GNOME

Compiz

• Get compiz running via compiz --replace.
  • Add this to GNOME's startup applications to make it your default window manager
• Enable Alt+Tab window switching via the "Application Switcher" plugin
  • I don't like the zooming effect; scale it to 0x
• Enable Super+Tab folded window switching via the "Shift Switcher" plugin
  • Has some conflicts with "Application Switcher" by default; I disable all but "Next Window", "Previous Window" and "Initiate"
  • Be sure the "Text" rendering plugin is enabled to get window titles
• Enable desktop backgrounds with the "Wallpaper" plugin
• Enable Ctrl+Alt+arrow virtual desktop switching via the "Rotate Cube" plugin
• "Trailfocus" handles general transparency
  • Set "Window to Start Fading" to 1
  • Change opacity levels of unfocused and focused windows to 60 and 95, respectively

Other Plugins

• I like the "animations" plugin
• The "Window Titles" plugin is useful in conjunction with SSH forwarding
• Go ahead and use "Bicubic Filtering" if you've got the horsepower

Nautilus

• Video thumbnailing requires totem-video-thumbnailer, part of the totem package
  • You'll also likely need raise the limit on thumbnailable media files; I thumbnail any local file < 1G

GNOME Panel

• Transparency can be had regardless of the GTK theme if using compiz's "Opacity, Brightness and Saturation" plugin
  • Add an opacity rule (I use a value of 50): "(class=Gnome-panel) & !(type=PopupMenu | Dialog)"

GNOME Control Center

• Ensure hinting and subpixel ordering is optimized via a trip to the Lagom LCD Test page

See Also

• Xorg page