Changing Desktop Appearance On Linux Mint 11

It would be a short article cause in Gnome 3 you can't change much.

You're not supposed to change anything in Gnome3. You're supposed to understand that the Gnome3 devs are usability experts, and that they know better than you how you should use your computer. Anyone who disagrees really shouldn't be using Gnome at all, any version, because Gnome has always been about removing choices from the user.

> ...because Gnome has always been about removing choices from the user.

Actually, I think that started with Gnome 2.x. I don't believe it was true in the Gnome 1.x days.

In the Gnome 1.X days, there weren't any choices to begin with.

Au contraire, JaseP, Gnome 1.4 was a feast of hackability. It supported dropping in different window managers, all kinds of scripting, there were squillions of macros and simple GTK hacks online that halfway smart users like me could use-- it was awesome fun. Gnome 2 was a straitjacket in comparison. Gnome 1.4 would probably look quaint and GTK-jaggedy now, but back then you could do stuff with it.

I was dual-booting back then... so I guess I'm just outta the loop...

I think that was a big part of why I liked Linux so much when I first tried it;

I just loved the whole idea of even being able to swap window managers like that, instead of just taking what was decided on by some faceless engineering or marketing drone, who didn't know you, had never met you, and only really cared about some imaginary statistically representative fiction, who might or might not share your tastes, preferences or needs.

I'll avoid the cliché automotive analogy... It was sort of like the difference between living out of a hotel room, or having your own cottage that you could furnish according to your own tastes, remodel, or outright renovate or modify according to need or even whim.

And you didn't have to hope and pray that some benevolent executive would allow a few employee programmers code a "tweak" tool to do some of the things you might like done.