Eyecandy Compiz Animations and Effects

Who doesn't like some eyecandy for their desktops, definitely not me. Compiz has enthralled Ubuntu users for years now. When GNOME officially ditched Compiz for Mutter for its next version, Ubuntu decided to stick with Compiz for its Unity Shell. Compiz is actively being developed now and we can expect a lot of surprises for next major Ubuntu release, Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal". Here is a collection of Compiz experimental plugins that does not come with the default package and which is definitely going to blow you away.

• Freely Transformable Windows gives you the ability to rotate, slant, flip, and grow or shrink windows by scaling them. Unlike resizing a window normally, a scaled window's contents grow and shrink along with the windows - text, buttons, and images inside the window will actually appear larger or smaller.

• Stack Window Switcher is an absolutely eyecandy alternative to your normal Alt+Tab. If you are seeing it for first time, *big* surprise guaranteed.

• Cube Atlantis breaths in new "life" to desktop cube compiz plugin. Cube Atlantis plugin adds fish from the Atlantis screensaver to the inside of the cube. 

• Snow plugin makes snow fall on your desktop, simple as that.

• Three new animations plugin. Animations Add-On, Animations Plus and Simple Animations. Brings in new animations life Helix, Blinds, Shatter etc.

• Ghost plugin is awesome. Above screencast will give you the idea. There are a ton of other plugins too like Anaglyph, Minimize Effect, Fireflies, Stars, Elements etc. And you can install them all by doing the following.

How to Install Compiz Experimental Plugins in Ubuntu Maverick, Lucid?

• Read our detailed instructions on how to install Compiz experimental plugins in Ubuntu Maverick, Lucid for both 32bit and 64bit systems.

• After following the steps as given in the link above, goto System - Preferences - Compiz Config Settings Manager and you will find the new Compiz experimental plugins installed and ready to go

What To Do After A Fresh Ubuntu 10.10 Install? Run These Commands!

Important: before running the commands below, you need to enable the restricted, multiverse and partner repositories. To do this, open the Ubuntu Software Center, select Edit > Software Sources, and on the first tab (Ubuntu Software), check all the repositories. Then switch to the second tab (Other Software) and check the "Canonical Partners" repository.


1. Install Adobe Flash, Java, fonts, codecs and other restricted stuff (I don't use "ubuntu-restricted-extras" because it also installs some stuff I really don't need while it doesn't install a lot of the applications that I do need):

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 libmp4v2-0 libxine1-ffmpeg ffmpeg flashplugin-nonfree sun-java6-fonts rar unrar p7zip-full p7zip-rar unace unp zip unzip ttf-mscorefonts-installer ttf-liberation mencoder mplayer sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-jre

2. Medibuntu is not ready for Maverick yet, but you can still play encrypted DVDs. Simply run the following command:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

3. If you occasionally build applications from source or make your own deb files, here are some basic packages you should install:

sudo apt-get install build-essential automake make checkinstall dpatch patchutils autotools-dev debhelper quilt fakeroot xutils lintian cmake dh-make libtool autoconf git git-core subversion bzr

4. The following applications should really be default in Ubuntu but anyway, install VLC, OpenShot, GIMP (removed from the default installation a few releases back), gThumb, Pidgin, Skype, Adobe Air, Wine (ok, these last 2 shouldn't be in a default install), aptitude (removed from the default installation starting with Maverick) and Chromium using the following command:

sudo apt-get install vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc openshot gimp gthumb pidgin skype adobeair wine aptitude chromium-browser

Disclaimer / notes: This is just the basic stuff to install after a fresh Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat installation and it includes a lot of non-free / restricted applications as well as some very popular non-default applications. If you'd find some applications which you've never heard of, it wouldn't be a "what to do immediately after installing ubuntu" post anymore but a regular post about new applications with a catchy title.

'My Weather Indicator': A New Ubuntu Weather Appindicator

The new indicator-datetime (clock indicator) which was released in Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition (and will also be default in 11.04 Desktop edition too) doesn't provide any weather info like the old Gnome Clock applet.

