CHAPTER 10 Personalizing Ubuntu: Getting
CHAPTER 10 Personalizing Ubuntu: Getting Everything Just Right If you ve read this book from Chapter 1, by this stage, you no doubt have become comfortable with Ubuntu. You ve started to realize its advantages and are on the way to making it your operating system of choice. But things might still not be quite right. For instance, you might find the color scheme is not to your tastes. Or perhaps you feel that the mouse cursor moves a little too fast (or too slowly). Maybe you simply want to stamp your own individuality on your system to make it your very own. That s what this chapter is all about. We look at personalizing Ubuntu so that you re completely happy with your user experience. Changing the Look and Feel Ubuntu is similar to Windows in many ways, but the developers behind it introduced improvements and tweaks that many claim make the software easier to use. For example, Ubuntu offers multiple virtual desktops long considered a very useful user-interface feature that seems to have passed Microsoft by. It also moves the programs menu to the top of the screen, leaving the whole width of the screen at the bottom to display taskbar buttons. This is very sensible, because the buttons don t look cramped when more than a handful of applications are open. However, if you re not satisfied with Ubuntu s out-of-the-box look and feel, you can change it. You might be used to changing the desktop colors or wallpaper under Windows, but Ubuntu goes to extremes and lets you alter the look and feel of the entire desktop. Everything from the styling of the program windows to the desktop icons can be altered quickly and easily. Altering the Theme Ubuntu refers to the look of the desktop as a theme. Because it s built on the GNOME desktop, Ubuntu allows you to radically personalize your desktop theme. Several different themes come with the distribution, and you can download many more themes. Each lets you change the way the windows look, including the buttons and the icon set (although some themes come without additional icons).