(GNOME User Guide viewed in Evince PDF Reader)
GNOME official provides guide book in HTML only and not in PDF. But if you search further, you can find that openSUSE provides free 200-pages GNOME guide book in PDF. It is titled GNOME User Guide - openSUSE Leap 15.0, however, seeing how general the book is, everybody could read it even though they use instead Ubuntu or another GNU/Linux distro. It covers introduction to GNOME 3 user interface, shortcut keys, file management, system settings, network & printer sharing, image editing (GIMP), CD burning (Brasero), multimedia playback (Totem), and many more. You can download, read, print out, and redistribute this book to learn by yourself and you friends! It's also a good idea to bring printed copies to school to train students and teachers. The ebook is licensed under free license (GNU FDL) and available gratis. Go download it and happy reading!

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For Whom
For everybody who wants to learn GNOME Desktop Environment on their computer regardless GNU/Linux operating system being used.

Download

• URL address: https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/gnomeuser/book.gnomeuser_color_en.pdf
• File name: book.gnomeuser_color_en.pdf
• File type: PDF
• File size: 3.6MB
• Title: GNOME User Guide - openSUSE Leap 15.0 
• Author: SUSE LLC and Contributors
• Number of pages: 203
• Paper size: A4, Portrait (8.27 × 11.69 inch)
• Publication Date: December 19, 2018 
• License: GNU Free Documentation License 1.2 or 1.3
• Price: gratis

Table of Contents
Part 1: Intro

• Getting Started with the GNOME Desktop
• Working with Your Desktop
• Customizing Your Settings
• Assistive Technologies

Part 2: Connectivity

• Accessing Network Resources
• Managing Printers
• Backing Up User Data
• Passwords and Keys: Signing and Encrypting Data

Part 3: LibreOffice

• LibreOffice: The Office Suite
• LibreOffice Writer
• LibreOffice Calc
• LibreOffice Impress, Base, Draw, and Math

Part 4: Internet

• Firefox: Browsing the Web
• Evolution: E-Mailing and Calendaring
• Pidgin: Instant Messaging
• Ekiga: Using Voice over IP

Part 5: Graphics & Multimedia

• GIMP: Manipulating Graphics
• GNOME Videos
• Brasero: Burning CDs and DVDs

Help and Documentation

GNU Licenses


A Brief About The Guide Book
If you missed official GNOME documentation in PDF, you will find openSUSE's GNOME User Guide satisfying. It covers everything about using GNOME desktop and its apps for desktop-oriented users.  As usual, openSUSE documentation designed very professionally (just like SUSE's one) and the book layout looks very great.

 (Page 2: the book begins with intro to GNOME graphical interface in general)
GNOME-specific parts of this guide book are:

• The whole Part 1 (intro, session login, workspace, shortcut keys, file management, control panel, accessibility)
• The whole Part 2 (network and printer sharing, backup, password management)
• Part 4, particularly about GNOME Evolution (email & scheduling) and GNOME Ekiga (voice call over the internet)
• Part 5, particularly about GIMP (Photoshop replacement) and Totem (video playback) and Brasero (CD and DVD burning)
• Appendix A., particularly about GNOME Help (built-in documentation reader)

Bonus parts of this guide book you might find very useful are:

• LibreOffice sections from Part 3
• Firefox Web Browser sections from Part 4
• Pidgin Internet Messaging sections from Part 4

 (Page 145: how to use Pidgin Instant Messager, a program to chat in multiple chat services at once such as IRC, GTalk, Gadu-gadu, etc.)

In simple words, by this guide book everybody could learn to use GNOME Desktop Environment and its main applications (Nautilus, System Settings, etc.) no matter they use openSUSE or other GNU/Linux distro. I wish everybody could get this book and enjoy learning. Happy reading!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(GNOME 3.32 "Taipei" running on GNU/Linux)
Following my Plasma 5.15 distros list, this is a list of GNOME 3.32 distros which are available as installation LiveCD. GNOME 3.32 has been released recently at 13 March 2019 and rapidly being made available into several GNU/Linux distros for desktop, either within the ISO or in the repository. At this moment, you can download any of Ubuntu 19.04 and Fedora Rawhide (for installable LiveCD), followed by openSUSE Tumbleweed, Debian Experimental, Manjaro GNOME, and Mageia 7 (by manually upgrading from respective repositories) in order to quickly test GNOME 3.32. However, please note that this is based on today's data and can be changed rapidly over time. I wish this list helps you. Go ahead, happy downloading, happy testing!

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Distros

• Fedora Rawhide
• Ubuntu 19.04
• openSUSE Tumbleweed
• Manjaro GNOME
• Mageia 7

Caution!
Information mentioned here is rapidly changing as by time more distros than mentioned in this list will include GNOME 3.32. For example, at this moment this list does not include, say, PureOS, but certainly sooner of later PureOS will include GNOME 3.32 as well even though I do not mention it here. 

Distros mentioned here (Rawhide, Disco, etc.) are pre-release operating systems, meaning, only suitable for testing and not for daily use. I strongly suggest you to install one on a separate, dedicated computer for testing so it won't introduce you any risk when it breaks. I advise you to install not one on your daily computer for work. For example, it is good if you test the distro on one unused laptop aside from the laptop you use for work.

Manifest file (.manifest) is a plain text file that indexes the contents of an ISO image. Reading manifest can give us details of what packages and their versions included within an ISO image.

Ubuntu 19.04
Good news for us that Ubuntu 19.04 pre-release already brings GNOME 3.32 built-in. We can read the manifest file (today 21 March 2019). Download it here http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live.

(Manifest file of Disco shows gnome-shell 3.32.0)
Fedora Rawhide
At this moment, Fedora Rawhide includes GNOME 3.32 already and you can download it from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Workstation/x86_64/iso. Read more here (wiki) and here and here (Rawhide). I have installed it on my laptop and GNOME screenshot on the beginning of this article is from it.

(Package list of Rawhide ISO (taken 19 March 2019) shows gnome-shell 3.32.0)

Unfortunately, at this moment I can only find those two distros as desktop LiveCD with GNOME 3.32. More distros below.

