Enable or Disable Desktop Icons using a GNOME shell Extension

A GNOME shell extension provide capability to enable or disable desktop icons. Gnome tweak tool allows you to do the same function, but this extension brings a switch button in GNOME shell status menu for quicker and easier switching.

Desktop icon switch GNOME shell extension can be installed using “gnome-tweak-tool” or you can installed by following the instructions down below.
Download the DesktopIconsSwitch-3.tar.gz package for the extension, and extract it and move it to GNOME shell directory using commands down below.
Run Terminal “Ctrl+Alt+t”, then type,

tar -zxvf DesktopIconsSwitch-3.tar.gz
mv DesktopIconsSwitch@bananenfisch.net/ ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

Now open GNOME tweak tool, if you don’t have it, you can install it using this command,
GNOME tweak tool for Ubuntu and its derivatives

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

GNOME tweak tool for Fedora and its derivatives

su
yum install gnome-tweak-tool

Finally, open GNOME tweak tool, select “shell extensions” and activate the Desktop Icon Switch extension.

Task Coach 1.3.21 (To-Do List Manager) Fixes Icon Size in Unity - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

Task Coach has just been updated to version 1.3.21 which fixes various bugs. As reminder, Task Coach is a cross-platform to-do list manager written in Python that allows users to organize their tasks and to-do lists in a way that will help them improve their productivity.

With Task Coach, you can have these features:

• create/edit/delete tasks

• View tasks as a list/tree

• Sort tasks by subject/budget/date, etc.

• Attachments support for tasks, categories, and notes

• Track time spent on tasks, etc.

There are many features for Task Coach, you can review them in details here. Also, the app is available for some portable devices such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Here are some of the bugs that has been fixed in this latest release:

• Changing the percentage complete would not cause the calendar viewer to refresh.

• Performance improvement in the edit dialogs

• Fix icon size in Unity

• Toolbar icons to show/hide tasks according to status now respect appearance settings, and are overlayed with a red cross. 

• Fix wording for task statuses

•  Startup and shutdown performance improvements.

• Autosave is now on by default.

• Toolbars are now customizable.

In this tutorial, we will help you install Task Coach via PPA which is available for the following Ubuntu/Linux Mint distributions:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10
• Linux Mint 14/13/12

Task Coach Installation

Enter these commands from the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:taskcoach-developers/ppa 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install  taskcoach

You can start the app via the Unity Dash or from the terminal with this command:

 taskcoach.py

Task Coach Removal

To uninstall the application from your computer, enter these commands:

sudo apt-get remove taskcoach 

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:taskcoach-developers/ppa 

sudo apt-get update

MediterraneanDark/FlatStudioDark: Two Amazing Dark GTK 3.6 Themes For Ubuntu 12.10/Linux Mint 14

Today, we will see two nice themes that were already ported to GTK 3.6 and are compatible with Ubuntu 12.10 or Linux Mint 14. The first theme is MediterraneanDark and the second is FlatStudioDark which will be enjoyed by fans of dark themes. You can use them with Unity or Gnome Shell.

MediterraneanDark 

----

FlatStudioDark 

 In this tutorial, we will help you install them via PPA, you can add it with these commands:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk+3.6 

 sudo apt-get update

To install MediterraneanDark, enter this command:

sudo apt-get install mediterranean-dark-gtk

For FlatStudioDark, run this command:

sudo apt-get install flatstudiodark-gtk

Use Gnome Tweak Tool to enable the two themes.

MediterraneanDark/FlatStudioDark Removal

If you want to remove these themes, enter these commands:

sudo apt-get remove flatstudiodark-gtk 

sudo apt-get remove mediterranean-dark-gtk

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk+3.6 

sudo apt-get update

Beautify your Desktop with Potenza, a New Icon Theme for Ubuntu/Linux Mint

Potenza is the name of the new icon theme that has been created by the Mystras team. This beautiful icon theme comes in two different colors for folders (blue and orange). In this article, we will see how to install this icon set in Ubuntu Unity or Gnome Shell, but the Potenza's author is working hard to make it compatible with most Linux desktop environments, you can support him here.

The PPA is available for these Ubuntu/Linux Mint distros:

• Ubuntu 13.04/12.10/12.04
• Linux Mint 14/13

Potenza Icon Theme Installation

To install Potenza and Potenza Orange in Ubuntu/Linux Mint, open the terminal and issue these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/potenza 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install potenza-icons

You can use Gnome Tweak Tool to enable the different variants of Potenza, or enter these commands from the terminal:

- Potenza (default)

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Potenza'

- Potenza Orange

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Potenza-Orange'

Here are some screenshots of Potenza under Ubuntu Unity:

Potenza Removal

In case you want to uninstall Potenza from your system, enable another icon theme then run these commands:

sudo apt-get remove potenza-icons 

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/potenza 

sudo apt-get update

Kalahari Icon Theme 0.3.5 Released, PPA Installation Available For Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint

The Kalahari icon theme has been updated recently with more icons and is compatible with Ubuntu Unity and Gnome Shell desktop environments. The icons are inspired by Humanity, Faenza and Elementary icons. Here are some screenshots for this icon theme under Unity:

Once installed in your system, you will be able to choose from four different styles of Kalahari as described below. The PPA is available for the following distributions:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10
• Linux Mint 14/13/12

Kalahari Installation

Open the terminal and install the Kalahari icon theme with these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/icons 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install kalahari-icons

To enable the default icon theme, run this command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Kalahari'

For other icon styles, use the following commands:

1. Gelada

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Gelada'

2. Kalahari-simple

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Kalahari-simple'

3. Kilimanjaro

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Kilimanjaro'

Get malys ex - new elegant and stylish icon set by Jonny Malys

Malys -ex is the newest icon set created by the prolific artist Jonny Malys. The main style of this icon set is a spherical symbol inside a square with nice color combination.

Here is a screenshot of this beautiful icon set:

To install Malys -ex, you can just download it here then extract the icon folder to /usr/share/icons.

If you are using Ubuntu or Linux Mint, just open the terminal and run this command to install Malys -ex from the PPA:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/icons  
 sudo apt-get update  
 sudo apt-get install malys-ex