really new in the RC candidate (which was the release prior to the SC release). But, since this release actually contains no “new” features,  I will include them here.

Figure 1

Reworked notification area: Prior to this release, the KDE 4 notification area was out of place and buggy. Now it actually looks like it belongs on the KDE 4 panel (see Figure 1). Using a new D-Bus based protocol the notification area has a much more uniform look and interacts much better with the desktop as a whole.

KWin Tiling: This feature allows you to automatically place windows next to one another. This might seem a bit similar to a feature that was brought to Windows users in Windows 7. This feature is pretty sweet. Drag a window to the left side of your screen and it will automatically resize itself to fit the left half of your desktop. Drag another window to the right side of your screen and it will automatically resize itself to fit the right half of the desktop. Drag a window to the top of the screen and it will resize itself to fit the entire desktop.

Advanced graphic effects: It is now possible to blur the background of translucent windows as well as numerous smaller improvements in the area of desktop effects make KDE 4 a much richer graphical experience.

WebKit: If you prefer the WebKit HTML rendering engine over the current Konqueror rendering engine, you’re in luck. With KDE 4.5 you can now switch Konqueror to WebKit.

Qt 4.7: The upgrade to the latest Qt brings to KDE 4.5 fare more speed than any of the updates have offered to date. KDE 4 now seems like it’s not hindering performance on your desktop.

Bug Fixes

As I mentioned, this release was about bug fixes. From what I have read the total number of bugs squashed in moving from 4.4 to 4.5 have been quite numerous. And it shows. The speed and stability increase is noticeable. In this most recent release you will find bugfixes for:

• Konsole: Refreshing and encoding bugs.
• Ocular: Several bugs that lead to Ocular (PDF viewer) crashing.
• KDE PIM Alarms: Numerous fixes.
• KDEUI: Optimizations and bugfixes.
• KDE Accessibility: Bugs fixed in KMouseTool.
• ARK: Numerous bug fixes including RAR fixes and several path fixes..

The list of bugs above is not complete, nor does it look like a list of bugs that would bring about speed increases and stability. Taken as a separate entity they would do little to bring about stability. But in conjunction with the other numerous bug fixes and improvements that have been rolled into what will become KDE 4.5, it all comes together for a much improved experience.

Installing

Installation on Ubuntu is simple. Just follow these steps:

1. sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/experimental
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

For installation on Fedora follow these steps:

1. Add this repo to your current list of repositories.
2. yum groupupdate kde-desktop
3. yum update

The verdict so far

I have been using the latest development release of KDE 4 and I have to say from KDE 4.4 to KDE 4.5 there have been massive improvements. No longer do you feel like you are working with a sluggish, crash-prone desktop environment. Now KDE is starting to develop the stability and speed associated with the GNOME desktop. If you were a fan of KDE 3.5 and hated the idea of updating to the less stable 4.x, you will happy to know that KDE 4.5 will bring about the same level of stability and usability you once knew.

Understand that GNOME 3 is not due out until late 2010, so it is currently very much in beta. You will be surprised just how stable it already is. Because of this stability I feel confident that, with the help of these (and more) tips, you can also become an early adopter of GNOME 3 and be ahead of the curve. In this article you will see a few more of these tips that will help you get used to what will replace the GNOME desktop that has been around since 1997.

Better use of the “overview”

Figure 1

The “overview” of GNOME Shell is what you see when you either move your mouse to the upper left corner of your desktop or press the “Super” (or “Windows”) key. When you open up the overview you will see a zoomed out view of your desktop with all the windows thumbnailed. Let’s tweak this a bit (for a good reason).

Remember the Linux desktop pager (that tool that allows you to have more than one desktop?) Let’s set our GNOME Shell up to have four desktops. To do this click the “+” symbol in the lower right corner (when you are viewing the overview) until you have four small squares in the bottom center of the window (see Figure 1).

Figure 2

Now that you have those four squares, let’s set the overview to show all of your desktops when you are in overview mode. To do this click on the small icon to the bottom left of the overview window (to the left of the menu) that looks like four small squares. Now when you view the overview you will see all four desktops at once (see Figure 2). Now it gets really cool.

When you are in the overview mode, with multiple desktops showing, you can open an application into a specific desktop. Let’s say you want to OpenOffice Writer to open up in desktop 2. To do this open up the overview mode and then click the OpenOffice Writer icon (from the menu) and drag it to desktop 2. This will then open the application up in the desktop you dragged the icon to, and only that desktop! You can also just drag a currently open window from one desktop to another when in overview mode.

