My Personal Gnome
July 2nd, 2010
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When I started The Friday Blog I wanted to have an outlet for my varied ponderings that didn’t seem to fit in anywhere else. In fact, initially the blog was going to be called Ponderings for Ponderers. I prefer The Friday Blog as a name though, as it does encourge me to publish on a regular basis. Anyway, I write about my life as an expat living in rural Brittany, France over at www.BretonDiary.com and I waffle on, in my amateurish way, about IT at www.kmeckstein.com. I detail my mushrooming forays at www.MushroomDiary.com and I also review other people’s Life in France blogs at www.aTasteOfGarlic.com. The Friday Blog is more of a place where I can investigate the creative process and, perhaps more importantly, the layers of technology that sit (sometimes uncomfortably) between me and the desired aim – a few words, good and true.
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Last week I spoke briefly about how, for me, Gnome is my effective operating system.
I mentioned that I have changed from being a “my flavour of Linux is better than your flavour of Linux” evangelist (and maybe, to be honest, a bore), to someone who just needs a strong and stable underlying operating system that allows me to run Gnome, my desktop environment of choice.
This week I intend to delve a little bit deeper and to try and explain how and why I set up my main computer in the way I do.
As The Friday Blog is largely about the creative writing process, I won’t go too deeply into the web design aspects of my PC. They are better dealt with elsewhere. In fact, yesterday I posted on kmeckstein.com why I think that Chrome is the new Firefox.
Please click on the image to see it full size |
So, where to begin?I’ll start off with a standard installation of Linux Mint. I’m still on Mint 8.0 Helena but, for the sake of this article, I’ll install Mint 9.0 Isadora in a virtual machine using VMWare’s Player – it’ll be a good opportunity for me to have a look round prior to my upgrading. For the install I accept all the default options. The 7 step install process is so easy it’s almost embarrassing! And yes, I can still remember those early days (way back in 1997) when I used to like Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva) purely because the install process was the easiest! And everything else was pretty horrible to install! |
As you can see from the screenshot of my current installation, I like to keep the desktop as clear as possible with only links to drives and connections to servers on it. All apps (or all the ones I use on a day to day basic) have icons on the taskbar. I use three workplaces (since I’ve started to use Workplaces my productivity has skyrocketed.) The taskbar might look a bit messy but, if I tidied it up – I’d never find anything! And, you know, I think I’ve been using that last phrase as an excuse since I was about six years old!
Note to myself… For the first part of the install process, the computer ground to a halt. I was unable to change tabs in Chrome and Firefox took about 2 minutes to load. I’ve never noticed this before with VMWare Player so perhaps it’s a one off? When I do upgrade to Mint 9.0 I’ll make sure I’m running the most up to date version of Player. The machine sped up significantly once Mint 9.0 was 60% installed.
Once the install is complete I do an apt-get update and then start with the customisation.
The customisation consists of…
1). First, the desktop wallpaper gets changed. I like apocalyptic backgrounds. Although this probably doesn’t have any direct effect on my creativity, I would possibly be more easily distracted if I had a picture of a pretty girl or a beautiful Breton harbour scene as my wallpaper. Besides, if I want to look at a pretty girl, the Girlie uses the same office as me and for beautiful Brittany, I just need to look out of the window!
2). Then, the panel gets moved to the bottom of the screen. It’s always seemed more logically positioned here. In fact, I use two panels; one as a holder for application icons and the other to indicate running applications.
3). Launchers for my must have apps are then placed on the bottom panel. These always get ordered in a particular way. Originally there was some sort of logic to this (in other words, internet apps together, office apps together and so forth) but as Ive deleted icons and added new ones there is now very little logic to the placement of icons, other than it being logical for me to place the icons where I expect them to be.
Currently, I have icons for the following applications…. Chrome, Firefox, Thunderbird, Transmission, Pan, Rhythmbox, Calculator, Pyroom, OO Calc, OOWriter, Nautilus, Gedit & Terminal. I also have a Music Applet, A Network Manager Applet, a Clock and System Monitor. Believe it or not, that covers pretty much everything I do (and Firefox will be going soon!)
4). The panels backgrounds are then set to transparent. Whilst this makes it a little hard to read (the text elements of it, anyway), it does reduce the distraction factor.
I need to have a clock on my panel but (and this is a big but…) I don’t want to be able to see it all the time; only when I place the mouse pointer over it. If the clock were always visible then I may write too fast (if I were running out of time, for example) and, for me, writing too fast means writing too badly. And I write badly enough without any help, thank you very much!
5). I delete the Mint menu from the taskbar and replace it with the standard one. I have no real problems with the default Mint menu (and it may well be an improvement for new users) but, having all those launchers on the taskbar means that I rarely need to use the menu and I certainly prefer to stick with what I know.
6). I then set up the data structure on the /home partition. I always keep my Data in the same directory structure and rigorously prune it so that it stays under 700MB.
7). I edit .bashrc to suit me.