Other Distros

If you cannot use installable LiveCD distros above, you can if you wish install any of these distros and later upgrade it with certain method to obtain GNOME 3.32.

openSUSE Tumbleweed
Unfortunately, up to today (21 March 2019), there is no Tumbleweed ISO includes GNOME 3.32. Anyway, download Tumbleweed here https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso. To obtain GNOME 3.32, you need to add 3 distinct repositories: openSUSE:Factory, GNOME:Factory, and GNOME:Next. You can either read the official guide in this case or simply run these command lines:
$ sudo zypper addrepo -f http://download.opensuse.org/factory/repo/oss/ openSUSE:Factory
$ sudo zypper addrepo -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/GNOME:/Factory/openSUSE_Factory/ GNOME:Factory
$ sudo zypper addrepo -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/GNOME:/Next/openSUSE_Factory/ GNOME:Next
$ sudo zypper refresh
$ sudo zypper dup

(GNOME:Next repository page shows gnome-shell 3.32.0)

Debian Experimental
Experimental repository already includes GNOME 3.32. You can download Debian 9 here https://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp and then install it and finally upgrade your desktop environment to 3.32. Follow the instruction to enable Experimental repository. And upgrade GNOME:
$ sudo apt-get install -t experimental gnome-shell nautilus gdm3
(Package search shows Experimental repo has gnome-shell 3.32)
Manjaro GNOME
The official repository has gnome-shell 3.32 already. Download Manjaro GNOME here and then install it and finally upgrade the system to obtain latest desktop environment. Don't forget that the total amount of download size is normally huge (can be 1GB or more).
$ sudo pacman -Syu
(Repository of Manjaro shows that gnome-shell 3.32.0 is already available)
Mageia 7
Just like Ubuntu 19.04, Mageia 7 is still in development. But the beta ISO is available. Download Mageia 7 beta here https://www.mageia.org/en/downloads/prerelease. You can install the ISO and then upgrade it to obtain GNOME 3.32 from Cauldron repository. Read more here (package search) and here (release notes).

(Mageia Cauldron Beta ISO image still includes 3.30 ...)
(... but its repository already includes 3.32)
Further Readings

• https://www.gnome.org/news/2019/03/gnome-3-32-released
• https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.32
• https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.32/developers.html.en 
• https://repology.org/project/gnome-shell/versions
• https://wiki.debian.org/DebianExperimental
• https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/gnome-3-32-performance-ubuntu-19-04/10208

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(KDE Plasma Desktop 5.15)
We are getting excited as Plasma 5.15 has been released (since 12 February 2019) and we soon want to test it. I have tested it on Neon and it is lightweight and very impressive. This list is for you wanting to test Plasma as quick as possible by downloading GNU/Linux distros with built-in Plasma 5.15. They are Neon 5.15, Kubuntu 19.04, Chakra, KaOS, and openSUSE Tumbleweed. You can download the ISO images from links I mentioned below and quickly run a LiveCD session of them. Additionally, I also mentioned Kubuntu 18.10 and Fedora 30 on the separate section below as they don't bundle it but make it available through repositories. Anyway, go ahead and happy testing!

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Read also write ISO to USB Drive | Download ISO via torrent | Download ISO via zsync

Distros

• Neon
• Kubuntu
• Fedora 
• Manjaro
• Chakra
• KaOS
• openSUSE Krypton

First thing first
I finished this article in Sunday 17 March 2019. As you know, GNU/Linux distros are normally developed in very very high speed so what I mentioned today (package versions) may be obsolete soon. For example, you find Plasma 5.15.3 today on Kubuntu 19.04 daily, then you may find it some days later got updated to 5.15.4. But by mentioning related links on every distro below, I hope you can obtain more information when you find my data is no longer correct in the day you do searching. Go ahead!

Manifest file (.manifest) is a table of contents of an ISO image file. A manifest lists package names and their versions from it. Manifest is very useful for us to determine whether a package is included or its version is new enough in an ISO. Distros known to have manifests are Ubuntu and Flavors, Neon, and Manjaro.

1. Neon 5.15
The first choice is of course KDE neon operating system as it always brings latest Plasma right from the KDE Project itself. Latest neon today (17 March 2019) contains at least Plasma 5.15. Download it from https://files.kde.org/neon/images/neon-useredition/current. You can run it as LiveCD or install it to your computer system.


(Manifest file of latest Neon shows plasma-desktop version 5.15.3)

2. Kubuntu 19.04
The 19.04 has not been released yet. But the daily ISO image is already available and it contains Plasma 5.15.3 (at least today 17 March 2019). Download it from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current. You can run it as LiveCD or even install it to your computer system.

(Manifest file of Kubuntu 19.04 daily ISO shows plasma-desktop version 5.15.3)

3. Fedora 30
As for Fedora, at this moment you can test pre-release version of Fedora 30 to get Plasma 5.15. Download it here Wiki Fedora.  Read more here (package search).


(Package search shows Fedora 30 has plasma-desktop 5.15.2 already)4. Manjaro KDE
Manjaro KDE has Plasma 5.15 already. Download it here https://manjaro.org/download/kde. Read more here (manifest file).

Manjaro GNU/Linux is a rolling-release desktop distro based on Arch with pacman package manager and it has an official KDE flavor. 

(Manifest file of latest Manjaro KDE ISO shows plasma-desktop version 5.15.2)
5. Chakra
Chakra on the testing release got Plasma 5.15. Download it here https://rsync.chakralinux.org/releases/testing/?C=M&O=D. Read more here (packages list) and here (forum announcement).

Chakra GNU/Linux is a KDE-dedicated rolling-release desktop distro derived from Arch with pacman package manager and provides only KDE edition. 

(Package list of latest Chakra showing plasma-desktop version 5.15.2)
6. KaOS
Latest bleeding edge ISO of KaOS (dated February 2019) has Plasma 5.15 already. Download it from https://kaosx.us/pages/download. Read more here (package search) and here (release notes).

KaOS GNU/Linux is a KDE-dedicated rolling-release desktop distro derived from no other distro with pacman package manager. Same as Chakra, KaOS only provides KDE edition.



(Clear statement about Plasma 5.15 availability on KaOS February)
7. openSUSE Krypton
Krypton is KDE-dedicated version of openSUSE rolling-release 'Tumbleweed'. It's available in both 32-bit and 64-bit. Download it from http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Medias/images/iso/?P=*Krypton.*.iso. The packages are promised to be always the latest. At this moment, Krypton got Plasma 5.15 already. You can run it as LiveCD or install it on your computer.

Tumbleweed is the rolling-release version of openSUSE which always has the latest version of software packages. openSUSE Krypton is a derivative of Tumbleweed.


(Package search of openSUSE:Factory shows plasma5-desktop version 5.15.3)
Other Distros
This section mentions some other distros which do not include Plasma 5.15 right within ISO but made it available in the repository.

Kubuntu Cosmic
Cosmic release has Plasma 5.15 already available in the Backports repository. Up to today (16 March 2019) there is still no 5.15 available for Bionic nor Xenial. I recommend you to do this upgrade on a testing computer and not on your daily use desktop.

Caution: upgrading a system with proprietary graphics like Nvidia or Amd often causes problems like broken system or login failure. Proceed this with your own risk.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
PCLinuxOS
PCLinuxOS just recently announced the availability of Plasma 5.15.3 on its repository. If you have it installed, you can upgrade your system to get the latest Plasma. If you don't, first download PCLinuxOS ISO and then install it and finally upgrade it. You can use Synaptic to upgrade your system as recommended by official wiki.

