MintLiner - A Beautiful Greeny GTK3 Theme for Gnome 3!

It's not that easy to get over the first few impressions that you come across while doing anything or meeting anyone, right?. Just like that, you can create an impressive GNU/Linux distribution by doing some real hard work yet if you chose the wrong kind of colors and themes for your operating system... apart from all that hard/dedicated work... it can have a bit of a negative impact nonetheless.

It can also be a quite a hassle for a newbie who haven't even figured out how to change a theme in GNU/Linux for instance as well :). I've said this before, from the beginning Ubuntu did prove its worth in some aspects but they had chosen the worst color combinations, even for a "decent" look-n-feel and as a result I always felt a bit repulsive towards it.

And whenever I installed a new version one of the "most important" things for me was to get or change the theme to something else.

But there are few GNU/Linux distributions that comes with beautiful colors by default and Fedora is at the top of "my list". Another distribution is the Mint Linux which uses the Green and Black colors quite elegantly. Anyhow, if you use the latest version of the Gnome desktop version 3 who also happened to quite fond of that Greeny Mint Linux theme, then you'd love to hear that there is "related looking" GTK3 theme for Gnome 3 called MintLiner!.

Now remember, by default Gnome 3 uses a Window manager called Mutter (bit similar to Compiz) which is capable of creating all those 3D fancy effects, etc and the plugin that uses Mutter which enables Gnome to create that default, touch screen device optimized interface, is called the "Gnome Shell". The thing is that, you can't use MintLiner in your Gnome Shell interface.

This will only work in your Classic Gnome 3 desktop which can be "forcefully" enabled by the Fallaback mode. So after installing it ... remember it'll only run on the classic Gnome3 desktop, not in the Gnome Shell.

How to install it?

1. First download the archive from here (all credit goes to the creator danodymake) and extract the content.

2. Then copy the extracted folder to "./themes" folder in your "Home" folder or if you want the theme to be available to all the other users that uses that PC/Laptop then copy the content to "/usr/share/themes/".

Now you can apply the theme as usual.

If you want to tweak your Nautilus (file manager)...

The theme has a "css" file which can apply further more "MintLiner-ness" into your Nautilus.

1. To do that first go to the folder "/usr/share/nautilus" and copy the file called "nautilus.css" to your Home folder.

2. Then look for a file with the same name (nautilus.css) in the extracted folder and move it to that above mentioned "/usr/share/nautilus" folder and replace it. Remember you'll have to have root access to do that.

That's it. Now you're done. Enjoy!.

Read More

Install the Customized GNOME 3 Adwaita Improved Shell Theme

Although not everyone is fond of it, yet Gnome 3 certainly looks gorgeous (at least :P). The black panel, the blue background + the new theme which is called "Adwaita" which is especially designed for the Gnome3 GTK3 desktop... they look all good except that fat panels and stuff. Have you ever wondered a way to reduce the default tool bar in Nautilus called "breadcrumb" which obviously looks bigger...

Well, no worries, you don't have to edit any files (the hard way) and our extremely creative artist called half-leaf has done just that for all of us who are annoyed by this "Adwaita" GTK3 theme.

Not only he has reduced the size of those toolbars but other improvements such as blending the sidebar with the theme in General, reducing scroll-bar size and enhanced button padding are also "fixed". All you gotta do is first download the zipped package from here. Then extract the content and the copy that extracted folder to your "./themes" folder in the "Home" of your GNU/Linux PC/Laptop.

Yep... that's pretty much it... again, thank you half-leaf, for this :).

Read More

How To add Minimize/Maximize/Restore Buttons in Gnome3 (Shell)?

This is a major headache for most GNU/Linux users. With the introduction of Gnome3, the developers for some reason have decided not to include the "standard" Maximize/Minimize and Restore buttons. Although you can still maximize by dragging the opened windows to the upper corner in your Gnome shell which can be quite easy to perform if you have a GNU/Linux Tablet PC or "something" that has a touch screen.

But for us the "mouse users" :), still this can be quite annoying and time consuming as well. Canonical also did something similar not that long ago with Ubuntu which can also be fixed, luckily. With Gnome3 again luckily or the developers may have thought it'd be a good idea to give the users the ability to change those buttons (thanks dudes, I guess :/ ), by using the Gnome configuration editor (which "acts" as the desktop settings manager using which we can set individual application settings in Gnome - including the older versions) we can easily fix this.

