Windows Linux Mac Tips » gnome

Launchy: Keystroke Launcher for Windows (Windows Wednesday)

Michael — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:00:01 +0000

Have you ever used Quicksilver on a Mac? Or maybe GnomeDo on a Linux system? If not, then I will explain what these programs do. They are programs that allow you to search for files/folders and even execute programs by just typing the name of that program. Type in ‘Firefox’ and it will allow you to open your website. Type in a song file name and it will allow you to play song in a media player.

Launchy is essentially the cousin of the above programs. Only this cousin runs Windows (although Launchy does have a Linux version too). Launchy runs in the background of your system and only appears (or disappears) when you press ‘alt-space’. The dialog box will open and allow you to search for the application/file/folder that you are looking for.

thanks to CNET for the above image

You may ask, why on earth would you need something like this? The simple answer is that it’s an easy, more efficient way of finding things on your computer. The Windows search function is put to shame when up against Launchy. You can launch applications, so that means your desktop space won’t need to be cluttered anymore. Even the start bar will become useless to you.

TIP: To search for something on Google just using Launchy, type in ‘Google’ then press TAB and then type what you’re searching for.

Here is the CNET video review of Launchy:

For the CNET editor and user reviews, click here.

To download Launchy click here.

For some cool tips and tricks when using Launcy, click here.

Power Poll #1 (Linux Friday)

Michael — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:00:44 +0000

I decided to come up with a poll in the hope to provoke some comments. I want your opinions!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I’ll start:

I am an Ubuntu user. I have used Mandriva and OpenSUSE before but decided on Ubuntu in the end. The biggest thing I like is the community. I can find out how to do anything because there is such a big community of users. I managed to get things done a lot faster as an Ubuntu beginner than I managed with either Mandriva or OpenSUSE before.

I would have to say Ubuntu is a great beginner Linux distro. The ’safe’ choice. It’s also nice because I know it’s going to work for me day in and day out. If you are someone who loves to delve into the mysteries of computer systems then you will probably find another distro more appealing, but for now I will be sticking with Ubuntu.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I will also say that I am a GNOME user. I tried KDE first and disliked it so much that GNOME was such a breath of fresh air. I have not used any other environment I’m sorry to say, but may be willing to try if you persuade me in the comments.

Compiz Fusion Icon (Linux Friday)

Michael — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:00:45 +0000

Do you remember the beryl icon and it’s menu? Here it is:

It wasn’t long ago that Linux users used a thing called beryl and compiz fusion hadn’t been heard of. Maybe you remember these days, maybe you don’t.

For those of you who did use beryl, I bet you miss that red jewel icon in your task bar that allowed you to do such easy tasks as change window managers and even access beryl’s options with just a right click. Well, now you can have these same options for compiz fusion with the Compiz Fusion Icon.

I find it a lot easier to get access to compiz’s settings manager when all I have to do is right click on a little icon instead of going through the menu bars. This is what the icon and options look like:

If you want to download it, it can sometimes be found in the repos, under the name ‘fusion-icon’ but if not, here’s a link to a .deb package.

Once downloaded and installed, you will find it in Applications -> System Tools

If you want to make the icon appear in the panel on startup, be sure to add it to your ‘Sessions.’ If you aren’t sure how to do this, I mentioned it in a recent post on Ubuntu Tweak.

For more information on the Compiz Fusion Icon, take a look at the Compiz Fusion wiki.

How To Install a New Theme in Ubuntu (Linux Friday)

Michael — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:00:59 +0000

Changing your theme allows you to change the look and feel of your system. It mainly changes the standard icons to something new.

The first place to look for themes would be gnome-look.org. Click icon on the left. Or just click here. Search around for something that you like.

I like to keep my system looking dark since it doesn’t hurt my eyes too much. With my background being a night picture of London, it was only fitting for me to choose an icon theme that was mainly black. My favorite set is called black-white 2 gloss.

Once you’ve found your icon set, you will need to download it. I usually download everything to my desktop just so that I can find it easily, but that is up to you.

Your file should be a .tar file so you will need to extract it first. This can be done by right clicking the folder and selecting Extract Here. A new folder will have been created, this folder will be used in the next step.

To install the theme you will need to go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance

You should see something like this:

To install your new theme, highlight custom by clicking the custom box (top left) then click install (bottom right). This will open up a directory so just navigate to where ever you downloaded your file.

You will need to choose the file that was created when you extracted the original downloaded file. Once you’ve selected it, it will install and you should have new icons.

Don’t like it? Download some new ones and try each one out. If you can’t find anything you like and want to change it back to the original Ubuntu look, go to the appearance box (in the screenshot above) and scroll down and click ‘human’, then click close.

Did you change your theme? What icon set did you choose?

How To Install New Icons in Ubuntu (Linux Friday)

Michael — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:00:59 +0000

Changing your icons allows you to change the look and feel of your system. It mainly changes the standard icons to something new.

The first place to look for icons would be gnome-look.org. Click icon on the left. Or just click here. Search around for something that you like.

Once you’ve found your icon set, you will need to download it. I usually download everything to my desktop just so that I can find it easily, but that is up to you.

To install the theme you will need to go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance

You should see something like this:

You will need to choose the file that was created when you extracted the original downloaded file. Once you’ve selected it, it will install and you should have new icons.

