So the last couple of days I’ve been running the Gnome window manager, and i must say, I’m quite surprised as to how good it is.
Ever since ’99 I’ve been running either Fluxbox, Openbox or Blackbox, but recently I’ve really become interested in the Compiz-fusion project. Compiz-fusion is basically just an eyecandy addon to the x-window system that enables for fancy features like the exposé feature in MacOS X and various other neat function’s.

So i decided I’d try out Gnome and see if i could get it to work. Seeing as Compiz didn’t work with either of the *box systems, i figured Gnome would be a good option. Now i have been trying out Gnome once before, but back then it was so bulky and ugly, and frankly i hated it. I did however find out now, while installing it, that i could install a light version, which didn’t contain that many bells and whistles, and therefor made it a lot less messy.

So i installed it, installed Compiz, and presto! It all worked as a charm :D After some intense hours of tweaking and hacking, i managed to get the default UI toned down to a nice clean UI, just the way I’m used to with the *box WM’s.

So here’s the result of what I’ve set up:

Here you can see the basics of it. A simple and clean UI with the most important icons and apps on the bottom, the gkrellm for system information and a panel on the top with the menu on the left.

Here’s how i change between the different virtual desktops. The cube has 4 sides and i have 4 virtual desktops to switch between. It might seem like a cumbersome way to change between desktops, but it’s really quick and easy, and it looks good too! :p

And for the finale, exposé Linux style!

So all in all, I’m pretty happy with my setup. I miss fluxbox, but at the same time, I really enjoy playing around with Gnome. I might just stay with this for a while and just enjoy it :) As for KDE, well that’s for another day. Last time i tried KDE it felt like crap as well, but who knows, maybe it’s become better over the years?

And just to add something computer related, just as I was about to head for bed last night, i thought “dammit, i don’t have any more storage space on my computer, so i can’t set a download on and go to bed. My computer will be idle all trough the night now..”, but then i remembered, when i was living at home with my mom, and for a short while after i moved out to my own apartment, i had been running Seti@home on all my computers to keep them occupied during the night, but seeing as i don’t feel the seti project is doing much useful these days, i figured I’d have a go at the Folding@home project instead. So I installed the folding application, set up my gkrellm to monitor it, and presto, 99% CPU usage trough the entire night, and it was actually useful for something :)