Some notes
It would be nice if every distro provides .manifest file for every ISO image they have just like Ubuntu. It helps me a lot to know what packages and package versions within an ISO. For distro projects that have made it available, you did great and you all have my thanks. For distro projects that have not, you did awesome and thanks also, but I wish you could do it someday. Finally, I hope Plasma 5.15 soon to be available on Ubuntu 18.04 and 16.04.

Happy testing!

References

• https://kubuntu.org/news/plasma-5-15-1-arrives-in-cosmic-backports-ppa
• https://openqa.opensuse.org/group_overview/23 
• https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/openSUSE:Factory 
• https://repology.org/project/plasma-desktop/versions

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Continuing KDE, GNOME, and MATE customization the series, it's XFCE's turn being customized with a global menu and Capitaine theme pack. We will use an XFCE theme, a GTK3 theme, an icon theme, tweak the top panel a little, and then install Plank as the dock, and finish them up with some more tweaking. I practiced this on Xubuntu 18.04 with XFCE version 4.12. I wish this helps everybody especially you who just started customizing XFCE desktop. Happy tweaking!

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On customization: KDE4 on KDE5 | KDE-MojaveCT | GNOME-McMojave | MATE-Yosemite | Pantheon-CapitaineX


Result talks first
The goal of this customization tutorial is to make XFCE 4.12 to look like this. It will have a global menu on a transparent top panel, translucent dock with macOS-like icon theme, an El Capitane wallpaper, and of course the exterior (XFWM) and interior (GTK3) themes which resemble macOS.

(Top: transparent panel with global menu; middle: icons on desktop area; bottom: dock with La Capitaine icon theme; background: El Capitane wallpaper)
Requirements
I use this composition on XFCE 4.12 on Xubuntu 18.04 LTS:

• XFWM theme: McOS-XFCE-Edition  https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1210386
• GTK3 theme: macOS Mojave https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1226871
• Icon theme: La Capitaine  https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1148695
• Plank theme: Mac Theme Round https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1201564
• xfce4-appmenu-plugin package on Ubuntu 

What we will do
We will build this composition:

• set the exterior theme into McOS-XFCE-Edition-II
• set the interior theme into macOS-4.0
• set the icon theme into La Capitaine
• install xfce4-appmenu-plugin by APT command

(Left: window decoration, middle: GTK3 interiors, right: icons)
Install Global Menu Package
It is not included on Xubuntu 18.04 but it is available in the repo. Just install it:
$ sudo apt-get install xfce4-appmenu-plugin

Step 1: set wallpaper
Just like previous tutorials, you can download macOS wallpapers from sites like 512 pixels. For this time I use El Capitan wallpaper.

Step 2: set window decoration
The theme is McOS-XFCE-Edition-II XFWM Theme. Download it from https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1210386. Extract it into ~/.themes and enable it from start menu > Window Manager > Style > McOS-XFCE-Edition-II. Then shift the control buttons to the left by dragging the buttons arrangement under the Button layout: Active section on the right.

(Choose the GTK3 theme and don't forget to switch the control buttons position)

Step 3: set interior theme
The theme is macOS Mojave GTK3 Theme. Download it from https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1226871. Extract it into ~/.themes and enable it from start menu > Appearances > Style > macOS-4.0 > close.




Step 4: set icon theme
The theme is La Capitaine. Download it from https://www.xfce-look.org/p/1148695. Extract it and copy the folder into ~/.icons. Enable the icon from the start menu > Appearances > Icons > La Capitaine > close.



Step 5: set dock theme
The theme is Mac Theme Round 3.1. Download it from https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1201564. Extract it and copy the folder into ~/.local/share/plank/themes. Enable it by right-clicking the dock > Preferences > Appearance > Theme: Deafult-MAC THEME(ROUND) [sic] > close.


Step 6: set top panel

• Add global menu
• Set transparency
• Remove 'taskbar applet'
• Remove 'Whisker menu'
• Or instead, you can omit the XFCE logo with a black apple logo if you wish

(Panel setup: Style=Solid color, alpha=80%, and color=white)

(Final panel, still with start menu on the left)
Step 7: make dock a startup
Up to this point you need to call Plank every time you started your system. That's ineffective. So you should make Plank to start automatically by right-click on desktop > Applications > Settings > Session and Startup > Application Autostart > click Add button > type the command: plank > give it a name and description as you wish > OK > close.


Step 8: icons on desktop
Just like KDE and MATE, XFCE allows icons on desktop. The easiest way to put one is by opening the start menu and drag one icon into the desktop. If you have deleted start menu, press Alt+F2, click the downward arrow, and drag any icon you wish from it to the desktop.

(Example in making desktop shortcuts on XFCE)
Finalize everything
Up to this point, you should have at least 4 different theme folders as shown in picture below. Please check the folder paths as pointed by transparent red boxes.

(In clockwise order: GTK3, XFWM, Plank, and icon themes)
And you may notice that there is a disturbing horizontal drop shadow slightly on top of your dock. You can disable that, but, unfortunately, if you did it you will also disable the top panel's shadow. That's the biggest limitation of this tutorial. You find the configuration from start menu > Window Manager Tweaks > Compositor > uncheck the option Show shadows under dock windows > close. I wish I could find a way to keep the top's shadow while disabling the bottom's shadow.
(Disabling drop shadow for dock)
Final result
Here's the final result if you followed all instructions. This one is Inkscape Vector Editor program running un-maximized with global menu from the top panel.


Here's how Terminal, Parole Media Player, Thunar, and GNOME Software look like using this theme pack. Pay attention also to the active global menu.



Here's how Thunar File Manager looks like. Actually it's not too satisfying, the GNOME's Nautilus few days ago was better than this.


And here's the default text editor:




Closing words
This customization feels quicker and easier compared to MATE Desktop one. It's nice and fun to do, especially while we really can implement global menu on XFCE right now, and we can easily tweak the size and the transparency of top panel. There's not so much difference on the Plank dock side, but it's nice to see how far it can blend to the whole desktop. I admit there are things that are not too nice like there is no drop shadow under top panel and dock, no "finder" button, and the GTK3 theme I used above actually cannot blend perfectly to the system tray color (did you notice it?) and the file manager. Anyway, I hope you are satisfied with this tutorial and you can go further if you wish as I let some space for you to tweak yourself. Happy customizing, enjoy, and share it with your friend!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(MATE Desktop customized with Yosemite Theme Pack)
Following the first and the second tutorials, it's MATE Desktop's turn now getting customized with Yosemite Theme Pack. We will use OS-X-Yosemite as both interior (GTK3) and exterior (Metacity) themes, McHigh Sierra as icon theme, Madmac as Plank theme, plus some more tweaks done via MATE Tweak Tool. You don't need to install any additional software package. This customization has been tested and worked on Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS. It's really fun and everybody new to customization can benefit from the basics practiced here. Enjoy it, and share with your friends!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.On customization, see also KDE4 on KDE5 | KDE-MojaveCT | GNOME-McMojave

Result Talks First
This is the one we want to achieve.