I started out in IT back in the DOS days (and I still sometimes miss the simplicity of those systems. Web browsing apart, I was just as efficient back then; I could write just as well using Informix Smartware as I can now – even with the arrival of Windows, I felt more comfortable with all those .INI files than I do now with the registry.)
Thus, I still type MD to create a directory and CLS to clear the screen. By putting in aliases for these commands I save a little time (more of which later) and reduce the frustration factor by an awful lot.
I speak more about my .bashrc over at www.InternetAccelerationAppliance.com (horrible URL, I know!) where I also describe how I built my caching proxy server (and set up a preseeded install script so that you can do the same without all that faffing about), that is so necessary here in rural France.
However, here is my current .bashrc…..
# The fun starts here! # Keith Eckstein .bashrc – last updated 16/10/2009 # Let’s keep it portable, lets keep it clean and, guys…. Let’s be careful out there! # **************************************************************************** # General config – details prompt export PS1=’\h:w\$’ umask 022 # **************************************************************************** # General config – ls display config export LS_OPTIONS=’–color=auto’ eval “‘dircolors’” alias ls=’ls $LS_OPTIONS’ alias ll=’ls $LS_OPTIONS -l’ alias l=’ls $LS_OPTIONS -lA’ # **************************************************************************** #My aliases alias h=history alias eject=’eject /dev/cdrom’ alias cls=clear alias md=mkdir alias dir=ls -a alias exip=’wget -O – -q icanhazip.com’ # Displays external IP address alias moz=’ssh 192.168.1.2 -l root’ # To ssh into Mozart (Gateway Server) alias elg=’ssh 192.168.1.4 -l root’ # To ssh into Elgar (General Purpose Workstation/Server) alias viv=’ssh 192.168.1.10 -l root’ # To ssh into Vivaldi (Lamp Server) alias mozback=’sh /home/keckstein/scripts/mozart_backup.sh’ alias home=’cd /home/keckstein ; ls -a’8). I then set up my backup scripts. As I’ve already detailed these over at www.kmeckstein.com (Backing up to Gmail) I won’t go into any detail here. I’ll just mention that I use sendemail to send tarred and zipped archives to a Gmail account at 2am every morning.
This granular backup system works fine for me, especially in my writing if, for example, I kill off one of my characters and then find that I need him to still be around. I can always go back to the relevant backup to resuscitate him!
9). I then copy over my Nautilus scripts and, using Synaptic, I install Gedit plugins and pyroom and I’m pretty much ready to go.
All that’s left to do is to set up the web design functionality side of the machine.
This involves creating virtual machines (I’m currently using VMWare Player but VirtualBox did a fine job as well) so that I can view my websites using a variety of browsers running on different operating systems.
Of course, I need to install Chrome and the few extensions that I can’t live without.
And why do I do all this?
Why do I go to so much bother getting my system “just right”?
Well, I like to have exactly the same environment no matter what machine I’m using.
When Anthony Bourdain (in Kitchen Confidential) spoke about chefs needing their personal Mise en Place to be just so, well that struck a nerve with me. I’m like that in the kitchen and I’m doubly like that with my PC.
The environment that I’m using is one that I’ve customised over a period of time and it works well for me.
I don’t have to think about where the icons are; I can work under a sort of autopilot. And that saves me time.
And, of course, time is of the essence.
With so many sites to maintain and with the writing that I try to do, a few seconds saved here and a few moments saved there all add up.
And it’s not just quantitative element either. The breaks in my working process (waiting for GIMP to load, for example, just to resize an image) are also breaks in the creative process.
And I find being creative hard enough as it is, without any distractions from my computer which, when all is said and done, is supposed to be my tool!
That’s what it’s about,really.When Michael Schumacher gets in his formula one racing car (I know that he doesn’t do that any more but I’m not really into F1 and I can’t think of any other drivers!), it is a car that is entirely customised to his requirements. No added weight, no distractions, everything where it should be, all of the controls in the right place. For him. Not for the designer, not for the engineer, not even for any of the other drivers on the team. Michael Schumacher’s F1 car is designed to be the perfect tool for him. And, in a way, my PC is configured so that it is the perfect tool for me. Now, if only I could learn to write as well as Michael Schumacher drives a racing car! Oh, and by the way, I do apologise for the gratuitous use of a gnome image to the right. I just couldn’t resist it! |
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All the best
July 3rd, 2010 at 1:13 pm
A thoroughly enjoyable article, and one that resonates with me. A long time KDE user (since Mandrake in 2002 o so, and Kubuntu for the past 4 years or so), I’ve dabbled with Gnome periodically but always went back.
Over the past few months, I’ve felt vaguely dissatisfied with KDE. After reading a number of positive reviews of Linux Mint, I installed it over my previous Kubuntu Karmic, and after a few teething problems, I’m sold. Why?
Well, for starters the KDE 4.x eye candy was nice. In particular, I liked the ability to personalize individual desktops. I share my home desktop with my wife and logging in and out is a pain in the butt.
However, after trying out Mint I realized why I felt I needed a change: simplicity, stability and speed. KDE, I think, has lost its way.