1. So, if you want to know how to add Minimize/Maximize/Restore buttons in Gnome3 or Shell (I'm using Fedora Core 15) then first we have to install the Gconf-editor using the "yum" app manager. So, open your Terminal in FC15 and enter the below command first.

sudo yum install gconf-editor

2. Once the installation is complete, open "Run" applications window (or use the "ALT" + "F2" keyboard shortcut) and enter the following command =  gconf-editor

3. Now you should be greeted with a settings windows. From that, go to: desktop -> gnome-> shell- > windows

From your right side options double click on "buttons_layouts". Erase it's current text (which should be = :close ) and enter the below code instead.

:minimize,maximize,close

4. That's it!. If you want to have all the buttons to your left side (like with Ubuntu) then enter the below text instead the above one.

close,maximize,minimize:menu

Looking good Homey :)

Enjoy!.

Read More

Ubuntu Ambiance Gnome Shell (GTK3) theme

Since Fedora Core 15 is out, and if you've "switched" from Ubuntu to FC15 then you might be wondering if there is a possibility for making Gnome3 looks like Ubuntu (what would you wanna do that for! :P). Well, our creative friend, Half-Left from deviantart has created another awesome looking theme for Gnome Shell called "Ubuntu Ambiance" which is based on the classic Gnome desktop (comes with Ubuntu by default) theme called ambiance light.

The theme comes with the Natty wallpaper by default and if you use it in FC... then it'll look a bit awful :) since now FC15 looks like Natty. Anyway, according to the developer, this GTK theme supports Gnome tweak tool for switching between themes as well. Personally I don't like the colors that much, but that's just me. If you love those colors... then read-on.

How to install it?

First download Ubuntu Ambiance Gnome shell theme from here.

Here are the instructions from the creator himself...

Backup your theme directory first. Extract the zip file and rename "gnome-shell" directory to "theme" and copy to /usr/share/gnome-shell/. This path is usually where GNOME Shell is installed.
Restart GNOME Shell by Alt, F2, then type r and press enter.

Remember, it's a bit "evil" to make your non Ubuntu Linux Laptop/PC looks like Ubuntu (just kidding :P) Enjoy!.  

Read More

Gnome3/Shell Will Be Officially Available via Ubuntu Repository, Starting with Ubuntu 11.10

It was first said that Gnome3 or the Shell will only be available in PPA channels in the future for Ubuntu users. So no official repositories will be set-up. But for some reason, perhaps for the growing demand or something else, Canonical will officially support Gnome3 starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 version!.

What does it mean ??

Even without the help of Canonical, we could've still install Gnome3 in Ubuntu in the future, but since it's the original Ubuntu developers who knows everything about Ubuntu itself thus them involving in an official repository simply means better compatibility. May not be always true but most of the time, it's true.

For instance, I'm not quite sure how it's now (I don't use Gnome 3 in Ubuntu), but at first it was said not to install Gnome Shell with Unity since they both can easily clash (really, nooooooo :P) thus making a system failure or breaking the Unity desktop in other words. But with the help of the original developers... in the future both Gnome3 and Unity will work hand in hand, finally. 

So what happens to "libappindicator"??

Well, according to Akhtar's post in OMGUbuntu, a detecting mechanism will be developed between the two rivals, Ubuntu's appindicator -> Gnome3 appindicator system, thus in the future, thus if Gnome3 is detected ,the Ubuntu OS will take proper action to works seamlessly.

This is a good move actually. Because if we really want to beat Microsoft ... then having a clash between Canonical and Gnome is the last thing that we want. Still this does not mean that now Canonical and Gnome agree with each other... but it's a start, isn't it??.

Read More

Drakfire Caffe GTK3, A "Coffee" Looking Theme for Gnome3/Shell

Drakfire Caffe GTK3 is another shell theme for all you Gnome3 geeks out there!. Although personally I'm not much of a fan of these type of colors in themes but then I guess just because I don't like doesn't mean there won't be others, right?.

If that's the case and if you're looking for another Gnome3/Shell theme that uses a lot of dark brown type colors (or Yellow... seriously I'm a bad artist... can't even say what color it is :P) then you'd love the Darkfire Cafe.

To be honest guys, I haven't used this at all but when reading through some of the comments in the author page someone said, the colors make it really easy to work on a darker environment. So that might come in handy.... :(.

Anyway, ff you want to install then get the zipped pack from here. And visit this deviantart author page for installing instructions. Enjoy!.

Note - If you're using Gnome 3 in Ubuntu then you can install a tool called Gnome tweak tool which lets you easily configure themes and some of their advanced options in Gnome3. So to install Gnome Tweak tool simply insert the below command in your Terminal.

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

Read More