(MATE Desktop with translucent top panel featuring global menu and "finder" icon; translucent bottom dock with hover animation; decorated with metallic-glossy icons and also a Sierra background)

And this is how global menu looks like with Caja File Manager:



And this is the GNOME Disk Utility showing:


And this one is Shotwell Photo Manager showing:



Requirements
I did this customization on Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS with MATE 1.20.1. My composition is:

• MATE Tweak Tool (built-in) 
• Appearance editor (built-in)
• Plank (bottom dock)
• Cupertino layout (built-in)
• Compton with adaptive compositor enabled (built-in)
• GTK3 theme: OS X Yosemite https://www.mate-look.org/p/1013490
• Metacity theme: included in OS X Yosemite
• Icon theme: McHigh Sierra https://www.mate-look.org/p/1013714
• Plank theme: MadMac: https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1208015

What we will do

We will install Controls theme, Window Border theme, and Icons theme like pictures below.

(Controls (aka GTK3 Theme), Window border (aka Metacity theme), and Icons theme selectors)
We will adjust our MATE Tweak Tool to use a custom Cupertino Layout and to enable Marco window manager compositing. See pictures below.



(Enable Cupertino first and then save it as new name Supertino)

Step 1: set wallpaper
Like previous articles, you can download macOS wallpapers from sites like 512 pixels.

Step 2: set icon theme
The icon theme is McHigh Sierra. Download it from https://www.mate-look.org/p/1013714/. Extract it and copy the folder into ~/.icons. Enable it by right-click desktop area > Change Background > see Themes tab > select first theme > Customize > Icons > select MacOSX > OK.

 (The download page and what file should be downloaded)

(Enabling the icon theme)
Step 3: set window decoration
The Metacity theme here is OS-X-Yosemite. Download it from https://www.mate-look.org/p/1013490/. Extract it and copy the folder into ~/.themes. Enable it by right-click on desktop area > Change Background > see Themes tab > select first theme > Customize > see Window Border tab > select OS-X-Yosemite > close.

(Enabling metacity theme)
Step 4: set GTK3 theme
The GTK3 theme here is also OS-X-Yosemite. This GTK3 theme is already included along with Metacity theme above. If you have already installed it, you don't need to do anything else. Enable it by right-click on desktop area > Change Background > see Theme tab > select first theme > Customize > see Controls tab > select OS-X-Yosemite theme > OK.

  (Enabling GTK3 theme)
Note that MATE has close relationship to GNOME so you may also download any GTK3 theme from gnome-look.org site instead of mate-look.org. Also note that starting from version 1.18 MATE has already been fully GTK3. So every GTK3 theme is compatible with both desktops. 

Step 5: switch to MATE Cupertino layout
Start MATE Tweak and switch panel layout to Cupertino. This makes the desktop shows top panel (with global menu) and bottom dock (Plank), a basic setup of macOS. You will later edit the panel layout and save the edited layout as another name.

(Enabling Cupertino layout with MATE Tweak)
Step 6: modify top panel

• Set panel thickness from 28 to 24
• Set panel transparency to 80%
• Remove start menu
• Add finder button

After you enabled Cupertino, it is a little bit complicated to edit the panel as you need to remove an applet and then unlock another one in order to be able to edit the panel. Anyway, here's how:

• First: right-click the Brisk menu button > Remove > Brisk menu removed. 
• Second: right-click the global menu applet > Unlock > right-click > Move > drag it to the right a little. You should have blank space on the most left now.
• Third: right-click on the most left > Properties > make panel size 24 > make panel transparency 80% > OK.
• Fourth: right-click on the same area > Add to Panel > find applet named Search for files > double-click to add it to panel > move it to the right side of panel.
• Fifth: move everything on panel to its right place > lock everything. 
• Sixth: start MATE Tweak and save panel layout as Supertino.

(Left: panel size; right: panel transparency)
(Left: applet locked to panel, middle: applet unlocked, you can remove or move it; right: panel properties)(Position of the cursor is always a little off the applet)
Step 7: set plank theme
The Plank theme is Madmac. Download it from https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1208015/. Extract it and copy the theme folder into ~/.local/share/plank/themes/. Enable it by Ctrl+right-click on Plank > Preferences > set theme: madmac.



Step 8: icons on desktop
Unlike GNOME, MATE permits icons on desktop by default. Simply use start menu and drag-and-drop or Alt+F2 and drag-and-drop the icon.

(Simply drag the bigger icon from beside of the search bar and drop it on wallpaper area)
Finalize everything
Up to this point, you should have at least two theme folders in two folders, namely OS-X-Yosemite-1.0.1 under ~/.themes and MacOSX under ~/.icons. Under the former, you should see a gtk-3.0 folder and also metacity-1 folder. Those are the folders of your Controls and Window borders. See picture below.

(Left: Metacity and GTK3 theme folders in ~/.themes; right: icon theme folder in ~/.icons)
Final result
This is how your MATE desktop should look like after doing all instructions:



Closing words

That's all. I am more satisfied with this one compared to the previous GNOME+McMojave one. The top panel is just lovely with its size and trasparency, not to mention we can put global menu on it. The bottom dock size, zoom animation, and translucency are just perfect in my opinion. This one is closer to the the first KDE+MojaveCT one. I wish this satisfies you as well. However, indeed I let several empty spaces for you to make awesome stuffs by your own creativity. See you in the next customization tutorial!


This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(GNOME 3.30 customized with McMojave theme pack)
Last time I applied Mojave theme on KDE Plasma and this time I want to apply similar thing onto GNOME 3. I use Fedora 29 as the basis, however, you can do it on any other GNU/Linux distro. As the composition, I use here McMojave as both Shell and GTK3 themes, and then Mojave-CT icon theme, plus two additional GSEs namely Desktop Icons and Dash to Dock. Don't worry even if you have no experience in desktop tweaking, as I have published GNOME customization preparations article before this tutorial. Go ahead, have fun, and enjoy!

Read also KDE Mojave-CT | Cinnamon XP | KDE 4 on KDE 5 | GNOME Customization Preparations | Nice GSEs for You

Requirements

• GNOME Tweaks
• macOS Wallpapers
• GNOME Shell theme: McMojave Shell Theme https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1275087
• GTK3 theme: McMojave GTK3 Theme https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1275087
• Icon theme: Mojave-CT Icon Theme https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1210856
• Dash to dock extension https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/307/dash-to-dock
• Desktop icons extension https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1465/desktop-icons

Result talks first
We want to make our GNOME desktop look like this.

