Digitalvaldosta’s computer tips

Since the ’80s Microsoft has pretty well held a monopoly on PCs. In the early ’90s Linux came into the picture but it wasn’t quite mature enough to be considered as a complete replacement for Windows. Over the last ten years developers across the globe have been working hard to bring Linux into the realm of ease of use and even as a complete replacement for Windows. Ubuntu has done just that. You can either run Ubuntu Linux from a CD or you can get it with the Wubi installer. The Wubi installer will install Ubuntu on your computer without the need for you to know much about computers. It’s very similar to installing a program however this is actually an Operating System that is wrapped in a program to make it an easier transition from Windows. Just look here for a list of what comes already installed in Ubuntu. With Ubuntu comes free community tech support, free software ( including a Bible), free updates and version upgrades.

Ubuntu also makes it possible to change any aspect of the look of your environment making it yours. It is a secure environment and is now supplied by Dell computers. ENJOY!

This post will be about carrying your web browser with all of your settings, shortcuts, plugins, and theme.
The website to get this at is: portableapps.com

They of course offer more but for now I will cover the browser. The browser is Firefox, which provides security and features plugins for making tasks easier to do. For instance I am writing this entry in my blog with a plugin called ScribeFire. If you are on a Windows computer this menu will automatically load on you task bar in the bottom right for easy access. If you are on Linux all you need to have to use it is WINE. Which I will cover in a later blog entry. Also with Firefox you can get various themes. If you don’t like the default them just install one of your choosing by the Tools menu at the top of the window and click Addons, followed by the Theme tab.

Hope this introduction has been helpful.

I am adding this entry for my future reference hopefully it will help you as well.

I noticed that when I installed the emerald package to install the emerald themes they were not switching automatically. So I searched for a while and found how to fix the problem. Apparently you have to add an entry into your Session Manager for it to switch automatically.

First open the terminal Applications > Accessories > Terminal. Type sudo apt-get install emerald. Then open the Sessions Manager System > Prefernces > Sessions. Click add and for the command type emerald –replace then you can type in whatever title you want with a description.

Now you need to open Emerald Themer and Import your theme. As shown below.

As I said before – I am going to tell you how to customize your desktop. The first thing that you should probably already know how to do is how to change your desktop background or wallpaper by using the right mouse button to bring up a dialog menu (also know as ‘right clicking’). Then you choose ‘Change Desktop Background’. Under this choice you will find a few wallpapers or backgrounds are already available. These are not the only ones that you have to settle for. You can either click add and make your favorite picture a background or go to a site that offers them for free. Some that I use are socwall.com and gnomelook.org. Once you have added the wallpaper that you want it should automatically switch to it.

While you are in this window if you look at the top you will see various tabs.

On the left is a tab labeled Theme. If you click this is where you can switch between or install various themes. I get my themes from gnome-look.org. All you have to do is create a directory (folder) where you want to save your theme files and find the theme you want and save it in that directory. Then open the window I mentioned above, ‘Appearance Preferences’, and choose the Theme tab. Then click the Install button and find the theme package. (This is the same for any theme. icon, metacity, etc.) Click open and it will ask if you want to keep the current theme or apply the new one. I always just click apply the new them. One thing that you have to keep in mind is when you want to combine various theme packs you have to click customize and another window will open and you just choose which tab you want to change. And then save it when you are done.

Below is what my desktop looks like.

I have a background from socwall.com, the mintmenu from Linux Mint, Mashup icon theme from gnome-look.org, aero-clone gtk 2.x theme, and ATER-Blue metacity theme (that make the top of the windows look different, buttons included). I had to change some of the icons in the Mashup icon theme because I didn’t like the ones that they had. Like the folder icons I got them from another theme (I think Linsta but not sure). I will upload the icon theme on gnome-look when I am done making the changes that I want to make. I also changed the icon for the mintmenu with the samba icon from mashup. (I had to exchange the icon in /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/ after I had mintmenu installed. I thought that would provide a nicer transition for Windows users into Ubuntu.

Also I have a Custom GMD (login window) theme on gnome-look.org.

Any questions?