Windows and panels

Fine-tune your flavour of Linux with your own window and file managers.

Whichever version of Linux you chose will almost certainly incorporate its own Window Manager. These serve as clients to the ‘X’ Windows system and, in essence, they live up to their name in that they determine the appearance and behaviour of any windows used by graphical applications.

While you may be of the opinion that one window is much like any other, your manager of choice can have huge implications for your productivity. For instance, you may prefer a stacking window manager that enables you to place windows on top of one another, as you would on a Windows machine or a Mac. On the other hand, you may prefer a tiling window system which ensures that no two windows overlap. There are even dynamic window managers which can switch between the two.

The Arch Linux wiki maintains a comprehensive list of various window managers ( wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ Window_manager). Rest assured that you don’t need to be using Arch to benefit from this.

The installation steps for window managers also vary. For instance, if you wish to install the lightweight Openbox window manager in Ubuntu, you only need to open Terminal and type sudo apt-get install openbox obconf The ‘obconf’ utility is optional, but helps you change other system settings such as window colours and fonts. Panels are used for listing and launching programs and locations on your machine. For instance, the default Gnome desktop has a top panel with navigation menus to Applications, Places and System settings whereas the bottom panel is used to switch between active windows. Most panels can be customised to include new menu categories as well as launchers for your favourite applications.

Your panels are usually determined by your chosen desktop environment but you can install others as you wish, such as the Mac-like Cairo Dock (shown above), to the fast and lightweight Docky, both of which are available for install via Ubuntu Software. If you’re using Ubuntu with Unity or Gnome you can find more docks and launchers at www.gnomelook.org/browse/cat/277.

If you’re happy with your desktop environment and just want to alter the colour or layout of menus and panels, then you may be able to do this using a Theme Manager (see walkthrough, opposite).

VARIETY’S THE SPICE OF LIFE

Once you have your windows and panels in place, take some time to choose a desktop background. For most Ubuntu-based distros, you only need to right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose ‘Change Desktop Background’. You can select from those which are preinstalled or click the ‘+’ button to add one of your own.

If you find that the novelty of this wears off, consider installing Variety using Ubuntu Software. This tiny yet powerful program can be configured to cycle through various desktop backgrounds, either from on your machine or online. Images come from diverse sources such as NASA views of the Earth, Flickr and even Reddit. You can control the frequency at which your background changes, from a few seconds to every 24 hours.

BE A THEME PLAYER

Most versions of Linux support installing themes. These are files that can alter the overall look and feel of your operating system such as the