(GNOME 3.30.1 on Fedora 29 with Mojave Theme Pack)
The customization summary is like below:

(GNOME Tweaks showing the composition of themes being applied)
What we will do
Prepare all preparations, then set basic things (wallpapers, icons, GTK3 and Shell themes) and then install some Shell Extensions and finalize them all. We will make the vertical panel into a horizontal dock on bottom and so that you can place icons on desktop area.


Limitations

• No global menu
• No control-buttons on the top-panel (maximized mode)
• No resizing the top panel
• No removing center clock on the top-panel, nor placing it on far right instead
• No magnifier icon on far right of the top-panel

Step 1: set wallpaper
Like before, you can download macOS wallpapers from sites like 512 pixels. Then open your wallpaper changer and import it.



Step 2: install icon theme
The icons set is Mojave-CT icon https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1210856/. There are three versions namely Classic, Dark-mode, and Light, you can download any of those, but I give you example here the Dark-mode one. Extract it > copy the folder into ~/.icons > start GNOME Tweaks > switch the Icon into Dark-mode > all icons on the panel and start menu become macOS-like.



Step 3: install gtk3 theme
The theme is McMojave Mojave-light https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1275087/. Extract the file and copy the folder into ~/.themes. Start GNOME Tweaks > Appearance > set Themes: Applications: Mojave-light > all interiors of window become macOS-like.



Step 4: install gnome shell theme
The theme is MvMojave Mojave-light https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1275087/. Extract the file and copy the folder into ~/.themes. Start GNOME Tweaks > Appearance > set Themes: Shell: Mojave-light > all top panel and dock become translucent + you have a black apple logo.





Step 5: dock to bottom
This needs Dash to Dock extension. Install the extension from https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/307/dash-to-dock/. Start GNOME Tweaks > Extensions > Dash to Dock > click the gear button > the settings dialog shows up > select Bottom > the left panel becomes the dock on bottom. Don't forget to enable autohide there.



Step 6: icons on desktop
I really don't understand why, but even Windows & macOS & Android have icons-on-desktop feature, while GNOME doesn't. It is an important feature to make jobs quicker and easier to access. Anyway, you still can have it on GNOME 3.30 or later by installing Desktop Icons extension. Install it from https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1465/desktop-icons.


After having the extension, you must manually copy application shortcuts from /usr/share/applications into your ~/Desktop. Copy, not drag-and-drop. After you have them there, you right-click every one of them to select Allow Execution. Then you will see the result like mine.

(I have 4 applications on desktop: Calc, Impress, Evolution, and Nautilus)

Finalizing everything
Up to this point you should have all folders in the right places as shown in picture below. You will see under ~/.theme a Mojave-light folder, and under ~/.icons a Dark-mode folder. If you wonder why only two folders, should it not three, you're correct, but the secret is that Mojave-light theme is a double-theme, it is GTK3 theme and also GNOME Shell theme in one pack. So, that is. 

(Left: my ~/.themes folder; right: my ~/.icons folder)
Final Result
Your final result should look nearly what we saw in the beginning. A full GNOME 3 desktop with macOS look.



Honestly, I like how Nautilus got the theme very nicely:


Also, I like this composition of GNOME overview mode and Mojave-CT icons and bottom dock:

(GNOME start menu shows up, click launcher on most-right to show it)

And this is the System Settings:

(All icons appeared to be right here, although unfortunately we cannot make System Settings shows its settings in icon-view-mode)

And this is the system information:

(I really want to use GNOME 3.32 as soon as possible...)
Closing words
That's it. The result is nice and I am satisfied with it. The only shortcoming is the limitations above. Unfortunately we cannot have global menu (perhaps only for now?) and custom top panel. Like previous tutorial, this tutorial is not perfect, I let some space here for you to tweak it yourself. I hope you enjoy this tutorial. Share it with your friend and have fun. See you in the next tutorial!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Before writing a GNOME 3 theming tutorial, I feel like to write a preparation tutorial as the basics for beginners. In this simple tutorial you will learn about what folders need to be created, what are their purposes, three different themes of GNOME, their directory structures, and of course what tool needed to setup themes. I hope this helps everybody who wants to customize their GNOME themes and to be ready for the next tutorial. Enjoy!


Required things

• GNOME Tweaks
• Extension Installation enabled
• User Themes extension
• ~/.themes/
• ~/.icons/
• /usr/share/themes/
• /usr/share/icons/

Check your system
For example, on Ubuntu and Fedora you go to start menu and type About and run it. You will see the details of your GNOME Shell version. For example, picture below shows that my OS is Fedora 29 (the latest for now) and my GNOME version is 3.30.

(Details of my GNOME system)

1. The tool
Tweak Tool + enabled extension installation are needed. On Ubuntu, you can have it by performing this command line:
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-tweaks

Extension can be enabled if you have the chrome-gnome-shell package + Firefox addon called "GNOME Shell Extension" on your system. Later, you can go to extensions.gnome.org site and just click to install an extension. For example, on Ubuntu, do this:
$ sudo apt-get install chrome-gnome-shell

 (GNOME Tweaks)
(extensions.gnome.org site: simply click on the link on banner on top to install the needed addon)
2. The directories

• ~/.themes directory is needed for GNOME Shell themes and GTK+ themes.
• ~/.icons directory is needed for icon themes. 

(Nautilus shows the location of .themes and .icons directories (in blue highlights) along with other local directories of current user)

To create them, go to Nautilus and press Ctrl+H and create new folder named .themes. Do it again for .icons. Assume your ~ directory is /home/work then you see .themes and .icons folders beside other folders and their addresses are /home/work/.themes and /home/work/.icons, respectively.

If you want to install themes for all users in the system, you need:

• /usr/share/themes/ to put GNOME Shell themes and GTK+ themes.
• /usr/share/icons/ to put icon themes.

3. A GNOME-Shell-Theme directory structure
The most minimum example of a GNOME Shell Theme is Transparent Shell Theme. The directory structure is a directory where you can see a gnome-shell folder and then inside it gnome-shell.css file.


4. A GTK-theme directory structure
Like Flat-Remix-GTK below, a theme directory is a directory where you can see gtk-3.0 and index.theme. The folder Flat-Remix-GTK is the one you copy to ~/.themes folder in order to install it.



5. An icon-theme directory structure
Sometimes the structure looks like Marwaita below, sometimes it looks like Faenza besides it. But the folder of theme is always a folder where you can see index.theme file in it besides the folders. Don't worry, the folders with '@2x' postfix are designed for your High DPI monitors.





6. How to extract
Right-click > Extract here > you get the contents of that archive file appeared in current directory.

(Extracting a theme archive file from Nautilus File Manager)
Suppose there is an archive file "theme.zip" containing a folder named "theme/". Suppose you are now at ~/Downloads directory > you extracted the archive file "theme.zip" > you got a directory "theme/" > you see there are "theme.zip' file and "theme/" directory now in the ~/Downloads directory.