Gnome’s configurability isn’t quite up to where KDE is, but it beats the rest of the opposition (Redmond, Cupertino, etc).
I’m still fine-tuning my own desktop, but it’s not too dissimilar from yours:
o panel at the bottom with Mint Menu, icons for most commonly used apps (Firefox, Thunderbird, Bluefish, gFTP, Nautius, Terminal, OO.o apps) and system tray (autohide on, 64 pixels).
o task bar at the top with currently running applications and date/time (autohide off, 32 pixels wide)
o simple desktop (Saturn wallpaper, I’m an outer space buff) with basic icons plus a few more for programs I use occasionally.
This configuration maximizes my usable desktop area. Like you, I prefer a darker wallpaper – icons with white text show up better, I reckon.
Thanks for an interesting read.
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Your graphic changes are similar to mine…. but for your text labels color ‘problem’ (black text labels with dark background are a crime) you can use gnome color changer to make the text white and thus readable.
greets…..
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Uh I meant gnome color chooser…. sorry
July 4th, 2010 at 7:55 am
Cheers – but the whole idea is to make them as unreadable a s possible so that they’re not a distraction.
July 4th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Great read! I truly think my ritual of customizing my Mint installs is more involved, so don’t feel bad. I have often thought it would be easier to custom spin my own ISO to install on all 8 machines I maintain, but I don’t feel like doing that every 6 months.
July 4th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
What a teriffic article! I want to do the same things. May I suggest [plead, beg, grovel, etc] that you post a webliography listing all of the places one needs to look find your articles that approximate what you have running.
One complaint I hear from folks about the entire Linux experience says, “… there are so many things you need to configure before you can do anything useful.” From the inside we know this is a reflection of the broad variety of choices we have for doing whatever we want to do — emphasis on “what WE WANT to do” not what someone else decides for us.
Our distros address part of this situation, but reality is that (1) there is a set of things that everyone wants or needs, and (2) there is a set of “application collections” for various end-user endeavors. The distros split at “server” and “desktop”. We need some way to split “desktop” into
“activity A” … “activity Z” centric package kits
or similar.
Before I get flamed, one can always add, remove packages to suite their whims. But an off the blocks “writer suite” or “photo suite” or “video suite” or “apps programmer suite” or “kernel/device programmer suite” or … might let more people be productive sooner without a lot of tinker up front.
Wish-List-Item:
The ought to be a way to to auto-magically, scan my workstation-1 settings and packages and friends. The scan would result in some machine readable file(s). The file(s) could serve as input to some utility. The utility makes workstation-2 identical to workstation-1 and announces any exceptions where that is not possible.
~~~ 0;-Dan
July 5th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
>When Michael Schumacher gets in his formula one racing car (I know that he doesn’t do that any more …
Yes he does, he drives for the Mercedes team.
July 5th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Just goes to show what I know! Does he use Gnome or, is he a KDE kiddie?
All the best
Keith
P.S. What I know about F1 could be written on the back of a postage stamp – with room to spare!
July 6th, 2010 at 9:52 am
that I have changed from being a “my flavour of Linux is better than your flavour of Linux” evangelist (and maybe, to be honest, a bore), to someone who just needs a strong and stable underlying operating system that allows me to run
I feel the exact same way except I use KDE. Ive stopped caring about distros since even my 8yr old keeps saying “They all look the same!”.
I think the most important decision facing someone who wants to try Linux isnt the distro, its the desktop.
If you dont like the desktop, no matter how many distros you try, you will be disappointed.
People keep pushing the same old desktop paradigms where they try to sell you on what they think you should like when the Linux desktops are about finding (altering a bit too) the desktop that suits YOU the best.
I love how some UI queens will drone on endlessly about the line and elegance of using 5pt fonts when most real life situations I deal with always are started off by a “Can you make this bigger?”
I even ran across a mailing list discussion where the beauty and simplicity of monochrome icons are praised when I know fully well that “How can I make those system tray icons bigger and easier to see?” is a big thing with users.
Their elegance and cool factor might be pretty but is totally irrelevant to many people.
That is why customization is the cornerstone of a desktop which reflects the needs of the user.
I think we can still go a long way to making backing up a less consuming process but Id still rather get a decent audio situation first (JACK, Alsa, etc)
July 6th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Hi Ned
I’ll freely admit that, had I not had such a bad experience of KDe a few years back, I may well be using it now. Fact is that I like Gnome (although I am a fan of Crunchbang which, I think, uses enlightenment) – I do feel totally amazed that it’s the desktop (and core apps) that now matter to me rather than the underlying OS.
And that’s why I can’t be a Microsoft fan. I’ve tried Windows 7 and I do think it’s very nice. I’m just not able to change it to work in my way and I can do all that in Linux so I’ll never change.
In the same way, the new Mint menu is a great step forward for new users. I hate it though – can’t blame the Mint guys, they weren’t designing it with me in mind!
In my humble opinion, the only people who get it right “out of the box” are the Puppy Linux Guys – the newbies can understand everything and the techies can play around.
All the best
Keith
July 9th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
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July 15th, 2010 at 1:11 am
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