mintCast Episode 16: Customizing GNOME
In this episode
Linux Mint 7 “Gloria” released
What’s new: http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_gloria_whatsnew.php
Download Mint 7: http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/7/LinuxMint-7.iso
How to upgrade Linux Mint 6 to Linux Mint 7: http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=861
It’s Better With Windows: http://www.itsbetterwithwindows.com/
It’s Better Without Windows: http://www.itsbetterwithoutwindows.com/
Microsoft Patents the Crippling of Operating Systems:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/19/1931249
http://patft.uspto.gov
10 Free Apps that Turn your Ubuntu into Video Studio
Moblin v2.0 beta was released
Mobling Netbook Intro video
http://moblin.org/
Desktop Linux for the Windows Power User
Customizing the GNOME desktop
What is a desktop?
Desktop components?
How to customize the desktop
Web site of the week
Feedback
More info
Email mintCast: [email protected]
Linux Mint web site: http://www.linuxmint.com
Linux Mint blog: http://www.linuxmint.com/blog
Linux Mint forums: http://www.linuxmint.com/forum
Rothgar’s site: http://1n73r.net/
Follow mintCast on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mintcast
Follow Linux Mint on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Linux_Mint
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Another great show, cheers guys. Thank you for clarifying all of the different terms in relation to Compiz, Metacity, etc! The only question I have left is the “Gnome Compositing” option in the mintDesktop app; what exactly does it do? Also: Charles, after hearing your plight about being prevented from using Firefox at work, I wanted to suggest Firefox Portable. I installed it to my usb stick and run it right from there at my job; nothing installed on your computer at all. Plus you get to take your bookmarks and history with you. Just a thought! Thanks again guys.
Gnome Compositing should actually probably be considered Metacity Compositing and it is almost like a Compiz Fusion lite version. It is built into Metacity (and can sometimes cause Compiz Fusion to fail if turned on) the big things it gives you is window shadows and thumbnail previews in Alt+Tab. Some programs do require it (or at least benefit from it) such as Avant Window Manager and Gnome Do. It is based on Xrender (vs OpenGL for Compiz Fusion) which makes it run on even some low end hardware that will never be able to support Compiz Fusion. A decent review I found if you want some more information is over at http://hehe2.net/linuxhowto/compositing-with-metacity-another-look/
I hope that helps a bit and sorry we didn’t touch on it in the podcast.
Ah, makes sense now. Thank you for explaining. And my apologies for not getting thru the whole episode before posting about Firefox Portable, as you recommend it right in the show! :-[
Regarding using open source applications on your Windows at work, why not use Portable Apps? I have the suite (http://portableapps.com/suite) in my personal folder on our shared drive at work. No need to install.
Great Show! The website of the week is a great find for quality desktop backgrounds. I was hoping that you might have mentioned “gnome-look.org” & “kde-look.org” as both sites are dedicated to customizing the Linux desktop.
As always, your efforts are appreciated.
Don’t think you guys did a very good job explaining the desktop manager/environment stuff. 🙁 However, I do realize that this is quite a difficult topic to cover – I don’t think I have yet seen it done well, and I could definitely not do it well myself. Kudos for the attempt! :))
Here is a link that may be of some use (or additional confusion) to you or anyone interested: Linux Windows Manager for X http://xwinman.org/
Also, some apps behave poorly when running together with Compiz, even if your machine is capable or running Compiz. There is an annoying screen flicker. Some example of such are: TuxMath, SuperTuxRacer, Google Earth, and others. To easily toggle between Metacity and Compiz (Metacity will not have this flicker), there is a thingie called compiz-icon (available in standard repos). HTH.
Here is a similar site to social wallpapering: http://interfacelift.com/
Excellent description in the article.The website of the week is a great find for quality desktop backgrounds.