RICKVAUSE.COM

I love and use Gnome but have been thinking a lot about how we use computers recently; with Unity coming to the desktop and other similar desktops already in use like iOS on ipad and Windows 7, this has raised thoughts about what desktops environments are.

Reducing it down to a very abstract idea, Gnome for me is a series of text boxes I write in. I'll be writing here in my web browser to Posterous, then I'll hit <Alt><Tab> and write to my friend in Empathy then I'll hit F12 to open a terminal with Guake and manage code with Git then hit F12 to go back to my friend on Empathy then <Alt><Tab> twice and I'll be editing code in gedit, then I'll hit <Alt><Tab> twice again and I'll return to writing to Posterous. I am more than aware that there is plenty to click about with in Gnome but ultimately, most the time I use it I am writing and Alt-Tabbing.

These newer ideas about what a desktop should be require a lot of clicking. Whilst I am very anxious to see Unity at it's completion and running perfectly on the desktop, this new way of getting stuff done is making me feel old an scared. I know that Unity will still have such keyboard shortcuts but will people like me be able to make the most of these new desktops?

I know that it is going to be great for my girlfriend, but what about us folk who hate reaching for the mouse?

I have seen this question come up a couple of times on IRC channels and now on twitter (warning: passionate language) so I thought I would explain how to retrieve the location bar that has seemingly been replaced altogether by the 'windowsy' location browser since 2.30. Just in-case you do not know what I am talking about here is a screenshot of what we generally do not want: And here is a screenshot of what we generally do want: It's not a difficult fix. All you need to do is open a terminal window and enter the following: and to switch back: Done.

I've got loads of wallpapers. I really like high resolution images and the idea of having them on my desktop is great. I have collected so many because I thought it would be great to have all these wallpapers on my desktop. Problem, though, I somehow never find the time to change between all these wallpapers. So I thought I would write a little python script that I could run on a cron job as well as on login to pick a random wallpaper from my wallpaper folder and change the displayed wallpaper on my desktop. There may be the facility to do this already somewhere hidden in Gnome but I don't know about it and this seems like an incredibly simple solution. Long overdue in my opinion, but here it is.

import os, random

WALLPAPER_DIR = '/path/to/wallpapers'

walls = os.listdir(WALLPAPER_DIR)
wallpaper = os.path.join(WALLPAPER_DIR, random.choice(walls))

if os.path.exists(wallpaper):
    os.system('gconftool-2 -s -t string /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "%s"' % wallpaper)

Just save it somewhere it can execute from and run it as a cron job and/or at login.