HOWTO: FutureLooks - A "next-gen" Desktop Pack.

[Mazza558]

SCREENSHOTS AT BOTTOM OF POST

Over the past few months, the software and themes I used have enabled me to reach an absolutely fantastic looking desktop, using a combination of natural green wallpapers and themes which fit well together.

I therefore decided to create a pack with all the files required to get your desktop to look like the attached screenshots.

I don't think this combination is original, but simply a combination of several projects which fit very well together. The theme I seem to have created draws ideas from all 3 Desktop OSs. It has the modern and high-quality style of Apple's Mac OSX, the transparency from Vista (toned down), and the quality of Linux themes, as well as an extremely high-quality font which looks crystal clear at small sizes.

I agree that the screenshot I gave will give you visions of Vista (e.g clock in right-hand corner, the menu I'm using). However, if you decide not to install the menu, you could achieve something like the second, blue screenshot. I don't think this second screenshot looks anything like Vista.


The pack I've created features:
-A modified emerald theme with transparency seamlessly blending into windows. No Vista or OSX theme looks this good.
-Transparent panel backgrounds of your choice
-A small selection of green nature backgrounds reminiscent of OSX Leopard and some Vista wallpapers (They just look good with this theme)
-The beautiful Rainlendar calender, which has just as much functionality as its looks.
-An extremely moddable panel called "Ubuntu System Panel". You're free to try this out, but it requires a bit more effort to fit your tastes.

You need:
-Compiz and Emerald
-Ubuntu Gutsy or Hardy

You can download the pack here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?txvgz9c1ini

Extract it to your desktop and you'll have the FutureLooks folder ready to access.

Please note that you can modify absolutely any aspect of the theme, as emerald and the menu provide an infinite level of customization. It's easy to make the emerald theme fit with a dark Gtk, for example.



HOWTO


Theme

- It's just Clearlooks, so apply it from the appearance manager.

Icons

- Open the "Icons" folder in the pack and the appearance manager.
- Drag the CrashBit file into the appearance manager window.
- Apply the icon theme

Fonts

- Open the "Fonts" folder and your home directory.
- In "home", create a folder called ".fonts".
- Copy the font files into this folder.
- Change your fonts to Liberation Sans, size 8, through the appearance manager.

Calendar

- Open the "Calendar" folder and open the Rainlendar deb file. Install it.
- Run it from Applications > Office.
- To set it to boot at startup, open the sessions manager, click "add", Choose a name (e.g calendar) and for the command, put "rainlendar2".

Emerald Theme

- Install emerald if you haven't already, with

sudo aptitude install emerald

- Open the emerald manager.
- Click "import theme"
- Find the GommoMod file and open it in emerald to apply it.
- If you're on Gutsy with an ATi card, press Alt + F2 to open the run box and type

emerald --replace

.

Ubuntu System Panel

- Follow the instructions in the "Menu" folder to install. More help for this is on the google code page, which you can find from the instructions.

Panel Background

- Open this folder. Copy the backgrounds to a permanent folder (e.g pictures) and then apply them from the gnome panel preferences.

Wallpapers

- Copy the ones you want to use to a permanent folder (e.g pictures), then open one, go to the "image" menu and click "set as wallpaper".

Screenlets

- This is for the clock in the screenshots. Run

sudo aptitude install screenlets

To install. The screenlets manager is found in System > Preferences.

Conclusion

Credits are located in the pack.


Hope people get some fun out of this

Screenshot for those not logged in:

[Mazza558]

It's been Dugg: http://digg.com/linux_unix/Gorgeous_...ed_FutureLooks

[smartboyathome]

Nice job! It looks awesome and modern! I like.

EDIT: Except for USP, that one I have never liked.

[Mazza558]

Nice job! It looks awesome and modern! I like.

EDIT: Except for USP, that one I have never liked.

Well, the pack is a kind of "pick and mix". I could have created an install script, but I thought people would prefer to choose how much or little they take from the pack.

[billgoldberg]

It looks good, not exactly to my taste, but something like this would make a good "default" theme for a distro.

[Tundro Walker]

Should move this to the "How To" section so it's saved for posterity.

[soapytheclown]

how did you alter your file manager to look like that?? or is it not nautlius? it looks much better than the default layout imo!!

[smartboyathome]

how did you alter your file manager to look like that?? or is it not nautlius? it looks much better than the default layout imo!!

That is Thunar, XFCE's file manager. I don't think it can replace nautilus for the desktop.

[bigbrovar]

cant seem to install from subversion everytime i try i get this

/Download/SVN$ svn checkout http://ubuntu-system-panel.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ ubuntu-system-panel
svn: REPORT request failed on '/svn/!svn/vcc/default'
svn: REPORT of '/svn/!svn/vcc/default': 400 Bad Request (http://ubuntu-system-panel.googlecode.com) 

what gives !

[soapytheclown]

That is Thunar, XFCE's file manager. I don't think it can replace nautilus for the desktop.

ahh i see, i just installed it to see, gotta admit imo the layout just looks so much cleaner to that of nautilus!