SUSE Linux 10.0 Unleashed

You can choose to customize your experience with both desktops as much as you like. KDE has a simple and comprehensive Control Center where this happens. GNOME gives you a choice in how and where to customize. Following is a brief guide to some of the highlights.

KDE Control Center

When you open the KDE Control Center, you get a quick summary of your system information: versions for KDE and the Linux kernel release, the machine name, and your username. Down the left side are the configuration categories.

In Appearance and Themes, you can set the wallpaper (called Background here), the screensaver, window colors, and other look-and-feel items. Each can be set individually, or themes can do this all at once. Go to the Theme Manager and click Get New Themes to visit http://www.kde-look.org for downloadable themes, wallpaper, and screensavers. The Background and Screen Saver pages show you what each option looks like in a test screen, so you don't have to commit before seeing it.

The Desktop area lets you set up the number of virtual desktops you want and sets various options for the Kicker panels and taskbar. Choose the Device Icons tab under Behavior to include links to devices and directories on your desktop.

The Internet and Network area lets you configure Konqueror's web-browsing functions, share your desktop with other KDE users on the network, and set up your Samba client configuration for accessing Windows shares on your network (SuperUsers can also configure a Samba server). If you're on a laptop with Bluetooth capabilities, you can add and manage your Bluetooth services here as well.

In KDE Components you can set default applications for mail, Konqueror's embedded text editor (for viewing text files in the file manager), instant messaging, and Xterminal. You can also change the default web browser from Konqueror so that Internet links open in your browser of choice. The Session Manager also sets the behavior for shutdown and startup.

Peripherals sets mouse, keyboard, and joystick behaviors. The Power Control settings, which turn off the screensaver and monitor when not in use, are located under Display (and laptop power controls are in Power Control). Regional and Accessibility settings define your keyboard layout and how times, dates, and money are displayed depending on the norm for your country. Set keyboard shortcuts for various KDE functions in the Keyboard Shortcuts section and define other keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures in KHotKeys, a new addition. Figure 6.11 shows the Keyboard Shortcuts screen.

Security and Privacy lets you take some security measures for yourself. The KDE Wallet function will remember website passwords and other private information if you choose. This is kept in a password-protected file that only you have access to.

Don't like the startup music that KDE plays? Head over to Sound & Multimedia, System Notifications. You can turn off or replace many automatic sounds associated with various actions and not only sounds. You can assign a log file to an action, display a message, or specify any combination of notifications for any action.

Most of the System Administration tools and all the YaST tools require SuperUser (su) access to manipulate, but the Administrator Mode button is a handy way to make that happen.

If you are dual booting Windows and SUSE Linux, the Font Installer lets you include all your Windows fonts in Linux. Click Add Fonts and then navigate to /windows/c/Windows/Fonts. Select all (or only the ones you want) and click Open.

When making changes in the Control Center, you must click Apply before moving away from that window. If you forget, you'll get a message asking if you want to apply the changes you made. With a few exceptions, all changes take place immediately.

Customizing GNOME

Making the desktop work the best way for you is one of the stated goals of the GNOME project. If something doesn't look or work right, right-click it, and you should see a way to fix it. In the panels, you can add or remove items and panels easily enough, and you can set the size, color, and autohide capability in the Properties screen. Want to use a 24-hour clock instead of the AM/PM variety? Right-click the clock and you can make those changes.

The centralized Settings customization tool is in the System menu in the top panel (see Figure 6.12). Double-click any of the Settings icons to open the relevant screen.

The first section deals in the Personal, or so the menu says. The Accessibility and Assistive Technology Support pages confirm the GNOME project's commitment to usability. Some of the tools here can even help people with ordinary abilities and without physical disabilities get more done.

The Menus screen can be confusing. It opens a series of Nautilus file manager windows, where you can add or remove menu items. The shortcuts screen is much like the KDE screen shown in Figure 6.11. It's easy to create a new shortcut (highlight the action on the screen and then press the key[s] you want to use as the shortcut), but there's only one option. In KDE, you can choose an alternative.

The Appearance section covers the usual window decorations and such. GNOME is famed for its dashing GTK-based Themes, which are really more about color schemes than wallpaper and screensavers. Some themes come with suggestions for these elements as well. As with KDE, you can select screen fonts, wallpaper (Desktop Background), and screensavers separately. The Window preferences let you select a window just by passing the mouse cursor over it.

In the Hardware section, you are dealing with keyboard, mouse, and screen resolution issues. The keyboard settings here are the same as in the Accessibility area (and there's a link to those preferences, too), but one tab is of note to those of us who don't want to be disabled: GNOME will enforce a three-minute typing break every hour (by default, this is configurable, of course) to keep you away from repetitive stress syndrome. You can postpone the break, but I don't recommend that you do. Screen resolution should generally not be changed.

The System section covers Sound events, applications associated with file types, and whether you're using a proxy server to access the Internet. The Sessions page lets you define what applications should run at startup. It shows you the currently active programs and gives you the option to save that configuration for your next session start. You can also add applications manually to the startup.