If you’re looking to pretty up your Linux desktop with some cool widgets take a look at the screenlets package. Screenlets is availible as a Debian or Ubuntu package so installing is just a matter of going to your package manager and searching for “screenlets”. Once installed you can access the screenlets from the applicatons -> screenlets menu. From what I see screenlets only works in Gnome.
If you’re looking for a really cool 3D Linux desktop do a search for Compiz. You’ll want the Compiz and CompizConfig packages from your distributions package system. In Ubuntu you can use the Synaptic Package Manager to download and install the necessary software.
Once installed you’ll want to open up the CompizConfig Settings Manger. (System – Administration – CompizConfig Settings Manager)
Check all the cube options.
Once you’re done with that you should be able to click your middle mouse button and move the cube (3D task switcher) around.
Note:Some computer hardware will not be able to use the Compiz. Most computers with Intel,Nvidia and ATI chipsets should work fine..
If you’re a new Linux user you’re probably wondering if you can install a different Desktop for Linux. With the standard install of Ubuntu you get Gnome but you may want to give a few others a try such as XFCE or KDE.
Read more…
For those of you wanting to run the Avant launcher but can’t because of compiz, I have a solution for you. Basically Avant was meant to be run with a composite manager such as compiz, but because some of us don’t have adequate video cards, we can’t run this cool tool.
Note: Avant is a Linux task manager much like the one MAC OS X uses. It’s a nice little piece of eye candy that can help you get around your desktop a lot quicker and easier. There are many effects you can use to customized the look and feel such as the zoom in effect. You can also download various themes for the bordering graphics too.
All you have to do is install the xcompmgr tool which will can run in the background of your system. Then you can simply start Avant like you normally would.
To Install….
$ sudo apt-get install xcompmgr
To Run…
$ xcompmgr && avant-window-navigator