mr. rno, a little fries wid that ketchup!

You walk into the Linuxville guide office, the aroma of french fries wafts past your nose. It's a new manly sports party scent by Glade, ha ha! Also comes in pizza, chicken wing and nacho scents too.

I am caught up in the Linux graphics applications, mainly because they are free open source programs, but also because they are pretty darn good. GIMP is a wonderful app and the worst thing I heard about it is the multiple windows for tools and the drawing area. Here is how I get around the complaint:

You see the tool windows covering the drawing window. I have it so that if you double click the window heading bars, they roll up like a shade and out of the way, yet still accessible. It looks like this:

The Linux desktop, Gnome in this case, is very flexible. So I want all you die-hard pixel-heads to de-res a little, let the desktop work for you. I hear a single windowed GIMP is in the works, I hope it is better. Some like a static never changing interface. I like options I can set and save. The config file has long been a Linux standard. I am surprised that the GIMP config is not an applet like what Tux Paint has. It would be cool to have several custom configs to change GIMP from a photo mangler to a draw and paint slinger or to match Photoshop or not, at will.

As you can guess, I try to avoid using the mainstream graphics applications that run only on Microsoft, but there are times when a little Wine gets you through the night. I do have a lite version of Photoshop which runs well in Wine. I tell myself that learning the Photoshop interface is a good thing. When and if I turn pro, that is, work at a job that requires Photoshop, I will at least be familiar and may not have to purchase it myself. I don't have to hold my breath though, there is Pixel. Pixel will probably be the Photoshop alternative that runs on Linux. It is not free and it does not require a personal loan to purchase. I have a trial version, it is so cool:

Do the Google search and check it out. I have not used it much yet so I can't speak for it. I think it is OK for Linux to have some applications which you pay for. Many high-end graphics applications that run in Linux are like this, like Maya. Pixel is reasonably priced and compared to Photoshop is cheap.

The real problem is that I can't use them all, get good at them all, hands-on time is required. I divide my time between job hunting, family and nerding. If you can do the time, you'll be fine. I am finding the limitations of using open source software is mostly about others using other things (so-called pro-ware). A lot of vocal folks do not actually spend the time to really use open source. Their bags are packed, why unpack to put it in new bags? The new bag, paper, plastic, rich Corinthian leather, whatever it is worth, you need to go where few dudes or dudettes have gone before, to Linuxville.

Gnome makeover, move that bus

We users are so fussy and yet we want our OS to look good right out of the box. Linux or more specifically Ubuntu Linux so far has sported colors that are not the most agreeable. I bought different makes of cars for years, they all had green lit dashboards. One time I bought a Pontiac 6000 sedan, it was so cool. The first time I lit up the dashboard, a startling orange on black. I was mesmerized every time I drove it. Ubuntu's brown and orange choice is just not doing it for me. I am more of a blue kind of guy. The great thing about Gnome is how easy you can change things. OK, they didn't put a couple dozen pre-made combos in the theme manager for you to choose. Don't shoot me, you didn't read the fine print, "batteries included, adjust to suit, mileage may vary". The Gnome desktop is deceptively simple yet offers a fare amount of tweak-ability. The easiest change is the wallpaper or background. I'll save that for last for that very reason. Click on the System word on the menu bar, then Preferences and select Appearance. You will see a choice of say 10 themes (is that all?!?). Now wait, click on one that's close to what you want. I like the one with rounded corners called "Human-Murrine". It immediately changes the whole desktop, you don't have to click install. If you want to change any of the elements click "Customize". From here you can tweak all the parts, including the background. On the menu select item, I turned the blazing orange to a peaceful brown tone and removed my sunglasses. Then on the background tab I went for the horizontal gradient and stayed with the brown colors for now. If you are color blind, can't make up your mind or are just lazy install a little program called "Agave". It has the wonderful ability of matching the color you picked with two co-ordinating colors. You can tweak until you hit on something you like. Each color has a number you can copy from the dialog box of Agave, paste it into the box in Appearance and you are ready to go. Finally for this make over I centered a piece of my own artwork, a graphic in the African spirit, saved the creation to my home folder and presto, I have a personalized theme I can switch to any time I want, just select it in Appearance and hit the install button. This is a screenshot with no apps running.
I think this is snazzy, and I made the panels at the top and bottom disappear by using a transparency option. Just right click each panel, select properties, then background, then transparency. I got my idea of African flavor, all I need is marimba and drum sound, a screensaver of rushing herds of various animals and the dashiki I wore in college. So, there you are and in fact if you want to check out what other Gnome users have come up with, head over to www.gnome-look.org or www.ubuntux.org/image. Don't be afraid to wonder or wander in Linuxville, we appreciate the daring and the conventional, show off your stuff and have fun.