Search

We can’t leave out the search feature. When you are in overview mode you will see a Find text area. When you use this feature you can search for just about anything on your machine. And not only does this search bring up files, it brings up applications as well. Say, for instance, you want to use one of your email clients. You can enter the string “mail” (no quotes) and see whatever mail clients you have (mine brings up Evolution, Claws Mail, and KMail.) This is a handy way to find applications quickly, instead of having to comb through menus or listings.

Final thoughts

There you have it, even more GNOME Shell tips to entice you to give this soon to be replacement for the aging GNOME desktop a try. GNOME Shell is one of those environments you might at first not like, but very quickly you will find yourself wishing your current environment had some of its features – so much so you’ll most like head back to GNOME Shell. And, of course, more tips to come.

But how is it used? Being a major change from the usual, it’s going to need some serious adjustments on the part of the end users. So I thought I would do a bit of research (“gasp” some of you might be saying) and share a few tips on the basic usage of this new desktop.

It’s not all “that” different

When you really get down to it, GNOME 3 will not be all that different. Sure it will look quite different than what most are used to, and there will be features some may never have seen or used, but over all it is still a desktop that creates windows, minimizes windows, launches applications, has a panel, etc. But at first look you might wonder how does one configure GNOME now? Or how do you add applications to the favorites menu? What is the “hot corner”? And what are some of the important key combinations? Let’s take a look.

Configuring GNOME

At this moment you will not find an icon or menu entry as a means to configure GNOME Shell. For GNOME 2.x you go to the System > Preferences or System > Administration menus to configure various aspects of GNOME. It looks as if GNOME 3 is going to go the Windows and KDE route by using only the GNOME Control Center. To bring this up you can hit <Alt>F2 and then type gnome-control-center. In this window you can configure the following groups of tasks:

• Personal
• Look and Feel
• Internet and Network
• Hardware
• System
• Other

TIP: If you don’t like your window controls on the left, choose a different them and you can get the back to the right side.

Adding apps to the favorite menu

Figure 1

Take a look at Figure 1. In the upper portion of this you will see the APPLICATIONS entry and, below that, a few application icons. Those icons make up the Favorites Menu. These are the applications you use the most. You can easily add to this menu by doing the following:

1. Click on the APPLICATIONS entry (to open the full list of applications).

2. Right-click on the application you want to add.

3. From the resulting menu select “Add to favorites”.

The icon will then be added to your favorites menu.

Conversely, you can remove an icon from the Favorites menu by right clicking the icon (in the Favorites menu) and selecting “Remove from favorites”.

What is the “hot corner”?

At first you will think the only way to bring up the menu is by clicking the Activities button. Not so. If you take your cursor and place it all the way up in the upper left corner, the menu will open. This will mostly benefit laptop users, but it is still a nice touch.

What is the “overview”

The overview is when you have either clicked the Activities button or placed your cursor in the hot corner, at which point the menu will open and your windows will thumbnail. This is an “overview” of what is going on in your workspace.

Key combinations

Here are some of the more important key combinations you will want to know:

• Windows key: Switch between overview and desktop
• Alt+F1: Switch between overview and desktop
• Alt+F2: Run dialog
• Alt+Tab: Pop up window cycler
• Alt+Shift+Tab: Cycle in reverse direction in the window cycler
• Alt+`: Switch between windows of the same application in Alt+Tab
• Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R: Start/stop screencast recording
• Ctrl+Alt+D: Show desktop
• Ctrl+Alt+Right/Left arrow: Switch between workspaces
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Right/Left arrow: Move the current window to a different workspace

Those are all pretty basic. I’m sure as the full release comes more will rise to the surface.

Final thoughts

So now you have a good look at what GNOME 3 will be like as well as some tips on how to use the desktop. I know there are a lot of doubters and detractors out there. Many people do not like change. But in the case of he PC desktop – it’s about time for a change. And seeing as how stable GNOME Shell already is, I can only imagine what the full release of GNOME 3.0 will be like.

Now I will warn you that I am a fan of GNOME. I understand that KDE did the same thing when they re-invented their take on the desktop. The difference is – the innovation from KDE seemed more like a “retooling with added features”. GNOME 3 will be a milestone for the desktop. I have head some people say it is too much like the “iPhone interface”. To those I have to say “use it first”. But no matter where you stand, GNOME 3 is going to be different, and this article will show you how to install it and give you a first glance.

Another preface

I must say that what you are going to see is actually the newest GNOME Shell…which will be the driving force behind GNOME 3. But what is GNOME Shell? To put it simply, GNOME Shell is in charge of things like switching windows and switching applications. In a way, GNOME Shell will be the window manager of GNOME (Currently that job is tasked to Metacity), but will also take over the task of compositing (currently handled by Compiz).