7. How to move a directory

It is better to move a directory using Nautilus File Manager into local user directory only, not into system directory. The rule is you copy correct theme directory to correct destination. Examples below explains that briefly:

• GNOME Shell theme: Transparent shell theme: copy the Transparent shell theme folder which contains gnome-shell folder into ~/.themes folder
• GTK+3 theme: Flat Remix: copy the Flat-Remix-GTK folder which contains gtk-3.0 folder and index.theme file into ~/.themes folder
• Icon theme: Marwaita: copy the Marwaita folder which contains from 16x16 to 64x64 folders and index.theme file into ~/.icons folder

(Nautilus shows both ~/.themes and ~/.icons directories containing some Shell, GTK, and icon themes)
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Continuing previous part, in this part I will talk especially for Budgie Desktop Settings. It is equivalent to Tweak Tool on GNOME or Unity, a graphical tool to adjust desktop preferences. With this, I can add more panel, add and rearrange applets, and put icons on desktop. This is the last part of my journey on Budgie Desktop. I hope everybody can have fun with all this Budgie series. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.See also Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

1. Budgie Desktop Settings
This is the center of attention right now. We control everything related to Budgie with this.  It may look simple, but for panel and each applet I can find so many configurations. It is far more simpler than GNOME Tweak Tool and I believe many users will like it simpler too.



(Budgie Settings)
2. Desktop Icons
Everybody loves icons on desktop. And you can set it up under Appearance > Desktop. You can enable Home, Network, Trash, and active Disks or Partitions.


However, because the foundation is GNOME 3, Budgie also asks you every time you first launch each application on desktop. For my personal perspective, I think it's better if it doesn't.


3. Window Controls
Right or left, relocate them from Appearance > Windows. It also includes attach/detach modal dialog. As Budgie uses GNOME 3 as foundation, every modal dialog is attached to parent dialog, by default you cannot move modal dialog separately off the parent. On Budgie, you can easily turn that off.

(Control buttons on left side)
4. Panels
Create new panel and remove one easily under Panels section. The settings of a panel is not found by right-clicking the panel, but under Budgie Settings > Panel > select panel name > Settings. You can have up to 4 panels. You can change the position, thickness, transparency, and make it hides automatically. 
(Top panel with 80 point thickness)
When you created a new panel, it is empty. You need to add Applets to it to make it useful. Arranging items on panel is done not by click on panel but under Settings > panel name > select an applet > click up or down button.

(Every panel is divided into Start, Center, and End sections)
Many applets you can choose from the Add Applet dialog.



5. Bottom Dock
Panel can be treated as dock if you enable Dock mode under Panel > Settings. The name "Bottom Panel" becomes "Bottom Dock" if you enable it.



6. Desktop Theme
GTK3 Theme is acceptable by Budgie Settings if you put the theme folder in /usr/share/themes. On my test, it cannot read from ~/.themes. For example, I installed Flat Remix GTK and I can enable it from the Settings like this.



On the contrary, icon theme can be put in ~/.themes. I tried Flat Remix and it works.

7. Startup
You can add or remove startup items under Autostart section. Click the plus button on top > select Application > select one name of applications appear. To remove on, simply click the minus button available on each name.


Closing words
That's all. The feeling when customizing Budgie is lighter (easier) than customizing GNOME, although Budgie is basically also GNOME. This is the last part as I said on the top. To Ikey Doherty, thank you, you have developed an easy to use and attractive desktop environment. I really want to see you continue the Budgie Project again. To dear readers, enjoy Budgie Desktop!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

You may find it's difficult on Ubuntu Budgie 18.04 to share you internet access from wifi to wifi so your phone device can connect to the internet through your laptop. It does not require you to install any program. The requirement is only to have 2 wifi adapter (no matter either it's usb, pcmcia, or pci) so one used as receiver and one as transmitter. The steps are surprisingly short and easy. Let's go and happy surfing!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

See also: GNOME 3.30 sharing wifi to wifi | KDE Plasma sharing usb to wifi

What we will do?
Create a new wifi connection using network editor and next call it from system tray by name you determined. As simple as that.

Two adapters
You need 2 wifi adapters to run this tutorial. One acts as receiver, and one act as transmitter. Here my receiver is MediaTek, and my transmitter is Broadcom. The Broadcom transmitter is the one we create a hotspot on. You can easily buy internal or external Wifi Adapter from ThinkPenguin, Technoethical, or such computer shop. I suggest you to buy only wifi adapter which is compatible with free software.

First step: connect to internet source
Find an internet wifi hotspot and connect to it using primary adapter. In this example, I connect to public hotspot using my Mediatek adapter.

Second step: create a new wifi network
Right-click network manager applet > Edit Connection > click plus button > Choose connection type: Wifi > Create > type Connection name: rabbit_hotspot > type SSID: rabbit_hotspot > select Mode: Hotspot > Save. This makes a new unconnected network named rabbit_hotspot.

Third step: enable the wifi hotspot
Click network manager > see the bottom section > Create New Wi-Fi Network > select Wifi Adapter: your secondary adapter (as example, mine is Broadcom) > select Connection: rabbit_hotspot > Create > make sure it is connected on the network manager.

Now see your phone screen whether there is a new hotspot called rabbit_hotspot or not. Enjoy!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Emerald Themer 0.8.17 running on Ubuntu Bionic) This tutorial explains in step by step how to install Emerald window decorator on Ubuntu 18.04. You will compile the source code manually after installing required packages and get Emerald Manager program as the final result. Then you can use Emerald Manager to install many Emerald Themes available on OpenDesktop.org or such theme download sites and have experiments as much as you like. The insturctions below are accompanied with screenshots and they are not difficult to follow. Enjoy!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
See also Kvantum on KDE | Plasma Mojave-CT | Plasma 5.11 | Oxygen on Plasma 5 | neon for Graphic Designers | neon Review

Motivation
I have actually two different motives to write this tutorial:

• 1) I wanted to learn about Emerald since years but I could not. Now I can do it as I can get enough internet access.
• 2) There are so many Emerald Window Decorator Themes on store.kde.org. I believe you and myself want to try those themes on our latest GNU/Linux distros.

Wait, what's Emerald anyway?
Yes, what's Emerald? We can see on opendesktop.org many cool Emerald themes but perhaps we do not have idea what actually it is. To understand Emerald we need to know about Compiz and X11.

