Let's see your desktop!

[SUroot]

I find unity comfortable. It has what I want where I want it. You can indeed change window decoration in ccsm along with several other things. I also like how Nautilus interacts. It just suits me.

By the unity splash screen, I mean the purple "ubuntu" loading screen. Before log on and after log off on shut down. This was replaced with a silver splash with a kde cog on it.

I am familiar enough with kde. Like I said, its what comes with the fedora builds I use at work.

I only really wanted the features removed from ccsm in 12.10 back so setting those in kde would have been great but I like the whole gtk and icon look I have going on in unity.

Even when I had lxde on an ubuntu android image, I had it replicating unity. It may not be hugely customisable but I suppose everything is placed where it is for a reason and that reason for me seems to be efficiency through simplicity.
I don't like icons everywhere. I keep my desktop clean. I don't need lists of apps I dont use or multi tabbed interfaces. Everything I need is in the launcher, keyboard shortcuts, search or on display.
I find unity loads quicker for my config than kde. I'm a minimalist so its featureset suits, however I would like a little more eye candy. I did notice the cube didn't seem as nicely rendered in kde as it did in unity with my conky and wallpaper. Its edges seemed more jaggered.

 

[Mehta23]

I am not able to attach my pic.. can anyone help me out for this???? I really want to show my desktop.....

best to upload it for free to Image Shack, get the direct link and then when posting your reply, click the little image icon. This should bring up a pop up box into which you need to paste your link.

Done.

 

[nickdalzell]

i use Photobucket--which also has a mobile app. just post by going to the desktop site and copy/paste the

 

[SUroot]

i use Photobucket--which also has a mobile app. just post by going to the desktop site and copy/paste the code to a reply and it should show.[/QUOTE]

Same. Although it does seem to resize images based filesize by default

 

[nickdalzell]

A more minimalist KDE desktop

 

[mikedt]

Windoze...

 

[nickdalzell]

That's not Windows, it's Linux trying to BE Windows

 

[SUroot]

Nah, it is windows. Why would any self-respecting linux themer try to replicate the awful Realtek HD audio sys tray icon? You'd replicate the windows one. Its windows alright.

 

[nickdalzell]

looks nothing like Windows to me? especially the lack of IE, the system tray and start menu looks nothing like Windows. the penguin icon gives the Linux away--looks like an awful GTK theme if you ask me

besides, how does Libreoffice do Windows?

 

[SUroot]

looks nothing like Windows to me?

You're a linux user though? When did you last spend any time looking at windows?

especially the lack of IE

Not all Windows users use IE. You wouldn't pin an app to the taskbar that you didn't use.

the system tray and start menu looks nothing like Windows.

Windows 8 has no start menu. True, sys tray looks a bit odd. The transparency of the taskbar means the underline of Brook Burling is seen through.

Whilst looking for this wallpaper to prove the underline exists on the wallpaper, I found this:

Painted Skies theme - Microsoft Windows

...most notable the "Window color" Which kind of ties the whole thing together.

the penguin icon gives the Linux away

Yep. Looks like tencentQQ (Instant messaging service in China) just like other companies in china, have no qualms using the identity of others

besides, how does Libreoffice do Windows?

Home

 

[nickdalzell]

i have only been on Linux for a month at best. i was using Win8 prior to that on a few months-old laptop. it has not been that long SU.

Windows 8 has no start menu, true. but it has tiles too. this looks nothing like Windows 8's desktop app, and last i recalled, it couldn't be themed (a big problem with Win8 is every computer has the same desktop, no color customization, only desktop supports wallpaper changes)

there is nothing abou the screenshot that looks anything like Windows. not even the icons are right. it really does come off looking like a theme for KDE or Gnome--in fact i can quite easily recreate Windows Phone 7's metro interface on Android just as easily.

 

[SUroot]

i have only been on Linux for a month at best. i was using Win8 prior to that on a few months-old laptop. it has not been that long SU.