You should also know that GNOME Shell is very much in development. GNOME 3 is due out in September of 2010 and the development is going on strong. So when trying to experience what GNOME 3 will offer, remember it’s likely it will crash (although I have yet to experience a single crash) and many features are yet to be included.

The look

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows what GNOME 3 will most likely look like. What you are seeing is the desktop with the Activities menu open. When you open this menu all of your open windows thumbnail to make room. The new “menu” is broken up into Applications, Places & Devices, and Recent Items. This makes accessing your most used (or most recently used) items faster. Of course, as I said, this is missing features that will find their way into the full release.

The installation

Now for the rough part. Getting GNOME Shell installed and running isn’t easy and it doesn’t always work (no matter how well you follow the steps). My installation is done on a clean Ubuntu 10.4 distribution. The painless way to install is to follow these steps:

1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/testing
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

If you are lucky, once the installation is complete, you can hit <Alt>F2 and then type gnome-shell –replace. If you ARE lucky you will happily see GNOME Shell take the place of your current desktop. If you are not lucky, you will wind up with an error or two. If you are not lucky you will have to jump through some hoops – those hoops being:

1. sudo apt-get install jhbuild
2. wget http://git.gnome.org/cgit/gnome-shell/plain/tools/build/gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
3. bash gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
4. jhbuild build

If this completes, try the gnome-shell –replace command again and cross your fingers. Hopefully by now you have a running GNOME Shell instance and can start to appreciate where the GNOME developers are heading.

Final thoughts

On another site I work for I proclaimed the challenge to finally re-invent the desktop metaphor to be over (with GNOME being the clear winner). For this I was shot down from all angles. But I stand behind my claims that GNOME will have on their hands the most useful, elegant desktop on any PC anywhere.

In this article I will show you how to install Ubuntu Tweak and how easy it is to tweak your Ubuntu desktop to your hearts content.

Installation

You might be tempted to install the version included in Synaptic. Be warned, that version is older than the latest stable version on the web site. I highly recommend you download the latest version and install from that. Just click the Download button on the front page, which will open up the GDebi installation tool. Okay that installation, enter your password, and Ubuntu Tweak will install. Simple as that.

Of course, if you prefer, you can add the repos to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Before you do this add the repository key with the command: sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com FE85409EEAB40ECCB65740816AF0E1940624A220 and then add the repo with the command sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa. Once you have done that enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

You are now ready to start tweaking.

Features

Ubuntu Tweak offers the following features:

• Basic System Information(Distribution, Kernel, CPU, Memory, etc.)
• GNOME Session Control
• Easy addition of Auto Start Programs
• Quick installation of popular applications
• Third-party sources for keeping applications up-to-date
• Package and cache clean up (to free disk space)
• Show/Hide/Edit Splash screen
• Show/Hide desktop icons or Mounted Volumes
• Show/Hide/Rename Computer, Home, Trash or Network icon
• Tweak Metacity Window Manager’s style and behaviour
• Compiz Fusion settings
• Screen Edge Settings
• Window Effect Settings
• Menu Effect Settings
• Quicker access your favourite applications
• GNOME Panel Settings
• Nautilus Settings
• Advanced Power Management Settings
• System Security Settings
• And other tweaks in the works!

That’s quite a number of tweaks. Now let’s take a look at how the tweaks are handled.

Usage

Figure 1

When you fire up Ubuntu Tweak you will be treated to a nice, simple user interface (see Figure 1).  If you don’t want to be treated to the Welcome screen every time you open the tool, you can click on Preferences and select which “tweak” you would like to set as your “welcome” window.

Ubuntu Tweak is set up so that some configurations happen in real time (So when you click a check box or select from a drop down, the configuration is immediately applied), whereas some require the click on an

Figure 2

Apply button.  In Figure 2 I have the Nautilus Settings window open. This was a good configuration to illustrate some options that aren’t easy to find. Here you can see the ability to open Nautilus with root privileges. Not something you would want to use carelessly (or in an insecure setting), but it’s still a feature not easily found.  There is no actual configuration setting for this. In order to open Nautilus as the root user you would have to open it using the command sudo nautilus. Of course, I don’t really recommend setting this option as it can be a security risk (if the wrong person gets their fingers on your machine). This was just to illustrate what Ubuntu Tweak can do.

Final thoughts

Spend some time going through Ubuntu Tweak. You will find TONS of handy configurations that would take quite a bit longer to track down without this tool.