V-TEK Weblog about webdevelopment and linux

Enhance your (Ubuntu) GNOME experience

Gnome, the way it is delivered with Ubuntu, is already pretty usefull. But I wasn't writing this post if I was convinced that there was a way to enhance it any further!.

Ok, let's bring on the magic in two enhancements for this time..

1. Gnome Do
2. Slab / new Gnome main menu

Well, that doesnt bring you any further does it? So allow me to explain it any further...

Gnome Do

GNOME Do allows you to quickly search for many items present in your GNOME desktop environment and perform useful actions on those items. GNOME Do is inspired by Quicksilver (for Mac Os X) and GNOME Launch Box.

Slab / Gnome Main Menu

Slab is the name of the new Gnome Main Menu which has a better design then the "default" menu layouts we are used with Gnome.

So how to install?

Installing these is easy, for Gnome Do it is:

# sudo apt-get install gnome-do

For Slab just do the following:

# sudo apt-get install gnome-main-menu

NOTE! - If you install "beagle" before gnome-main-menu, the menu has also a built in search option. For me this is a bit unnecessary, because I use "gnome do" to search applications, files and everything else...

Because most people forgot..

Yeah, most people forget to mention how to use the application they describe...

For Gnome-Do you can start it pressing "Windows"-button + "Space"-bar.

Then type in the application you'd like to start, and press enter... and then it just runs

For the new menu, just remove it from your gnome panel, clicking your right mouse button on top of the current menu and click "Remove..."

Then click on the right mouse button above the gnome panel and choose "Add to panel.." Then Choose the "main menu bar" with the computer icon in front of it.

Have fun with it!