Windows 8 has no start menu, true. but it has tiles too. this looks nothing like Windows 8's desktop app, and last i recalled, it couldn't be themed (a big problem with Win8 is every computer has the same desktop, no color customization, only desktop supports wallpaper changes)

there is nothing abou the screenshot that looks anything like Windows. not even the icons are right. it really does come off looking like a theme for KDE or Gnome--in fact i can quite easily recreate Windows Phone 7's metro interface on Android just as easily.

If you press the windows key (if you haven't installed classic start menu from sourceforge.net) it toggles between the Metro UI (touch interface) and the desktop posted above.

The Metro UI is not a desktop and I don't know if it can be themed or not. The Desktop can be themed, as per Microsoft's own words:

Themes - Microsoft Windows

Windows themes work only in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows RT

Also, I believe I have actually found and posted the specific theme Mike is using.

The windows icons in the sys tray (the white ones) are the same as Windows 7. The rest are 3rd party.

From left to right (I think)

ChinaNet Wireless
Synaptics Mousepad driver (Common on Dell laptops)
RealTek HD audio
Windows Action centre
Nvidia system tray?
Power
Network
Sound
Keyboard Language

 

[mikedt]

I posted it to see what people would think.

i have only been on Linux for a month at best. i was using Win8 prior to that on a few months-old laptop. it has not been that long SU.

Windows 8 has no start menu, true. but it has tiles too. this looks nothing like Windows 8's desktop app, and last i recalled, it couldn't be themed (a big problem with Win8 is every computer has the same desktop, no color customization, only desktop supports wallpaper changes)

there is nothing abou the screenshot that looks anything like Windows. not even the icons are right. it really does come off looking like a theme for KDE or Gnome--in fact i can quite easily recreate Windows Phone 7's metro interface on Android just as easily.

Nick, it's definitely Windows 8.

 

[mikedt]

If you press the windows key (if you haven't installed classic start menu from sourceforge.net) it toggles between the Metro UI (touch interface) and the desktop posted above.

The Metro UI is not a desktop and I don't know if it can be themed or not. The Desktop can be themed, as per Microsoft's own words:

Themes - Microsoft Windows



Also, I believe I have actually found and posted the specific theme Mike is using.

The windows icons in the sys tray (the white ones) are the same as Windows 7. The rest are 3rd party.

From left to right (I think)

ChinaNet Wireless
Synaptics Mousepad driver (Common on Dell laptops)
RealTek HD audio
Windows Action centre
Nvidia system tray?

Actually it's the Intel graphics system try thing, but close enough.

Power
Network
Sound
Keyboard Language

10/10 well done. It's actually on my Lenovo laptop. Which also runs Linux Mint.

Plus there's iTunes on the desktop, that I use for iTunes U. And there's uTorrent, which I believe is a Windows only bittorrent client. On Linux I use Transmission. Also Linux doesn't need a big ugly China Telecom ChinaNet 3G dialler app, it's quite capable of handling USB 3G modems on it's own.


Think it confused Nick somewhat.

 

[SUroot]

I have transmission too but looking for a replacement. I have sabnzbdplus for news groups which monitors my downloads folder for nzbs. So I can download them on my phone and sftp them to the downloads folder and they get picked up... looking for a torrent app that will work the same.

Ive got utorrent for android too

 

[nickdalzell]

utorrent can run on Wine so i would not think it would be windows-only. personally nothing on your desktop looked windows specific. and it really does not look like Windows 8's desktop mode. i couldn't change the icon theme, start menu theme or anything. you must have Win8 Pro or something. all my desktop would do is add/remove icons or let me change the wall paper

 

[mikedt]

utorrent can run on Wine so i would not think it would be windows-only.

Sure I could run uTorrent on Wine, but what would be the point? Other than to prove it can be done. And I could run iTunes on Wine as well, if I wanted. However the China Telecom 3G dialler app doesn't. But I'm certainly not going to fake a RealTek or Intel system tray icon.

personally nothing on your desktop looked windows specific. and it really does not look like Windows 8's desktop mode. i couldn't change the icon theme, start menu theme or anything. you must have Win8 Pro or something. all my desktop would do is add/remove icons or let me change the wall paper

It's just regular Windows 8, not Pro, and it's definitely not RT. Bought and activated it on-line via MS United Kingdom, as Win 8 is not available without buying a new PC in China. The Pro version of Win 8 is more about features suitable for enterprise users, like Hyper-V and Group Policies.

