Show us your Linux desktop

seaeagle · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:45 pm Post subject: Show us your Linux desktop

I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread where Linux users can post pictures of their desktops. We want to see things such as wallpapers, color themes, different system trays & panels, transparency & all the other options that make Linux a great experience.

When you post, please advise what distro & window manager you are using. It might help others who are working out what options to go with on their systems.

Being the topic starter, I'll go first.

Window Manager: KDE 3.4
Distro: Mandriva 2006

The windows I have open are Akregator (RSS reader) & Firefox. Quick launch icons are at bottom left, and open applications are in the tray at bottom right (L-R: KMix sound mixer, BasKet (holds notes etc), KAlarm (reminder program), SuperKaramba (desktop widgets), KPPP (dial-up), BFilter (web ad-filter proxy), PostArmor (email checker), Akregator, Kopete, Firefox, CPU/RAM/Cache, multiple desktops, clock). I'm using the KDEWorldClock as my background (updates map every 10 minutes).

Error: image could not be loaded. Image is not available from server

Image URL: http://www.shareapic.net/preview/001311906.jpg

So, let's see what you've got on the desktop of your Linux machine! Very Happy

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

On a 98SE tower, here's my VectorLinux install. KDE and I never have much open nor many files on my desk. I like the uncluttered look.

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Image URL: http://star.walagata.com/w/perk/vectordesk.jpg

Ray2047 · Joined: Nov 01, 2003 Posts: 766

I currently have about 1200 pictures that change randomly every 5 minutes using KDE's slide show feature. I say "pictures" because many are not wallpaper size. Just pictures I saw on the net, liked, and saved.

I guess you could say collecting pictures is a hobby. While one group is rotating through I'm busy collecting a new group. When I get several hundred I'll save the current group to CD and replace it with the new group.

seaeagle

Feel free to post a picture if you do want to though Ray. This topic's much more than what you have as your wallpaper (BTW, I use the slideshow on desktop 2). It's a way visitors can see color themes, different system trays & panels, transparency & all the other options that make Linux a great experience.

silmaril8n · Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 1743 Location: Phoenix, AZ

<<-- click to expand

I'm a simplist at heart.

Ray2047 · Joined: Nov 01, 2003 Posts: 766

Here is my Freespire desktop. The picture changes every five minuets. Right now it rotates through about 1200 pictures. The Win4Lin in the taskbar is running ME.

<<-- click to expand

Normally I have the taskbar hidden.

<<-- click to expand

seaeagle

For users of the KDE & Gnome window managers, there's heaps of screenshots located at the following sites (make sure you remove the tick from the "Don't show screenshots" box at top right):

KDE-Look.org - Screenshots

GNOME-Look.org - Screenshots

There's also a lot of other stuff at those sites such as themes, splash screens, clipart, icon sets, wallpapers, fonts & heaps more. Well worth a look.

pot_bellygnome · Joined: May 13, 2006 Posts: 24

running FC-5 with gdesklets, aterm, gkrelmn, xmms and gaim

<<-- click to expand

seaeagle

Nice one pot_bellygnome - it's good to see a Gnome desktop amongst all the KDE ones Very Happy

Here's my latest. I'm still using KDEWorldclock as my background on desktop one. In this pic I'm running a couple of Superkaramba widgets to show the weather & my system status.

Error: image could not be loaded. Image is not available from server

Image URL: http://www.shareapic.net/preview/001312082.jpg

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

That pictures brings back memories. I have a very old paid program, called GeoClock that I run on my 98SE computer (it also will run in DOS) which shows day and night time in the world.

I can have sunrise and sunset showing at the bottom for my location.

JonC · Joined: Feb 21, 2007 Posts: 17

Here it is.

<<-- click to expand

pot_bellygnome · Joined: May 13, 2006 Posts: 24

I love the train theme

One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be

JonC · Joined: Feb 21, 2007 Posts: 17

Here is my current theme for those who like dark themes.

pot_bellygnome · Joined: May 13, 2006 Posts: 24

anybody else using beryl or compiz 3d effects? i managed to get compiz and the emerald themer to work on my Fedora 8 setup after only destroying my X set-up only once lol.

silmaril8n · Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 1743 Location: Phoenix, AZ

I wish I could get it working but my ATI card in this laptop has the absolute worst driver support for Linux. As such, whenever it's enabled the system slows to a crawl. I'm looking forward to getting a new Thinkpad.

JonC · Joined: Feb 21, 2007 Posts: 17

ATI has terrible Linux support but it is improving. I suggest Nvidia as they work much better in Linux.

pot_bellygnome · Joined: May 13, 2006 Posts: 24

mine did the same when i tried the ati drivers- i had to revert to the native linux drivers.

Cradle4life · Joined: Mar 02, 2008 Posts: 1

Here is My Desktop Smile

Hope u like it.

how can we attach a pic ? lol xD

seaeagle

Hi Cradle4life - Welcome to the forums.

I recommend that you open a free account with Photobucket to store your pictures online. Once you upload your picture to Photobucket you will then be given the codes to use on web pages and forums such as this one. For forum posts use the 4th option (IMG Code).

Cheers

ernie · Joined: Dec 16, 2002 Posts: 166

I finally got around to uploading a picture of my desktop (with no open windows) so I could show you what I have done with KDE 3.5.9 running under Mandriva Linux 2008.1 (Spring):

The background image is a picture of the Maumee River looking west (upriver) from the observation deck (West end of Wallbridge Park) in Toledo, Ohio. I took this shot with my digital camera last summer (I think in August 2007) on a warm sunny day. The little white specks are gulls resting on a bar, waiting for their lunch to swim near.

As for the DeskTop Environment, it is KDE 3.5.9. I set the kicker panel color to black with transparency enabled, handles for tray items are hidden, Kickker size is set to large. I moved the Mandriva Menu button to the top menu bar which I enabled in Kcontrol so I can have easy access to my bookmarks.

This desktop configuration is a single part of my systems look-n-feel customization. I created my own custom boot splash theme using my MaumeeRiver background image in the boot splash utility included with MCC. I configured KDM to use the image as well. I edited the file mdk-kde-nolist.xml to make the Main Box Alpha value 0.3 (originaly 0.4) to increase transparency, changed the Main Box color to Black (originaly White) and changed the text colors to White (originally Black). Finally, I customized the Mandriva default Ksplash theme to use my image (copied the theme to a new directory, then edited the svg image included with the default theme, replacing the original image with my MaumeeRiver image) and renamed the theme MaumeeRiver. I used KXMLEdit to edit the XML file and Inkscape to edit the SVG image.

Mandriva Linux 2008.1 (Spring) and KDE 3.5.9 provide all the tools I needed to do it all. This is the real reason I use Mandriva Linux with the KDE desktop environment - I can make my system truely my own. If I do not like how something works, I can change it. If I do not like how something looks, I can change it. This level of customization is probably available with most other distributions, but I know how to get things done with Mandriva, and I do not have to compromize. I have said it before, and I continue to say it: Linux is about freedom and the sharing of ideas. What you see here is my idea of how a desktop computer should look. Your idea may differ completely, or you may want to incorporate some part of my idea into your own. Either way feel the freedom,