84 Responses for "9 Steps: Make a ultra cool and good looking desktop for your Ubuntu Linux machine in 30 minutes"

1. BobCFC April 8th, 2008 at 0:20

   OMG the buttons, slidders and other GTK widgets are gorgeous!

   You know what, I downloaded this from gnome-look a while ago but I think I only tried the Metacity part, I hadn’t realised how nice the buttons were.

   I am using a different emerald theme for the titlebars: radial

   http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/radial?content=71352

   Although you need compiz fusion because of the transparency.

   You are right the font is very important and often overlooked. Personally I use good old Tahoma, it looks very profressional, I even override the web fonts in Firefox so every site that I visit uses Tahoma too.

2. Maxim April 8th, 2008 at 4:07

   IMHO, KDE looks greater.
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Openfire_3.4.1.png

3. Fileprompt.com for free software April 8th, 2008 at 10:35

   Try using windows, much better desktop than the old brown look of Ubuntu

4. Dirk R. Gently April 8th, 2008 at 19:06

   cool top! though i’m not sure how I’d type in a terminal that small.

5. Drill Thompson April 9th, 2008 at 22:21

   >Try using windows, much better desktop than the old brown look of Ubuntu<

   It may look better than brown Ubuntu but not better than this and then there’s the downside that it’s crapware.

6. Andri April 9th, 2008 at 23:12

   Nice article. Personally I don’t like the GTK theme (too dark) but I love the panel background.

   I myself am using:
   - GTK: Aurora
   - Window decoration: Simple GTK-Window-Decorator w/compiz (darkened the colours a bit)
   - Dock: Avant Window Navigator
   - Icons: NuoveXT

   Screenshot: http://andri.dk/files/latest_desktop.png

7. HowtoMatrix » 9 Steps: Make a ultra cool and good looking desktop for your Ubuntu Linux machine in 30 minutes April 10th, 2008 at 1:11

   [...] Edit: BOBCFC kindly pointed out that compiz must be up and running in order to get this transparent look. To activate compiz on Ubuntu 7.10 or higher: right click in the desktop, click “change desktop background”, click the tab “visual effects” and click “normal” or higher. You need a 3d graphics card to get it to work too. I will write a better compiz guide in some days so if ie the dock doesn’t work due to compiz problems, stay tuned. Read more at Kimchikid [...]

8. bob April 10th, 2008 at 12:02

   I’m really annoyed that everyone seems to think that you need a Mac style dock to be cool. Gnome is a solid foundation that anyone can use effectively.

9. Andri April 10th, 2008 at 19:41

   Personally it has nothing to do with being cool. I hate how cluttered the window list gets when I have a few programs running. The dock doesn’t do that as much.

   It’s just a plus that it looks cool.

10. FlBiker April 11th, 2008 at 15:12

    I wonder why so many people like to comment stuff. Why is this kind of spending your free time so popular? Maybe people have a lack of communication in real world? Maybe that’s because they have a lot of problems in reality and want to run away from them? Maybe they need new impressions and experience? Or they just got suck here? I don’t have a clue. What do you all think?

11. zebulon April 11th, 2008 at 15:53

    How much memory do you got after this sequence compared to before?

12. margarette April 11th, 2008 at 23:04

    I like mine the way it is. This isn’t cool at all, just clutter.

13. Andrew Min April 12th, 2008 at 3:25

    You should really turn this into an article for Full Circle Magazine.

14. John L April 13th, 2008 at 9:43

    I am not over keen on the brown theme that comes with Ubuntu. I upgraded my version to an Ultimate Edition but the theme with that was far too dark so I changed it to a lighter one.
    I do not like docks and effects that look great but achieve nothing. Having tried Rocket Dock on Windows I would not entertain putting any dock on another computer. Compiz maybe great to look at but how does it help you ? I tried Tabs Effect in Firefox but uninstalled it after five minutes because it just got on my nerves. Maybe I am getting too old for these things but I just cannot see any benefit to me using my computer.

15. 20 major Ubuntu resources you should know about | Kimchikid April 14th, 2008 at 11:14

    [...] 9 Steps: Make a ultra cool and good looking desktop for your Ubuntu Linux machine in 30 minutes [...]

16. Vadim P. April 14th, 2008 at 12:36

    Wow, thanks for the easy-to-follow guide.

    Refreshing my ubuntu once in a while is a good thing to do, and it looks awesome now

17. BobCFC April 14th, 2008 at 20:25

    Ok, after all that I have gone back to Liberation Sans-Serif. : )

    I experimented a bit and decided that numbers look better than Tahoma because they are slightly narrower.

    I agree with Andri, Aurora was my previous favourite GTK theme, although you have to actually compile it, lol.

    If I could just have the cool buttons and widgets from Darker Ice but the colour scheme of Aurora…. hmmm

18. daniel April 15th, 2008 at 7:42

    , Bob what size do you use in your system font configuration? 10?