 

[SUroot]

personally nothing on your desktop looked windows specific. and it really does not look like Windows 8's desktop mode.

Odd. Looks exactly like windows to me. But then, "windows" is my job so I wouldn't expect others to be as familiar as I am.

RT is cut down. Maybe you had that. Not really a comparison against real windows though

 

[nickdalzell]

i had whatever came with my Toshiba. it just said 'Windows 8' on the tag. it displayed Metro normally unless i launched 'Desktop' and then it would have a Win7 style desktop. the wallpaper was customizable, i could auto-hide the dock and disable or enable desktop icons. but no themes. if more than say 3 or so system tray icons were showing, they'd auto hide behind a 'arrow' that if you clicked it would show all of them. i can assure you Mike's desktop looks more like a haphazard GTK theme than any Windows i have seen. and i have used Windows since version 3.0

It also had that UEFI crap too. a lot of joy getting Linux to run on that! i lost Windows 8 in the process (the partition manager had already wiped the entire HDD) and i had planned a dual boot but it did not matter as i got my game working on Linux now--if Star Trek Online had not worked, it would have been a deal breaker and a big 'whoops!' as that is the primary use of that particular laptop

i must admit i do miss Flight Simulator X. all the many hacks, add-ons, mods, payware add-ons, etc all gone. FSX refuses to run in Wine. it gets to the title screen and music then IE spits out tons of endless script errors until the machine either crashes or until i run 'pkill exe' in a terminal

 

[mikedt]

i had whatever came with my Toshiba. it just said 'Windows 8' on the tag. it displayed Metro normally unless i launched 'Desktop' and then it would have a Win7 style desktop. the wallpaper was customizable, i could auto-hide the dock and disable or enable desktop icons. but no themes. if more than say 3 or so system tray icons were showing, they'd auto hide behind a 'arrow' that if you clicked it would show all of them. i can assure you Mike's desktop looks more like a haphazard GTK theme than any Windows i have seen. and i have used Windows since version 3.0

What looks like a "haphazard GTK theme"? Just that I've got the task bar as a semi-transparent grey colour? As for the rest of it, that's just how I've set it up, all system tray icons showing, wallpaper choice etc. The Windows 8 desktop loses much of that shiny aero-glass stuff that Windows 7 had. It's much more about clean solid colours and less flash and shine.

I suppose I could make my KDE desktop look like Mac OS X, with a dock and everything.

It also had that UEFI crap too. a lot of joy getting Linux to run on that! i lost Windows 8 in the process (the partition manager had already wiped the entire HDD) and i had planned a dual boot but it did not matter as i got my game working on Linux now--if Star Trek Online had not worked, it would have been a deal breaker and a big 'whoops!' as that is the primary use of that particular laptop

The recent Lenovo laptop I'm using has all that "UEFI crap too", and I installed Linux no problem and Windows 8. However it came with pirated Windows 7 Ultimate.....Welcome to China! That was the primary reason why I bought Genuine Windows 8.

 

[nickdalzell]

it was for me a matter of getting into the BIOS. the shutdown key combo you hold down as you click 'settings, shutdown, restart' in Win8 was not exactly out there--i had to do my homework again. then i put it into legacy mode and popped in my Ubuntu DVD (a waste of a DVD-R but the file is just beyond the storage capacity of a CD-R)

 

[SUroot]

i can assure you Mike's desktop looks more like a haphazard GTK theme than any Windows i have seen. and i have used Windows since version 3.0

Ok. I've used it since 3 too. So yes you're right, Mikes desktop looks nothing like 3

 

[Italo]

Background changes a lot. I've been using this one for a couple of weeks. Nothing fancy with the desktop.

 

[JohnLaird]

Nothing too exciting...

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm151/coffeeaddict21/dsktop_zps9cbfaf5b.jpg

 

[argedion]

Using Magea 3 with kde here.