Gstyle is a new full Gnome theme manager with some really great features which I am sure you will love if you like to customize your Desktop look constantly. Gstyle can automatically download and install wallpapers, Xsplash, GTK themes, icon themes, full themes, mouse pointers and more from gnome-look, deviantart, customize.org and others, or directly from the software source. But not only that, Gstyle can show you how a theme (any kind of theme: icons, Emerald, Metacity, etc.) actually looks, not just a preview. You will see what I mean in the screenshots below (3rd screenshot).
Gstyle can also apply different Compiz cube (well, actually Sphere) styles called Cubemodels. I'm sure you're going to love them. Of course, there is still work to do, but Gstyle is still in its infancy, this being the first version ever released. I think we'll see more of Gstyle soon.
A few Gstyle screenshots:
Gstyle can also apply different Compiz cube (well, actually Sphere) styles called Cubemodels. I'm sure you're going to love them. Of course, there is still work to do, but Gstyle is still in its infancy, this being the first version ever released. I think we'll see more of Gstyle soon.
A few Gstyle screenshots:
Gstyle Gnome Full Theme Manager also comes with a script to install some applications such as AWN, Cairo-Dock and others, but something required by Gstyle too: Compiz GIT, including the latest plugins (many many new plugins!) (required for Cubemodels only). There is a downside to this script which worked flawlessly for me: it's in French. Yes, even though Gstyle is in English, the script to install Compiz from GIT and the latest plugins (among others) is in French so you can either install Compiz from GIT yourself, or learn French or... use Google Translate. But everything is pretty easy to understand even if you don't know French (or so it seems to me).
Before you proceed with the installation, here is a video with Gstyle in action:
Alternatively, watch the OGV version of the video, HERE.
Install Gstyle In Ubuntu
Gstyle installation from GIT is very easy. Simply open a terminal and paste this:
sudo apt-get install python-metacity python-gksu2 git-core python-glade2
git clone git://github.com/smolleyes/gstyle.git
cd gstyle/src/
python gstyle.py
The last command above will open Gstyle.
To update Gstyle, use this:
cd /path/to/gstyle/src
git pull
Where "/path/to/gstyle" is the path where you've previously downloaded Gstyle.
Update: if you don't want to install Compiz from GIT (see below), you can simply download and install Cubemodel .deb (Ubuntu Karmic package).
Installing Compiz GIT and others in Ubuntu
If you don't have the latest Compiz from GIT, the first tab called "Cubemodels" will not be available. To enable it, you'll have to run a script called "cfinstall.sh". Don't worry about it being a script, a GUI will pop up so you can do everything very easy.
Along with Compiz GIT, you will also get lots of new plugins (you can see a few of these new plugins in the screenshot below):
Warning: only follow these steps if you know what you are doing and know how to fix your system in case anything goes wrong! You have been warned!
The cfinstall.sh script is available HERE. The instructions are in French, but don't worry, you just have to copy and paste the following commands:
wget http://phatandfresh.free.fr/cfinstall.sh
sudo chmod +x cfinstall.sh
./cfinstall.sh -y
After running this last command, some dependencies and a GUI for cfinstall.sh will be installed. Once everything is done, open cfinstall from Applications > System Tools > 3D desktop installer.
You can simply check Compiz Git and Cubemodel and click OK and the installation will shortly begin. As you can see, you don't have to know too much French to do this.
A note: make sure you do not select to install both COMPIZ GIT and Compiz Depots (Compiz from the PPA)!
After installing Compiz GIT and any other applications you want, log out and log back in.
At this point Compiz will probably be disabled. Enable it through the Compiz Fusion Icon which will be available in the Notification area. Also, the Compiz plugins will be disabled so enable the plugins you want to use (don't forget the very basic ones!). As a note: you may want to enable the "Move window" plugin so you can move the windows and the "Window decoration" plugin!
For more information and questions to the author, visit Gstyle Project thread @ ubuntuforums. Credits for the video go the Gstyle author.
Other somewhat similar projects: GnomeArt NextGen, Epidermis.