Comments on: How Do You Customize Your GNOME Desktop?

By: robo47

robo47 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:27:03 +0000

First things is moving the “taskbar” to the bottom, because sometimes i have a second screen on top and it sucks to have the taskbar so far on top, then changing color to the darklime-theme

By: Nerdfest

Nerdfest — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:16:31 +0000

Since I’m generally far shorter on vertical space than horizontal space, especially on netbooks, I remove the bottom menu and move the top menu to the left side. I add the window selector applet, and the syetem monitor applet as well. I also add Gnome-Do with the Docky theme.

I used to move the bottom menu to the right side, but found that it bahaves erratically. I discovered that with the window selector and Gnome-do/Docky, it’s just wasted space anyway. I like it so much I do it on all machines, not just those with limited resolution.

Try the left hand task bar setup, it works very nicely … much like the typical web-site left hand navigation setup.

By: drewbenn

drewbenn — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:45:55 +0000

Enable focus-follows-mouse. It's one of those things that is *definitely* not for everyone, but I can't live without it! gconf-editor | apps | metacity | general | action_right_click_titlebar = lower; raise_on_click = false; focus_mode = mouse. I wouldn't call it a 100% solution, but it's "good enough" for me.
That and reduce the number of workspaces to one, which I think another commenter already mentioned. It's a fantastic feature, just not something I need for home use.
Your terminal settings (white-on-black text and disabled menubar and scrollbar) also make me a lot happier, though I couldn't get used to the droid font when I tried it.

By: kernel_script

kernel_script — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:17:46 +0000

My deskmods can be seen on my deviantART gallery, some have descriptions of what i used to modify the desktops:
kernel-script[dot]deviantart[dot]com

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:49:08 +0000

Delete bottom panels, move everything to the top panels (dual screen setup)
Replace menu bar with main menu, install GNOME Do.

Done!

By: budirj

budirj — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:08:25 +0000

Alt+F2, gconf-editor> apps>nautilus>desktop to bring common desktop icons to desktop

By: pezmanlou

pezmanlou — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:21:56 +0000

I'm using gnome 2.26.1 and it is letting me resize the panel down to 19px. I remember having the problem with resizing the panel before and I think the reason I can now may have something to do with switching the font to droid-sans 8pt.

By: Clint

Clint — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:03:55 +0000

Top panel:
Switch Menu Bar to Main Menu, create a Application Launcher and pick a custom menu I make with my most common apps in it. This way it acts just like Main Menu. I hate drawers.
Add globalmenu-panel-applet: http://code.google.com/p/gnome2-globalmenu
System Monitor applet for processor, memory, network.

Left Panel:
Trash, Volume, Brightness(if laptop), Force quit, Remote Desktop, System monitor launcher, Synaptic, Compiz, Screenlets, Appearence, etc. Sometimes some of these are put in my Custom Menu. At bottom I have Disk Mounter.
If desktop I have the Music Applet

Workspace Switcher to 4

Gnome-Do dockie
–Still havent found good app switcher for panel that will move to a different workspace. They always bring to current.

gconf-editor:
Make mounted drives not show up on desktop
-Key: /apps/nautilus/desktop/volumes_visible unchecked
Make windows appear in center of screen
-Key: /apps/metacity/general/focus_new_windows Value: smart
-Key: /apps/compiz/plugins/place/screen0/options/mode Value: 1

Startup Applications:
Dropbox, Pidgin, CheckGMail.

Add my Google Calendars to Evolution so the Clock Applet shows them in the calendar.
Change TweetDeck appearence to match my color scheme.

Setup Dropbox which has all my non-media files. Once this is done point my wallpapers to it, and pull in themes, icon sets, sound themes, fonts, etc. Dropbox keeps my desktop and laptop pretty much the same machine aside from wallpaper and color scheme, etc.

Point Epiphany homepage to my custom one I have in dropbox. Change toolbars, turn off Back, Forward, etc, then Hide Toolbars. This way only tabs show and pressing ctrl+l still pops down the address bar.

Compiz:
Expo
Show Desktop
Widget Layer (only on desktop)
-Pandora and Terminal Screenlets
Trail Focus
-Unfocused: Opacity(80), Brightness(60), Saturation(40)

Keyboard Shortcuts:
launch browser = alt+z
log out = ctrl+alt+delete
lock screen = ctrl+alt+l
terminal = super r
window picker = super l
expo = shift+ctrl+space
move window to workspace = shift+ctrl+alt+ (left/right/up/down)
desktop = ctrl+alt+super l
switch to workspace = ctrl+alt+ (left/right/up/down)

Mouse thumb buttons: Expo, Widget Layer

Terminal:
Kill the scroll bar
Change font to Monospace Bold 12
Background color to same as window header
Text color same as the one used for global-menu-applet

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1759795/screenshots/De…
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1759795/screenshots/De…
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1759795/screenshots/De…

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1759795/screenshots/La…
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1759795/screenshots/La…
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1759795/screenshots/La…
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1759795/screenshots/La…

P.S.) I cant wait till Dropbox gives users the feature of a public link of a folder, especially Public or a subdirectory. If it were so you could easily browse my wallpapers, themes, GDM, etc.

By: SamD

SamD — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:36:36 +0000

The most recent version of Gnome on Ubuntu will not allow panel sizes smaller than 23 pixels, which is only 1 pixel less than the default size. If there is a way to override that, it isn't obvious.

By: TK_

TK_ — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:50:02 +0000

I'm looking to create my own distro of ubuntu using Reconstructor. Is it possible to modify GNOME settings by default for all users by modifying settings in a global location? Does anyone know where exactly that is located? If possible I'd also like to build my own debian package which will update GNOME settings to my choosing. Does this seem feasible?