Help out a newbie Xubuntu user?

[innerslytherin]

Hi everyone! I've read through the entries about Linux and netbooks, and thanks to everyone who has shared their knowledge.

I have a post at my personal journal about my Acer netbook and having just installed Xubuntu. I'm hoping I can get tips from people in this community as to how I can, well, prettify my system a little.

I'm also interested in your recommendations for word processing apps. Xubuntu came with Abiword, which I have used a handful of times. Are there other programs that are better? (Background: I've been a Windows and Microsoft Word ever since I left DOS and PFS First Choice as a high schooler, and I am, generally speaking, a fan of Microsoft Word, in that it's never given me problems.) I don't want to bog my system down with more program than it can handle, given that I have 1 GB of memory and a 1.66 GHz processor, but I definitely want to know my options.

And while we're at it, what about blog clients? I'm using DW, LJ, and WordPress, so something that can handle all of those would be great, but any of the three would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance! So far I'm loving my Linux experience, and I'm already planning to fix my mom's laptop by installing Ubuntu on it for her. :)

Comments

[kerravonsen]

One of the things that might be a bit confusing at first (which I bet the sites never explain) is that there are two main kinds of theme: GTK themes and Window-manager themes (in your case, that's Xfce4). The window-manager themes control the look of the window decorations - that is the titlebar, the buttons, and the borders of the windows. The GTK themes control the look of GTK applications; that is, programs which were written with the GTK toolkit, which is popular. And some window manager themes pay attention to one's GTK theme, so it is still relevant. And some people make matching window-manager and GTK themes so that it will all be harmonious.

My Cedar-Brass GTK theme is here: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=139506
It is a steampunk-ish look; dark wood with brass highlights.
I made a matching Fvwm theme, but I haven't released it anywhere; the problem with Fvwm theming is that it isn't really standardized. No, that's just an excuse; I just don't feel like the extra effort needed to package up a theme and release it somewhere... (sigh)

Some additional GTK themes I've liked:

* Blueheart (black-and-blue) which is actually part of UbuntU: gtk2-engines-blueheart.
* Greenheart (green-and-black) a variant of Blueheart.
* Blue_Lagoon_X (grey with blue/green water look)
* BrushedMetal (grey brushed-metal look, with teal)
* CatBrass (olive green)
* Cloudscape_Green (grey with cloudy green)
* Country Oak (pale wood look)
* Glossy Blue (blue, with blue glass)
* Glossy Green (green, with green glass)
* H2O Emerald (grey, with green glass)
* H2O Saphire (grey, with blue glass)
* Leaded Glass (grey, with clear glass)
* TransMetal (another brushed-metal look, but brushed diagonally)
* WoodenHead (another wood-style theme, medium brown)

[innerslytherin]

Thank you SO MUCH for explaining this! Now that you have, it makes a great deal more sense than what I was muddling through on my own. I've also picked up a few library books about Linux, so I'll hopefully be learning some of this stuff without leaning on you to explain more. :)

And thank you also for the link to your theme and the list of suggestions. I confess, I like fussing with the look of my desktop on a frequent basis, so I'll probably be installing several of these!

[kerravonsen]

Enjoy!