ubuntu tweaking / pimping suggestions

calex71

Ok as i said in another thread installed ubuntu to a tri-boot system and i have to say im very much impressed by how it looks compared to the last time i used it , i guess im getting the 'wow' that was supposed to but didnt get delivered with vista

Can anyone point me in the direction of some easy to install themes etc to make it even better looking ive had a look around but didnt see any 'total packages' i was happy with , id like some thing clean and a bit darker than the default maybe.

One thing im missing form windows is actually windows media player 11
can anyone suggest an alternative thats pretty close to it in ubuntu? i found rhythem box too much like winamp and foobar which im not crazy about .

Oh whats the KB short cut to minimise all open windows win + m did some crazy stuff lol

An Fear Aniar

Hi,

One of the great things about Ubuntu is you can make it look however you like - you can even make it look like Vista or a Mac if you like. I've attached some screenshots of some themes I've used.

Assuming your desktop is Gnome, you can download themes from www.gnome-look.org or http://art.gnome.org/themes/gtk2/

Mostly they download as a tar.gz compressed file, the handiest way to install them is open up the Appearance Manager window and just drag and drop them in.

Here's a list of Linux media apps.

http://linuxappfinder.com/multimedia/audiocdplayers

However, if you install Amamrok you will have to install the KDE desktop as well... so you might not want to use it.

One thing you might like to get is a mac-like dock. The one I use is Cairo Dock (see screenshots). To install, search for it in the Synaptic Package Manager or type in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install cairo-dock

I still don't know many keyboard shortcuts but there should be a "Show Desktop" icon in the bottom panel. If you decide to use a dock, you would delete the bottom panel and add the "show desktop" icon to the top panel. Just right click on the panel and add.

Hope this helps.;)


How about the Compiz special effects? You got them working? Wobbly windows and all that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxfSwzhSn1c


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calex71

i tried some thing similar to compiz effects in vista nd it nearly had a fit lol but unbelievably smooth in ubuntu
even when you win + tab , now that is nice!!!!

how did you display those stats in the coffe1 image?

An Fear Aniar

calex71 wrote: »

how did you display those stats in the coffe1 image?

That's called Conky and instructions on how to get one are here:

http://ge.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=205865

Mine is slightly modified, it's got an RSS news feed (which still needs tweaking).

I've attached the files which go in the /home folder if you want to use them. You need to remove the .txt ending from the two .sh files, I only added those endings so I could upload them here.

To install Conky

sudo apt-get install conky

Then add it to startup in System/Preferences/Sessions, with the command

sh /home/"whoever"/.conky_start.sh

With "whoever" being the name of your home folder.

It's extremely customisable, see some of the screenshots here:

http://ge.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=281865
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BlackWizard

This is making me want to try install Ubuntu on my laptop again

Although hibernating is always a nightmare

stereo_steve

I have been playing around with Pidgin his week and I cannot get over how good it is. I have all my Skype contacts, MSN contacts and Gmail contacts in it. I also found a plugin that shows you all your Facebook contacts and lets you instant message them while they are online.

The best bit though is that I have some contacts that are on two or more networks that only show up once in my contact list and I specify what my prefer network is to contact them on. Its all done so simply, I love it.

Also the new Amarok seems to be coming on nicely aswell. I have the alpha on my machine at the moment and I like it.

ethernet

BlackWizard wrote: »

This is making me want to try install Ubuntu on my laptop again

Although hibernating is always a nightmare

What model? Could well be a fix. Did you try booting without ACPI (power management) to see if it made any different?

BlackWizard

It's an XPS M1710. I tried a few things and succeed in hibernating. But then I got issues with the resolution going crazy along with the graphics drivers. It's been a nightmare to get hibernation going steady.

I'm going to try out this new version of Ubuntu. Installing while in windows sounds like cake

ethernet

BlackWizard wrote: »

It's an XPS M1710. I tried a few things and succeed in hibernating. But then I got issues with the resolution going crazy along with the graphics drivers. It's been a nightmare to get hibernation going steady.

I'm going to try out this new version of Ubuntu. Installing while in windows sounds like cake

Nasty. This page might have some differences in the xorg.conf file -- good to compare.

This might work for sorting the hibernation (or at least getting it to work more often).

An Fear Aniar

Hibernate or Sleep doesn't work for my Sony Vaio either.

But I have little need for it, I use it like a desktop.


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andrew

Download Emerald theme manager

sudo apt-get install emerald

Lets you create and download really nice themes for windows etc, its excellent