Linux Beginner - Destop themes

[Ezzn]

Hello Everyone...

I'm new to Linux and I wanted to customize my desktop. After looking through the internet, I have become confused on how and what themes to download. There are so many choices, Compiz, GTX, Metacity, and the list goes on. I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 and my questions is, What is the best to customize my desktop? I want to be able to select a theme and the appearance, icons, fonts, etc change. I'm not sure what Ubuntu 9.10 uses as a theme manager either.

Please help

Thank you

Ezzn :p

[Cavsfan]

Checkout some youtube videos of cairo-dock and compiz. That way you can see what they do first.
These are my preferences and I have tried Docky and AWN and came back to cairo-dock.

[WinRiddance]

It really depends on your own definition of customizing too.

I'm really busy and I don't have time to play around endlessly with new docks and bars and settings and effects and and and ... oh my gosh you can waste a whole weekend with that kind'a stuff ... :D

If you're new to Linux I'd recommend downloading complete themes for Gnome which is default for Ubuntu. After that, change your desktop background first, to something that you think is absolutely incredible to look at, some picture that is so awesome that you won't mind looking at it for a long time to come. Great backgrounds are also available here:

http://gnome-look.org/
And here ... http://art.gnome.org/themes
As well as here ... http://gnome-themes.org/

But aside from a killer background picture you really don't need anything else since Ubuntu has everything built in. Once you have your desired background picture, build the rest of your theme on your own, simply by RIGHT CLICKING on an empty space of your desktop, followed by selecting - CHANGE DESKTOP BACKGROUND.

Then click on the tab for THEME and select one that you can live with even if it isn't perfect yet since you'll be customizing the theme to meet your own needs. Once you've selected a theme, click on the CUSTOMIZE BUTTON at the bottom of that window.

You'll see 5 tabs at the top, with things like ... CONTROLS, COLOR, WINDOW BORDER, and so on. There you can further customize the theme that you selected. Just remember to save it when you're done and also place a checkmark in the box to save your background with the theme.

You can also customize your upper and lower panels by right clicking on them. You can change the level of transparency, change the colors to whatever you want, increase height of the panels and size of the symbols (taskbar, quick launch bar, shortcut symbols). You can change the placement of the panels themselves ... but sometimes the panel changes revert somewhat after a reboot. Just the icon and panel placement, everything else remains the same.

If you're completely done with your theme and panels and you want to lock these settings in place permanently, find Ubuntu Tweak and install that to lock down the Gnome settings. There's also a terminal command for that but it doesn't always work, least not on two computers that I've seen it not work on.

If you have the time, there are tons of other toys to customize your system as well. Things like dock bars, compiz 3D settings, etc. It can all get pretty time consuming and at times even pretty confusing. Just do what everyone else does, play around with all of the different options until you're happy with them. Good luck, and enjoy Ubuntu. :D

[mcduck]

Hello Everyone...

I'm new to Linux and I wanted to customize my desktop. After looking through the internet, I have become confused on how and what themes to download. There are so many choices, Compiz, GTX, Metacity, and the list goes on. I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 and my questions is, What is the best to customize my desktop? I want to be able to select a theme and the appearance, icons, fonts, etc change. I'm not sure what Ubuntu 9.10 uses as a theme manager either.

Please help

Thank you

Ezzn :p

You really need many of those different theme files to completely theme your desktop, each theme file type only affects a certain thing on your desktop.

Here's a summary of most important ones:

GTK2 themes affect how your applications look, changing the colors, what buttons and scroll bars look like etc.

Icon themes change the the icons.

Metacity themes change the window borders & titlebars. (Metacity is the default window manager in Gnome desktop, and while Ubutnu actually uses Compiz instead of Metacity if you have desktop effects enabled, it's configured by default to use Metacity's theme.)

Compiz & Emerald themes are both actually the same thing, they change window borders & titlebars if you use Emerald as your window decorator. If you don't use Emerald, just ignore these.

GDM themes are for the login screen, but since Ubutnu 10.04 8and later) uses a newer version of GDM that doesn't use this kind of themes so skip these as well.

The rest are mainly different kinds of splash screens etc. that are used for boot menu, the loading screen when starting the system or as splash screens when starting certain programs. You probably don't want to mess with these until you are more comfortable with theming in Linux.

So the short summary is that to create a complete theme for your desktop you need a GTK2 theme, Metacity theme and icon theme. plus of course a wallpaper. :)

[Cavsfan]

As mcduck is saying themes are not what you are probably interested in.
You probably just need some good wallpaper and maybe some special effects and a dock.

Here is one youtube video showing what Cairo-Dock and Compiz can do in case you are
interested in some amazing special effects. Watch this in 720p HD fullscreen to get the
full benefit. This is shown on 10.04, but it works just as well on 9.10.
Cairo-Dock Compiz showing it off on Ubuntu 10.04 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvfRpmqKRbs)

I have all of the special effects that are shown in this video and yes it will take you some
time to learn how to set it up and use it. If you are still interested after viewing the video
let me know and I'll fill you in on what packages to get through Synaptic.

It's your choice. :popcorn:

[Ezzn]

Thank you Everyone... This information is very helpful


Ezzn