•  X11: basically a collection of integrated programs as the formal foundation of user interface on GNU/Linux. Without X11, our display shows only text interface in black and white. With X11, we see cursors & menus & windows & buttons. Visit https://www.x.org for more info.
• Compiz: a collection of integrated programs running over X11 to provide us compositing. X11 provides the foundation, Compiz draws us GUI with effects using that foundation to us. With Compiz we can see wobbly and transparent window effects. Visit http://www.compiz.org for more info.
• Emerald: one kind of software called window decorator. A window decorator decorates outer frame of every window on your desktop, including making them translucent. Emerald is a decorator particularly created to use with Compiz. 
• Emerald theme: a theme for Emerald window decorator. An Emerald theme file name is typically ended with .emerald extension. You can find that Emerald themes number is very great (if not greatest) on theme download sites like openDesktop.org. 

(OpenDesktop.org with the number of Emerald themes)
1. Install Required Packages
On KDE neon 5.15 (based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS) I run this command to install dependencies of Emerald.
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential libxcomposite-dev libpng12-dev
libjpeg-dev libsm-dev libxrandr-dev libxdamage-dev libxinerama-dev
libstartup-notification0-dev libgconf2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev
libglu1-mesa-dev libmetacity-dev librsvg2-dev libdbus-1-dev
libdbus-glib-1-dev libgnome-desktop-dev libgnome-window-settings-dev git autoconf automake automake1.9 libtool intltool libxslt1-dev xsltproc libwnck-dev python-dev python-pyrex libwnck-3-0 libwnck-3-common libwnck-3-dev checkinstall

• Source: http://wiki.compiz.org/Installation/Stable
• Source: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2395848
• Source: https://www.cyberciti.biz/howto/debian-linux/install-debian-emerald-theme-manager-decorator

2. Download Emerald Code
Commands below will download an emerald directory full with source code in your ~/Downloads directory. Inside that directory, you find files named autogen.sh, INSTALL, and COPYING.
$ cd ~/Downloads
$ git clone https://gitlab.com/compiz/emerald.git 
Result:
 


3. Generate configure Script
Command below generates a configure script for you. The result is a file named configure.
$ cd emerald/
$ ./autogen.sh
Output:



4. Configure
Command below configures all source code for next compiling step.
$ ./configure
Result:


5. Compile
Command below compiles all source code as dictated by configure script above. This may needs few minutes to finish. The result is binary code executable program of Emerald ready to be installed.

$ make
Result:








6. Install
Command below installs the compiled Emerald software into your GNU/Linux system. If you do this, you will find Emerald program on start menu. Alternatively, see next step, you can instead create Debian package (.deb) and install Emerald that way if you dislike this method.
$ sudo make install
Result:

 
7. Create Debian Package
Instead of previous step, you may prefer making a Debian package (.deb) of the successfully compiled software. Making Debian package has many advantages, among them is you can redistribute the executable program easier. Amazing, right? Let's go: simply run this command and you will be asked many times and simply press Enter for every question. The result should be a Debian package named similar to emerald_0.8.17-1_amd64.deb.
$ sudo checkinstall --install=no
Result:

(See the pink icon? That's the Debian package produced.)
Final Result
You will find new program on your start menu named Emerald Theme Manager. That is the result. Now you can install Emerald Themes from theme download sources above as much as you like. You can also edit them as you wish.


Some Error and Solution
The original script says it needs libwnck-3.0 and similarly named packages. However, on Ubuntu 18.04 the package name changed as it does not use  dot  but dash  so the correct name is now libwnck-3-0. I know this from the first error when running autogen.sh script. The solution is of course to install libwnck-3-0 package.


I know the correct package file name from apt-cache output:


Closing Words
That's all. It is actually not hard, it's just a little bit long, but as long as you know the steps everything could be easy. You may wonder why compiling here and the answer is because Emerald is not available in the Ubuntu official repository for +/-15 years. It's also not available in Debian for +/-25 years. Anyway, it's truly fun to try and exciting to achieve the final result. Have fun. And share it with your friends!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

After installing a Chromium-based browser, you might want to block ads, enlarge font, change default download location, and put the icon on desktop. Among others, I suggest you uBlock Origin and HTTPS Everywhere extensions below. I use Iridium Browser (libre version of Chromium) here as example, so you can apply the same to Chrome as well as other Chromium-based browsers. I hope this article helps you. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
See also Iridium on Trisquel

Add Chromium to desktop
For Budgie, KDE, XFCE, and LXDE desktop environments, simply drag-and-drop Chromium icon from start menu to desktop area. For GNOME, I assume you use version 3.30 or later, install first Desktop Icons extension and then do the same thing.

(Iridium icon on desktop of Ubuntu Budgie 18.04)
Change search engine
You might have heard search engine recommendation by this, this, this, this, and this to leave Google as soon as possible. If you want to know why, I like DuckDuckGo's explanation so far. I recommend StartPage Search Engine, one among them, for you. To do so, go to https://www.startpage.com > right-click your address bar > select Edit Search Engine > there choose StartPage as default one.



Have Ad Blocker
uBlock Origin is an extension to block ads as well as internet trackers for you. You will never again see ads on websites. Install it from Extensions Repo.

Have Security Extension 
HTTPS Everywhere is a security extension to force everything encrypted while you are browsing the WWW. Install it from Extensions Repo.

Enlarge font
Few times I met people with problems with clicking and typing. In short, I found out that they have difficulties to read small fonts on their screen. So I made the font looks bigger for them and surprisingly the problems vanished. If you experienced things like that, enlarge Chromium font by.


If this is not enough, change font size from your system. For example, if you use Ubuntu Budgie, you go to start menu > Budgie Desktop Settings > Fonts > for starter, set Documents=15 and Interface=15 > check Chromium window once again. Is that convenience for you?


Switch to light theme
If you use Ubuntu Budgie (with Pocillo theme), you may feel hard to read the tabs, as Chromium got black theme there. Other operating system with similar dark theme may experienced same issue. The solution is simple: change your desktop theme to the light one. This depends on your own system. For example, if you use Ubuntu Budgie, go to start menu > Budgie Desktop Settings > Widgets > switch it to Adwaita and see your Chromium.

(Iridium with Adwaita theme on Ubuntu Budgie)
Make default browserDo you want Chromium as your default browser instead of any other browser installed? If so, go to Settings > Default Browser > Make Default.


Change download location
Go to Settings > scroll down > Advanced Settings > Downloads > change the path there. You can also choose either to "always ask" or "disable asking" every time you download.


Continue At Startup
You want your last visited tabs to be opened every startup? If so, go to Settings > On Startup > Continue where you left off.


YouTube? Invidio!
Related to your privacy, even though you are logged in to Google, this is my recommendation: instead of youtube.com, opening invidio.us is better as you can watch YouTube videos without ads, without popups, without JavaScript, without being tracked, and you can direct download video being watched. Invidio.us is a website that proxies YouTube.com and you can view it as great solution to find many videos if you still dislike MediaGoblin or PeerTube.

TIP! If you find a YouTube URL youtube.com/watch?v=blablabla just change the main address to be Invidio URL invidio.us/watch?v=blablabla.

