DesktopKwikis

Here are some little Kwikis that can be used on Linux desktops to make life a little easier...

These are things people have found useful in improving the Linux desktop. Please give working examples and explanations.

Adjusting the Desktop in Linux and Windows

The following link has a nice table where you can compare and quickly see how to perform some common tasks to tailor a desktop for the user. Things like changing the background, theme, etc.

http://img.com.com/i/tr/contentHTML/r00320040225joh01_A.htm

Desktop Shell Kwikis

DesktopAliasKwikis - Kwikis for "alias"ing very common commands
DesktopBashrcKwikis - Kwikis for customizing your bash environment
DesktopProfileKwikis - Kwikis for customizing the system-wide shell startup environment

Desktop Editor Kwikis

DesktopVimrcKwikis - Kwikis for adjusting your .vimrc file
DesktopEmacsKwikis - Kwikis for tailoring your EMACS environment

Desktop Networking Kwikis

DesktopSMBKwikis - Kwikis for configuring SAMBA servers or clients
DesktopNetrcKwikis - Kwikis for customizing FTP connections

Desktop Application Kwikis

DesktopEnscriptKwikis - Kwikis for enhancing Enscript

KDE Desktop Kwikis

KDE-CWS - K Desktop Environment Community Wiki Site
Where are the KDE configuration files?

http://www.kde.org/areas/sysadmin/fsh.php#dir_structure

How do I know what my favorite color's RGB codes are?

http://www.pitt.edu/~nisg/cis/web/cgi/rgb.html

Using 'kdialog' to put a GUI on interactive shell scripts

http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/kdialog/t1.html

Configuring scripts to run on logout from KDE

A fast look in usr/bin/startkde reveals that logout scripts are run from "~.kde/shutdown" (for individual users) and "/usr/shutdown" (for all users).
You have to create the "shutdown" directories your self and at logout all scripts found in these directories will be run.
Don't forget to set proper execution(s) bit for all logout scripts (e.g. "chmod +x myFile" or "chmod +x *").

Using 'kstart' to start an application on a specific virtual desktop:

From the KDE Desktop FAQ

6.6. How do I launch applications in a particular desktop?: KDE comes with a program called kstart. To start an xterm on the second desktop and then activate it use:

kstart --desktop 2 --activate --window "xterm" xterm

Note that the --window option is important. It takes an argument which is a regular expression matching the title of the window to apply the settings to.

Please read kstart --help-all for more magic available with kstart (and there is an abundance).

You can create your own service menu entries

For example, you can add an action "e-mail as Attachment":

Create a normal textfile with the name 'e-mail.desktop' in the directory

~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/

with the following contents

[Desktop Entry]
ServiceTypes=all/allfiles
Actions=mailto

[Desktop Action mailto]
Name=e-Mail as Attachement
Exec=kmail --attach %U
Icon=kmail

Now when you right-click on any file in konqueror's file manager mode you can e-mail that file as an attachment with KMail.

For a tutorial on service menus see http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/dot/servicemenus.html

Desktop Fonts

Desktop GUI Eye Candy

A totally useless (but cool) GUI toy called 3D-Desktop

From Eric

Adding the Ah! factor to your desktop is very easy. Linux has many apps that may be hidden from the average user who may be a bit timid to try the app. If you want to give the affect of water on your desktop where your mouse and closing windows will create ripples on your desktop I recommend

xdesktopwaves

You can locate it in XandrosNetworks under new applications and games. It is near the end of the list. Install is a snap.
To run, simply go to the run command on your start menu and type in 'xdesktopwaves' and it will work. I added it to my menu so I can turn it on when I want.

From Monster_user

There is also 'xfishtank' available on the unsupported repository. Using these commands you can make the fish swim around in the water.
For xdesktopwaves low res.

xdesktopwaves -quality 2

Medium res.

xdesktopwaves -quality 4

High res

xdesktopwaves -quality 8

Xfishtank runs slow by default, and uses a green screen, so this command fixes that.

xfishtank -c blue -r 0.1 -i 0.1

This does slow the system down quite a but, but it looks really cool.