Follow along and watch while I take a stock Ubuntu desktop and transform it something really slick!

Introduction

Window borders, icons, splash images and other graphical user interface (GUI) preferences are largely a subjective thing. Still, it’s nice to have the tools available to transform the GUI into something that is more pleasing to your eye. Fortunately, GNU/Linux makes it relatively easy to mould your desktop environment into whatever suits your taste, and Ubuntu is no exception.

For the purposes of this discussion, I'll stick to Ubuntu’s default Gnome desktop, but Ubuntu’s KDE desktop (Kubuntu) is every bit as flexible.

How it works

Ubuntu’s Gnome desktop comes with a number of pre-installed themes, and a built-in theme manager. You can access the “Theme Preferences” by selecting System → Preferences → Theme from the Ubuntu menu (as shown in figure 1a). You will then be presented with the Theme Preferences window (as shown in figure 1b).

Figure 1a: Finding the Theme Preferences in Ubuntu's menus

Figure 1b: Theme Preferences window

By selecting one of the other themes listed in the Theme Preferences window, it will change the following three components:

• Controls: including such things as buttons, colours, and check boxes
• Window borders: including the type of border as well as buttons for minimizing, maximizing, and restoring windows
• Icons: complete icon themes (some are more complete than others)

You can also mix and match these components by selecting “Theme Details” (figure 1c).

Figure 1c: Theme Details

For example, you might select the “Clearlooks” Controls, “Atlanta” Window Border, and “Sandy” Icons. Once satisfied with your selections, a custom theme such as this can be saved from within the main Theme Preferences window.

A closer look

There are a few additional parts of the Gnome desktop that can be modified in order to better customize the overall look and feel. They are:

• Backgrounds: also known as “wallpaper”
• Login Manager: where you enter user name and password
• Splash Screen: a graphical image displaying logon progress

Fortunately, there is another tool known as “Art Manager” (also known as “Gnome Art”) that will allow you to manage all six of these components. I will focus primarily on this tool to help change Ubuntu’s look.

Unfortunately, Art Manager is not installed in the default Gnome desktop. In order to install it, you will have to ensure that all Ubuntu repositories are enabled in the Synaptic Package Manager (figures 1d, 1e, and 1f).

Figure 1d: Synaptic Package Manager

Figure 1e: Repositories

Figure 1f: Edit Repository