Nice Glossy Look

Here is my desktop now.
I am using Beryl as I have said before and I have installed some new themes and am using a new icon theme. I like the nice new glossy black look of the panels.

I have also install KDE so I can run the KDE desktop or KDE applications if I want to.

I am also using a program called Gimmie which now deals with my menus. It is a fairly new product and is a little buggy but I would rather run something cutting edge thats a little buggy than something that extremely stable but not very new.

I will be spending some more time getting monthonlinux.no-ip.org running but at the moment other commitments with school and my personal life (yes I do have a life outside computers) have to take priority at the moment.

Changes Complete

I now have a dual boot system (as before) but this time Ubuntu is installed on a 60Gb partition of my main hard drive and Vista Ultimate is on the other partion. (90GB)

I also have another drive which has all my music an associated stuff on it (20 Gb formatted with fat 32) which i can access from both Windows and Ubuntu.

Beryl is being a bit funny at the moment. I have 6 desktops setup but when go to flip though them with ctrl + alt + left it only shows a cube which isn't like before. I'm not sure if its some kind of update that screwed things up a bit.

I have made major progress with my command line skill. I now install pretty much every thing from the command line.
Eg.

sudo apt-get install beryl

sudo apt-get install emerald

sudo apt-get install monodevelop

Its pretty sweet the command line (or at least apt-get)

Making some serious changes.

I have finally bitten the bullet and decided to copy all my important files accross to a backup share on another machine in my house and then to install Vista Ultimate on a 80GB partition and then Ubuntu on the remaining 70GB with a 20GB data drive formated with FAT 32 so i can easily port files between the two systems (or more to the point get files from Linux to Vista). This is a significant change from my previous 20GB installation of Ubuntu but I think it will be well worth the work. I have had no problems that I haven't been able to fix on Ubuntu, its far less resource intensive with more eye candy then Vista and its free so why not let it have a large chunk of my hard drive. So why have I given Vista so much if I am finding Ubuntu so good? It all comes down to the fact that I have to fit bloatware on the Vista partition. Things that take up so much room. I got my previous installation of Ubuntu working on less then 7GB fully install and setup with all the applications I need. Vista just doesn't come anywhere near that. It takes about 15 - 18 GB to get setup with everything I need on Vista which is a pain.

The next question I have to ask myself before I go and install Ubuntu is what flavor do I want? I have tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu and I think I like Ubuntu more. It just seems that I can get things work more easily and the graphics settings and appearance that I like just seem to work better with Gnome.

Also I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but there seems to be a cult nature about KDE. Every second application that is designed for KDE starts with "K". I don't really like that. I know that probably sounds lame but thats just the way I feel.

Why doesn't this work?

If you can't read it it says sudo apt-get install windows-vista-ulitmate -y.


No... I'm not that much of a noob that I really expect it to work.

Converting Ubuntu to Kubuntu or the other way round

I haven't posted in a while which can be attributed to a load of things including various conventions / chemistry competitions / spider bite. I have been fiddling around with KDE a bit and here is some stuff I put together on how to convert different flavors of Ubuntu.

There are two main situations where someone might have one flavor of Ubuntu and want to get another.

Situation 1 - Have Ubuntu install and you want Kubuntu

1. Open terminal and type "sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop" (with out the inverted commas.

2. After that has finished which might take a while depending on your internet connection exit console and log out or press "ctrl + alt + backspace".

3. From there goto the options down the bottom right of the screen - goto sessions and select "KDE" and then login.

4. Goto the K menu and goto "system tools" and then Konsole. Type in sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop.

5. After that has finished you can restart and you will have Kubuntu.



Situation 2 - Have Kubuntu install and you want Ubuntu

1. Open terminal and type "sudo apt-get ubuntu-desktop" (with out the inverted commas.

2. After that has finished which might take a while depending on your internet connection exit console and log out or press "ctrl + alt + backspace".

3. From there goto the options down the bottom right of the screen - goto sessions and select "gnome" and then login.

4. Goto the applications menu and goto accessories and then Terminal. Type in sudo apt-get remove kubuntu-desktop.

5. After that has finished you can restart and you will have Ubuntu.

What about xubuntu? - Probably works in a similar way I just haven't tried it.

Can I have Kubuntu and Ubuntu? - yes. Applications for both will work in both too its just some applications are designed to work better with a certain desktop. (Eg. I find Beryl works best with Gnome - which s the desktop supplied with Ubuntu)