To add the PPA and install My Weather Indicator in Ubuntu Lucid, Maverick or Natty, use the following commands

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lorenzo-carbonell/atareao

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install my-weather-indicator                                                                                                                                              

Once installed, run it by going to Accessories > My Weather Indicator.

13 Breathtaking Conky Configurations

Though we used to talk a lot about Ubuntu desktop eyecandy, Conky is something we never really discussed at all. Conky Ubuntu Lucid theme was the only exception, which is by far the most easy to install Conky theme I have ever used. So as to settle the Conky drought once and for all, here we feature one of the best collection of Conky configurations available.

• Bionic Conky - Download and Installation Instructions

• Hi-Tek Conky - Download and Installation Instructions

• Conky Colors - Download and Installation Instructions

• 'A New Start' GTK Theme Pack Which Includes Conky Files Also.

• Steel Conky - Download and Installation Instructions

• Conky Street - Download and Installation Instructions

• Oriental Conky Widgets - No Download Candidate available, Try this instead.

• Tonky Desktop v0.5 - Download and Installation Instructions

• Conky Tron - Download and Installation Instructions

• Conky Rings 3 - Download and Installation Instructions

• Conky Meet Faenza - Download and Installation Instructions

• Conky NightDrive - Download and Installation Instructions

• Gold And Grey Conky - Download and Installation Instructions

Hope you liked them. And if you are a customization fanatic, you should also check out this beautiful collection of 15 stunning linux desktop customizations. 

install Conky Colors Ubuntu 10.10

Conky is a free, light-weight system monitor for X, that displays any information on your desktop. You've seen it in many screenshots under various forms; take a look at these screenshots if you don't know what Conky is.


A while back we told you about a really easy way to configure Conky using a GUI called ConkyWizard - which is very nice, but it doesn't come with plugins and too many options. Conky Colors on the other hand doesn't come with a GUI but is just as easy to set up (from the command line) and it comes with A LOT of options and scripts (from Gmail to Rhythmbox, weather and more) so you can create an amazing looking Conky in a matter of seconds (don't let our long guide fool you - you just have to install a few packages and run Conky Colors). You can view a list of options supported by Conky Colors, here.


How to set up and use Conky Colors in Ubuntu
1)
For Ubuntu 10.04 or older only: Add the Conky PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:norsetto/ppa

sudo apt-get update

For any Ubuntu Version

sudo apt-get install conky-all

2. Install other required packages

You'll also need the following packages:

sudo apt-get install python-statgrab ttf-droid curl

Optional: if you want Conky to display your CPU / motherboard temperatures and hard disk, also install lm-sensors and hddtemp:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors hddtemp

Now you need to configure lm-sensors. Run this in a terminal:

sudo sensors-detect

Then enter "y" for everything and run this to start the sensors:

sudo /etc/init.d/module-init-tools start

For hddtemp to work in Ubuntu 10.04, you need to run this command:

sudo chmod u+s /usr/sbin/hddtemp

And then reboot.


3. Download Conky Colors

4. Configure Conky Colors
a) Extract the downloaded archive (from step 3), use a terminal to navigate to the folder where you extracted it and run:

make

b) Now to see all the available options, use the following command:

./conky-colors --help

Then to set up everything, simply run "./conky-colors" followed by the options you want. Here is an example:

./conky-colors --lang=english --theme=ambiance --cpu=2 --cputemp --swap --updates --hdtemp1=sda --proc=3 --clock=modern --nvidia --calendar --m --network --rhythmbox=case --ubuntu

I used the command above to get Conky the way it looks in the screenshot in the beginning of the post.

There are many options available such as themes, Gmail, Rhythmbox (or other music players) plugins, network info, hard drive temperatures, available / used disk space, display images, weather, todo lists, battery status and lots more - like I said, to see them all, use "./conky-colors --help".

c) Once you are done, run the following command:

make install

d) Try it out. Run conky by pressing Alt + F2 and then type "conky" or type "conky" into a terminal. To close conky, if you run it from a terminal press Ctrl + C or type "killall conky".

4. Put Conky in your Startup applications

To run Conky when your computer starts, go to System > Preferences > Startup Applications, add a new startup application and under "Name" enter "conky" and under command, enter "~/.conkycolors/bin/conkyStart"