How to Install Elementary Luna Theme in Gnome 3 (Shell)?

Gnome 3 or also known as Gnome Shell brought a lot of GUI changes when comparing with the existing 2x version. The changes are also massive and was something very similar that happened with the Gnome 1x to 2x "switch".

Those days (1x versions) Gnome used to give users a lot of features and options to customized the desktop (even better than KDE in features) but with the introduction of the 2x "jump" a huge list of those GUI configuration options were removed. So in a way, the Gnome 2x desktop was totally different one to its predecessor. 

Just like that the recently introduced Gnome 3 also brought a total re-design of the desktop GUI and computing in general thus just like with the 1->2 migration, it received a lot of criticism (both negative and positive ones, yikes!).

Anyhow, sorry about the "short rambling, introduction", if you're one of the fans of the new Gnome 3 apart from all those issues, and I gotta admit Gnome developers always had an excellent (highly relative) ability to provide good looking themes (although very little customization available) but after using it for months, if you're already bored with the themes that comes with it and looking for something that looks beautiful, then perhaps the Elementary Luna theme for the Gnome Shell might get you interested :).

Main features...

*. This is a complete theme suit but you'll have to get an icon pack a wallpaper separately to the original shell theme (links below). But of course you can skip the icons and the wallpaper if you like as well.

*. Comes with a bit darker colors and my personal favorite, the awesome Blue color! :D. 

*. There's a separate lighter version of the theme is also available if you don't like the darker color choices which resembles a lot of Mac OSX.

*. This is only compatible with the Gnome Shell 3.0. So if you're using the 11.10 Oneiric Alpha 3 and the Gnome 3.1.4 latest builds then this may not work.


How to install it?

1. The installation is quite simple actually. Just download the shell theme from here first.

I'm gonna quote the author Danrabbit here...

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.

2. If you want the icons, then get them from here. 

3. Get the beautiful Elementary Luna wallpaper from here.

Yep, that should do it!. Enjoy.

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Gnome 3.2 News : Few Major Upcoming Changes/Features

Apart from both GUI and philosophical differences, Gnome 3 (also known as Shell) and Ubuntu Unity desktop are quite interesting. I just love these desktops because it's so much easier to criticize when you have something totally new and I can keep doing it again and again which fills up my daily hassle of trying to find news updates to this blog :P.    

Anyhow, if you're a Gnome Shell geek then you've probably heard that Gnome developers are really busy these days for the upcoming release for the Gnome 3.2 which according to Allan's post brings some exciting, new features to the current 3.0 release such as ...

*. Serious Messaging and Chat support -

With Gnome 3.2 after logged into the desktop you no longer have to open your Chat/Messenger clients to start your daily work ;-). Although I don't fully understand how it works but it seems that whenever you want to chat, make calls, use messenger apps, you don't even have to open them, the Gnome Shell will do that automatically for you, log-in automatically, etc (perhaps they've done something with the notification bubbles). This is developed by an IM obsesser called Guillaume Desmottes ;-). 

*. Notification counter -

Like with Unity (after installing certain plug-ins separately) Gnome 3.2 will have notification counters that shows how many unread e-mails, messages, etc that you have which is also developed by Guillamue.

*. "Enhanced" Workspace Switcher -

Unlike in the past, now whenever you're dealing with more than one workspace, the workspace switcher is stretched and will be visible all the time. This however can be quite irritating if you have a smaller screen (a touch-sensitive device for instance) since you certainly don't need unnecessary app taking a "lot of " space all the time.

So because of that, currently Workspace Switcher is only stays-on while you use the activity overview mode. If they integrate this with the desktop in general then lets hope that they'll at least give us the ability to disable it manually.

*. New log-in screen -

Well nothing much to say... it's very simple.

*. Better Contact Search/Management -

From now on, we'll be able to search and find our contact information from the same search window/box.

*. Clock Support for Multiple Timezones

*. Oi! Leave me Alone Feature :D -

It's actually a simple feature called in the "Do Not Disturb". When you click on that then the Shell will apply the "message" universally to all the "disturbing" apps such as your logged in Chat, Messaging or other apps that Gnome 3.2 supports and apply "busy" or unavailable mode automatically.

Although these are handful to mention other features included integrated on-screen keyboard developed by Nohemi, rounded window corners, easy window resizing (grab a certain edge and you're done), Google calender integration and most importantly, if the buzz is true, then we should see a more speedy Gnome Shell as well!

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