Brand new Ubuntu user

[bm14]

Well I got tired of using windows vista, so i decided to give Ubuntu a try. I'm currently using ubuntu 9.10 and i don't really have any clue on how to do pretty much anything. I have some questions about ubuntu,

Where should i look to find cool ways to personalize my desktop?
What programs allow me to access my ipod, if there are any?(2nd gen ipod touch)
What is the easiest way to get music and pictures from vista to ubuntu if im using dual boot?
And this sounds dumb, but with vista i could put my laptop to sleep overnight and when i woke up the battery would be where it was, but if i put my laptop to sleep running ubuntu i wake up and its practically dead. Are there any ways to stop that?

[Geoff918]

Well, if you're using Ubuntu you'll be on GNOME. You can go to gnome-look.org to customize things.

There are some ipod access programs. gtkpod for one. I have a ton of things come up for ipod, but I also have extra repositories. I definitely know gtkpod will be accessible to you.

Mount the Windows partition. Just click on the partition in the "Places" menu and when you select that partition it will prompt you to enter your password. If you're using a Wubi install then it will be in the /hosts directory.

You can powertune your laptop with the following:

powertop

Just sudo aptitude install powertop

then run

sudo powertop

It will figure out how to drop your power consumption.

[bm14]

Sorry, i'm a complete noob. How would i sudo aptitude install powertop?

I just went to my battery preferences and made it so my laptop will hibernate when i close the lid. Hopefully this will fix the problem.

[Geoff918]

No problem.

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

In the resulting box you can type the commands. Let me know if you need more help (I might be away for a bit getting some food, though)

[spiderbatdad]

A lot of the tools for personalizing the desktop are right at your finger tips. For example the top and bottom panels are totally customizable. They can be transparent, auto-hidden, you can have one or both, they can hold many icons, and on and on. You can install a mac like dock (cairo-dock) from synaptic package manager. (System>>Administration>>Synaptic Package Manager.) You can add conky and a conky config file to have all sort of really cool information displayed. You can customize the themes from the appearances menu, and combine icons from one theme with window decorations from another theme. You can get some really sweet themes from Bisigi ppa at Launchpad, and Gnomelook.org. Welcome to Ubuntu-Debian/Gnu/Linux, and the forums.

[sandyd]

Well I got tired of using windows vista, so i decided to give Ubuntu a try. I'm currently using ubuntu 9.10 and i don't really have any clue on how to do pretty much anything. I have some questions about ubuntu,

1. Where should i look to find cool ways to personalize my desktop?
2. What programs allow me to access my ipod, if there are any?(2nd gen ipod touch)
3. What is the easiest way to get music and pictures from vista to ubuntu if im using dual boot?
4. And this sounds dumb, but with vista i could put my laptop to sleep overnight and when i woke up the battery would be where it was, but if i put my laptop to sleep running ubuntu i wake up and its practically dead. Are there any ways to stop that?

1. what "cool ways" are you looking for?
for desktop eye candy, such as the famous desktop cube (millions on youtube), you will want to install compiz

sudo apt-get install compiz compiz-fusion-plugins* compizconfig-settings-manager

then, you can either right click on desktop, -> properties (or something like this)
select visual effects.
then you can fiddle with it as much as you want

or

run

compizconfig-settings-manager

set the stuff you want, and run

compiz --replace

to activate it

if your seriously looking for eye candy,

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

and selecting KDE as your session (in the login window)
is the way to go.
p.s. almost forgot.
when me or someone else types

sudo apt-get packagename

you can alternatively install the application by searching for packagename in synaptic
p.p.s. installing graphics drivers if your using ati/nvidia card is recommended

and personalizing the desktop is easy.
you can go to gnome-art where there are millions of themes avalible for free.
download them, and drag and drop the file you just downloaded onto the themes window.

2. gtkpod. that is, providing youve got the non restricted itouch. which i think you do. you will need to jailbreak it if you do.
for more info, read here
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PortableDevices/iPod

3. mount your ntfs windows partition using ntfs-config

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config
gksudo ntfs-config

4. is a currently a bug thats been running accross several releases now
unless, your talking about hibernate

oh, and have a merry christmas

[Geoff918]

Kubuntu? Eww. Nice appearance, terrible applications. I vote 'no'. Konqueror 'nuff said.

[sandyd]

Kubuntu? Eww. Nice appearance, terrible applications. I vote 'no'. Konqueror 'nuff said.

no problem.
run dolphin or natilus (actually still works in KDE)

[Geoff918]

no problem.
run dolphin or natilus (actually still works in KDE)

True Carlee. I greatly prefer the appearance of KDE. It's more sleak and prettier. But it's not just one of the apps. It's pretty much *ALL* of the apps I don't like.

It's all a matter of tastes and preferences. I have tweaked out my desktop where it seems everyone always stops and asks me how my system looks so good (yes, I can brag a little). But, I've stuck with GNOME.

Actually, I really like the look of OpenGEU, but I never kept up with it. They're too slow and too small to exist long term, too.

[thomashw]

For your iPod, try Songbird 1.2. It's pretty similar to iTunes.

I think Songbird has up to 1.6 out, but the iPod support is lacking. It works 100% in 1.2 so I went back to that.