Did you change your icons? What icon set did you choose?

How to Change System Sounds (Linux Friday)

Michael — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:00:59 +0000

Why would I want to configure my systems sounds? My answer: why not? You can actually do this in Windows, but that’s for another day.

You could play ‘Hey Jude’ by the Beatles when you log on and ‘Hello, Goodbye’ when you log off. Hopefully you can choose some more personal songs, but I’m a Beatles fan, so why not?

Please note that the file needs to be .wav format.

Step 1: (In Gnome) System -> preferences -> Sound

Step 2: Click on the ‘Sounds’ Tab at the top. You’ll see a windows that looks like this:

Step 3: Select which option you would like to add or modify the sound to. Your options will look like this:

Step 4: Click ‘Select sound file’ to choose your personal sound clip. (Remember it has to be .wav)

(Optional): I know a lot of people who do not like having the system beep. If you click the ‘System Beep’ tab at the top, you will find the options that allow you to turn on/off the system beep.

Linux Friday: How To Change The Color Of The Gnome Taskbar Text

Michael — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:05:00 +0000

In Gnome, you can set the top and bottom tool bars to be transparent, which is great if you wallpaper is a light color. The ‘Applications’ ‘Places’ ‘System’ buttons along with the date and time are all in the standard black font. I, however, like using a dark background as my desktop wallpaper. I didn’t like having white tool bars just so that I could read the text. Here’s how to change the text into whatever color you would like:

First, open the terminal and type:

gedit .gtkrc-2.0

Insert the following into the file that was opened:

style “panel”
{
fg[NORMAL] = “#ffffff”
# fg[PRELIGHT] = “#000000″
# fg[ACTIVE] = “#ffffff”
# fg[SELECTED] = “#000000″
# fg[INSENSITIVE] = “#8A857C”
# bg[NORMAL] = “#000000″
# bg[PRELIGHT] = “#dfdfdf”
# bg[ACTIVE] = “#D0D0D0″
# bg[SELECTED] = “#D8BB75″
# bg[INSENSITIVE] = “#EFEFEF”
# base[NORMAL] = “#ffffff”
# base[PRELIGHT] = “#EFEFEF”
# base[ACTIVE] = “#D0D0D0″
# base[SELECTED] = “#DAB566″
# base[INSENSITIVE] = “#E8E8E8″
# text[NORMAL] = “#161616″
# text[PRELIGHT] = “#000000″
# text[ACTIVE] = “#000000″
# text[SELECTED] = “#ffffff”
# text[INSENSITIVE] = “#8A857C”
}
widget “*PanelWidget*” style “panel”
widget “*PanelApplet*” style “panel”
class “*Panel*” style “panel”
widget_class “*Mail*” style “panel”
class “*notif*” style “panel”
class “*Notif*” style “panel”
class “*Tray*” style “panel”
class “*tray*” style “panel”

The top line that says:

fg[NORMAL] = “#ffffff”

changes the text color to ‘white’ or ffffff.

This is what it looks like:

If you want to change your text color to a specific color, you will need to get that color code and insert it here. Colourlovers.com has an excellent list of the HTML color hex codes.

Now click save and you should be finished. All you need to do now is type this command into the terminal to reload your gnome task bars:

killall gnome-panel

How To: Set your Wallpaper to Randomly Change in Ubuntu

Eric — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:01:35 +0000

Have you ever wanted your desktop background to change randomly? For you Linux users out there I have just the program. It is called Wallpaper Tray and as the name suggests, its a little utility that runs in the notification area. This program allows you to have your desktop wallpaper change randomly. You can specify what folder/pictures to use, how often the wallpaper changes, the order in which it changes, as well as a few other options. The best part of this little program is it is available in the default Ubuntu repositories.

To install the Wallpaper Tray, simply type the following command into the terminal:

sudo apt-get install wallpaper-tray

You can also install this program using the Synaptic Package Manager. You should not need to add any additional repositories. If you install it using the Synaptic Package Manager, search for ‘wallpaper-tray.’

To run this program, press Alt+F2 and type ‘wallpaper-tray’. This should bring up a notification telling you that no wallpapers were found. The wallpaper-tray should now be running in the notification area (located near the clock).

In order to configure the Wallpaper Tray, right click on the wallpaper-tray icon and select Configuration. This will bring up a window like the one shown below.

Here you can choose the directory that contains the different wallpapers you would like to use. To do this, click Add and then navigate to the correct directory.

If you click the ‘More Options’ tab located at the top of the window, you can configure how often the wallpaper changes, in what order it changes, and how the wallpaper is displayed.

In order for the wallpaper to change randomly, you must select ‘Timed Wallpaper Change.’

If you want this program to start when you login, be sure to add it to your Sessions. To do this click ‘System‘ then ‘Preferences‘ and then select ‘Sessions.’ Next, click ‘New‘ and give the program a name (wallpaper tray). Then, for the command type ‘wallpaper-tray’. Click ‘OK’ to add this to your sessions. Be sure that the program is enabled. Now, the next time you login, Wallpaper Tray should automatically run and change your desktop wallpaper based on your options.

If you want to select a random wallpaper manually, simply left-click on the wallpaper-tray icon in the notification area.

You can also find more information on the Wallpaper Tray at the Ubuntu Community Docs.

Windows Linux Mac Tips » gnome

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