19. simpleboy April 15th, 2008 at 11:12

    Nice article. I got to stumbled on this also http://www.quicktweaks.com/2008/04/11/three-little-things-to-make-your-ubuntu-desktop-beautiful-and-productive/

20. Rem0te C0ntr01 April 16th, 2008 at 13:24

    That is a sweet looking desktop. I like it a lot

21. Steve K April 16th, 2008 at 13:45

    Looks neat but I also prefer a simpler configuration. I do like the Compiz cube though; it makes switching desktops and dragging windows around simpler and faster. (Plus it freaks people out to no end.) I also find semi-transparent Emerald window borders help me to sort out overlapping windows.

22. MatHamlin.com » links for 2008-04-18 April 18th, 2008 at 16:38

    [...] How to make a gorgeus and cool desktop for your Ubuntu Linux machine in 30 minutes | Kimchikid [...]

23. Adam April 22nd, 2008 at 1:53

    i dont use linux but this is great looking

24. Art Joe April 28th, 2008 at 23:23

    Hi,
    I would like to thank you for this excellent “how to”. Its the best guide I came across so far. I have been using Ubuntu for one week and struggling with things.

    Regards,
    Art

25. jmONeY April 30th, 2008 at 16:46

    UHHH just get Windows + LITESTEP =)

26. JoeShlub May 9th, 2008 at 17:11

    Very nice writeup, I didn’t implement everything you recommended but it’s an excellent place to get started. I like the dark look. Keep up the good work!

27. zulfi May 18th, 2008 at 8:41

    Thanks for sharing

28. Doug Glass May 21st, 2008 at 3:41

    Oh yeah, you’ve captured the look of old PC-DOS really well.

29. phrozen77 June 12th, 2008 at 2:56

    Great tutorial and now i have a really good-looking desktop

    Anyone has an idea why i now cant move the windows anymore?

30. Inigo July 9th, 2008 at 4:32

    I don’t get it…
    What’s synaptics, awn-manager etc
    I get the other stuff, but could someone help with this bit?

31. HighInBC July 9th, 2008 at 7:23

    One problem, and a solution.

    When you hit the “Show desktop” button it hides Conky, and gives no real means of making it visible again.

    The solution is:

    sudo apt-get install wmctrl

    Once that is installed create a file called “show_desktop.sh” or something of your choosing and put into it:

    #!/bin/sh
    wmctrl -k on
    wmctrl -a conky

    set the script to be executable by entering:

    chmod +x show_desktop.sh

    Now right click on your panel and choose “Add to panel” select “Custom Application Launcher” and point it to the script.

    What the script does is minimize all windows to reveal the desktop via the “wmctrl -k on” command, then it brings Conky back via the “wmctrl -a conky” command.

32. Otto July 31st, 2008 at 7:31

    Thanks!

33. jason bourne September 4th, 2008 at 6:13

    link : http://www.kimchikid.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/clean-desktop.jpg

    please sent me desktop wallpaper

    e-mail : remember-everything-forgive-nothing@windowslive.com

34. Chris October 24th, 2008 at 8:07

    Too much crap on the background for a single-monitor setup. Otherwise nice.

35. Dave October 26th, 2008 at 5:20

    One of the things a person may run into when installing fonts is a permissions problem with the .fonts folder. You may need to hit Alt>F2 then type in gksu nautilus to get root access to the folder so you can add fonts. Though I think the Liberation fonts are available in the repositories and can be loaded via synaptic.
    As far as a dock being worthless I disagree. The reason I use one (AWN) is because it puts all my launchers in one place that auto hides, and gives me that extra little bit of screen real estate at the bottom, and it certainly has nothing to do with wanting my GUI to look like Macwhatever.
    And to all the Windows fanboys telling everyone to try Windows as if it’s some kind of “radical alternative” to Linux-they obviously forget that most Linux users have tried Windows, and thats why we use operating systems like Ubuntu now.

36. createmo November 2nd, 2008 at 22:49

    Thank you for your site
    I made on photoshop backgrounds for myspace or youtube and more
    my backgrounds:http://tinyurl.com/6rbxmr
    Hope you had a good day and thank you again!

37. 9 Steps: Make a ultra cool and good looking desktop for your Ubuntu Linux machine in 30 minutes - green version | Kimchikid November 20th, 2008 at 1:12

    [...] If you like this green desktop, just keep reading, but if you rather like the below dark desktop I have a guide for that as well right here. [...]

38. EZ Computers December 13th, 2008 at 1:11

    Thanks for the tut, Im gonna try it out now!

39. acool April 22nd, 2009 at 17:37

    Wait a sec…
    There’s a better alternative:
    USE KIBA-DOCK INSTEAD OF AWN.

40. terbios September 17th, 2009 at 19:12

    Thanks… really enjoyed the site and the help offered here got everything up and running in no time

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