I finally figured out how to make my desktop nice and clean. Okay, so hubby helped a lot because my Google searches weren’t bringing up much.
What one needs is gconf, which can be used to edit application and desktop preferences. I already had it installed but it wasn’t in my applications list, perhaps they think that if you’re not knowledgeable enough to know how to find it then you shouldn’t be messing with those settings. So I just had to run gconf2-editor and under the settings for Nautilus -> Desktop you can add links to the home directory, trash, networks or you can remove them if you don’t want them there. To remove the mounted drives from the desktop you deselect “volumes visible”, they will still be available through Nautilus and through the Places menu. Alternatively if you go through the Nautilus -> Preferences options you can deselect “show desktop” in which case any files or folders on the desktop will be hidden and you can just see your pretty background picture.
That’s the option I went for, I then added nautilus Desktop/Downloads (the only folder on my Desktop) as an application to the bottom panel (represented by the penguin folder) for easy access. It’s much neater and prettier I think. The only downside I’ve discovered to that method so far is that you really are hiding the desktop so you can’t right click to change the background or anything. That’s fine if you’re willing to just go through the System -> Preferences menu.
The background image I’m using in that picture is called Asleep, it’s from Pixelgirl Presents, I think I found it in the Featured desktops section. I downloaded a bunch of cool desktops that I’d be happy to look at from there. There have some really good ones.
Has anyone seen a good icon for Beagle? At the moment I’m using a little hat that reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, from the Crystal SVG icons. It would have been good if they’d included a little dog with the installation though.
wow… that is one neat desktop- great job! I love it! I have been thinking of clearing up my desktop lately – it is full of icons, some which I don’t use. that and organizing my files/folders is a priority on my to-do list.