Linux - Taming Gnome 3.x to work better with extensions

One issue both Windows and Mac users face when contemplating the change over to Linux is wrapping their heads around the idea that the Operating System and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) are separate and they have the option to choose one that works best for their needs.

Such options can be intimidating, because as users we have become so used to having to deal with whatever the major corporation, be it Apple or Microsoft, determines how we should work, how things look, how you should organize everything.  Most of us using either Windows or Mac just have to accept the idiosyncrasies and headaches caused by the bafflement of wondering what the heck the programmers were thinking (please see Windows 8) and try our best to get on with life/work.

The ability to have control over how my computer looked and worked was one of several reasons I eventually took the plunge years ago and started experimenting with Linux.

Gnome Extensions - Change Icon for Trash Extension from bertoldia

One of the greatest things about Linux is that you can tweak almost every aspect of it, including the GUI.  For users of Gnome, the Gnome Extensions (extensions.gnome.org) add many customization options without having to get our hands dirty editing code.

One that I find exceptionally handy is the Trash extension by Axel von Bertoldi.  In Gnome 3.2 the icon looked like it does to the right, which worked out quite well for the themes and icons I regularly use in Gnome.  And changing the icon on your panel is relatively easy.

First week impressions of Fedora 18 and Gnome 3.6 (including the abomination called Nautilus)

Recently I got a new-ish computer and set about dual booting it with Fedora 18.

To be honest, I never purposely meant to leave Windows years ago, it just happened over time due to slow attrition.  At the time, around five years ago, I had picked up a spare PC so threw Fedora 13 on it after looking at a handful of Linux Distros.  Though most of my friends went the Ubuntu route, I chose Fedora mainly because it was branched from RHEL and at the time many of the servers I was working with were using CentOS (which is a RHEL branch also, but for servers).

Fedora 16 - Gnome 3: Remove Weekday From Top Panel

I will admit, having used Gnome 2.x for years on my main desktop computer, jumping into Fedora 16 with Gnome 3 was a bit of a culture shock for me.  Of course, to be safe, I didn't muck with my main computer, but threw FC16 onto my old MSI Wind netbook just in case things went seriously awry.

There have been a few minor issues, and being one who absolutely hates change I will admit that my first impressions of Gnome 3 were not very flattering.  After all, everything was soooo...  Different.  Now a few weeks into using it, and quite a bit of tweaking, it is not too bad.  Especially considering this netbook is not exactly a speed demon, it runs relatively well.  (And of course anything is better than the Windows XP that shipped on this little machine.)