(With Invidio.us, you can save video from YouTube easily without JavaScript and ads)
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 
After I presented Kvantum-based desktop theme "Mojave-CT" in the last tutorial, you might wonder in particular how to install the Kvantum Engine itself properly. As you might know as well, many Kvantum-based themes are very gorgeous and some are beautifully translucent. See for example Glass White. You cannot install such theme without first installing Kvantum Engine. This simple tutorial gives you step by step instructions to install Kvantum Engine on Ubuntu GNU/Linux. You can apply this tutorial on Debian, neon, or Trisquel if you wish as they are all basically same. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.


Read also all about KDE: Plasma Mojave-CT| Plasma Oxygen | neon Review | neon for Designers | Plasma 5.11 Review


A Brief About Kvantum
Suppose you want to theme how every window looks on KDE Plasma desktop. Kvantum is a special software integrated to Plasma to create and custom a theme it real in fully controllable way. Kvantum is not just a software for us the users, but also a framework to create themes for theme artists. Thus, themes that are created for Kvantum engine is called Kvantum Themes. Kvantum is a work by Tsu Jan and the official website is at GitHub.

1. Prepare Required Pakages
There are dependencies you need to fulfill in order to compile Kvantum from source. On KDE neon 5.15.1, it took up to 60MB total data.



$ sudo apt-get install g++ libx11-dev libxext-dev qtbase5-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev libkf5windowsystem-dev qttools5-dev-tools cmake checkinstall
The process should looks like this:

2. Download Kvantum Source Code
Kvantum Engine official page is at GitHub. To download it quickly, follow this link. Extract it in your Downloads directory then you get a directory named Kvantum-master. Inside this directory, you will find diretory named kvantum, and, inside it you will find bunch of files such as CMakeLists.txt, COPYING, and Makefile.

(Download page and download button)
(Files and folders within the kvantum/ directory)
3. Compile
Now, transform the source code of Kvantum into binary code. First attempt is cmake, it needs a few seconds. And then second attempt is make, it needs a minute or two.
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make
The results should look like below:

(Screenshot of Konsole within file manager: running cmake command)


(Screenshot of Konsole within file manager: running make command)
Successful make command (building process) will show you two messages:
[100%] Linking CXX executable kvantummanager
[100%] Built target kvantummanager build
Up to this point, you are ready to install it.

4. Install Kvantum Engine
Now, install the successfully compiled (the binary code) Kvantum program into your GNU/Linux system.
$ sudo make install
The result should looks like this:

(Screenshot of Konsole within file manager: running make install command)
5. Run It
Find Kvantum Manager in your start menu. At first run, it looks black.

(Kvantum Engine successfully installed and running)
6. Make Debian Package
This optional step is just for your future convenience. You can transform the binary code program you have produced into Debian package file (.deb) so you do not have to repeat whole installation processes later, as you can just install the .deb package to have the Kvantum Manager. The command used is checkinstall and it must be run right after make command. Do this command in the same directory as above:
$ sudo checkinstall --install=no
And simply answer all questions by pressing Enter. There result is a file named build.deb. Rename this to kvantum-manager-amd64.deb (or i386 is you PC is 32-bit).

(See the .deb file selected and packaging successful message shown)
Share Kvantum with Your Friends
For your own purpose (store it to reuse later) and for sharing with others (so everybody benefits from your packaging), you can keep and share the Debian package (.deb) you produced above. This way, everybody will get easier to install Kvantum on their Debian-based systems. Enjoy customizing, enjoy sharing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Plasma desktop 5.15 on GNU/Linux with Mojave-CT Theme Pack)
We can make Plasma desktop to look like macOS. This tutorial uses Mojave-CT Theme Pack (including Aurorae, Plasma, Kvantum, and icon themes) as the I explain here the requirements and step by step instructions to configure everything. It is surprisingly easy, the steps are very clear, but it takes a bit long time to finish them all. I hope this tutorial helps everybody to begin desktop customization hobby on GNU/Linux in general and KDE Plasma in particular. Have fun customizing!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.Read also all about KDE: Plasma Oxygen | neon Review | neon for Designers | Plasma 5.11 Review

Result Talks First
Yes, we will achieve final result like these.

(Basic look with top global menu panel, bottom dynamic dock, icons on desktop, and translucent metallic window)
(Bottom dock can be set to autohide)
(Basic look of Dolphin File Manager in this theming scheme)
(Notice the opaque window without any translucency)
(Basic look of Okular PDF Viewer in this theming scheme)(Notice the black apple logo on top-left, you can add it later by adding Application Menu widget)
Requirements
This tutorial is based on KDE Plasma 5, neon operating system 5.15.1, which in turn based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. However, you can practice this tutorial as long as you can have these:

• Top panel, bottom dock
• Additional Programs: Kvantum Engine
• Additional widgets: Applet Window Buttons https://store.kde.org/p/1272871/
• Icon theme: Mojave CT Icons https://store.kde.org/p/1210856/
• Plasma theme: Mojave CT Plasma Theme https://store.kde.org/p/1289021/
• Kvantum theme: movaje CT Kvantum Theme https://store.kde.org/p/1288051/
• Aurorae theme: movaje CT Aurorae Theme https://store.kde.org/p/1288318/
• Cursor theme: OSX El Capitan cursor theme https://store.kde.org/p/1084939/

A. Install Kvantum Engine
What you will do is to install Kvantum Manager program. It is a simple GUI to control many aspects of Qt toolkits.

First, install all required packages:
$ sudo apt-get install g++ libx11-dev libxext-dev qtbase5-dev
libqt5svg5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev libkf5windowsystem-dev
qttools5-dev-tools cmake
Second, download the Kvantum package (.zip) from Tsujan's GitHub and extract it to your Downloads directory. You will get a new directory name Kvantum-master.

Third, enter the Kvantum-master directory and perform all these command lines one by one:
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ sudo make installFinal messages showing if you successfully installed it are two lines:
[100%] Linking CXX executable kvantummanager
[100%] Built target kvantummanager
Finally, go to start menu and find Kvantum Manager.

(Kvantum Manager program)
B. Install 'Applet Window Button' Widget
The 'AWB' is needed to show control buttons on top panel when a window is maximized. Download AWB at https://store.kde.org/p/1272871/ and extract it and you get a directory named applet-window-buttons-0.3. You will find in it a file named install.sh but don't touch it before doing these.

First, install all required packages:
$ sudo apt-get install g++ extra-cmake-modules qtbase5-dev qtdeclarative5-dev libkf5declarative-dev libkf5plasma-dev libkdecorations2-dev gettext
Second, enter the extracted directory and do all commands below one by one:
$ chmod +x install.sh
$ ./install.sh
If everything is OK, the last success messages will be:
-- Installing: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/appletdecoration/AuroraeButton.qml
-- Installing: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/appletdecoration/qmldir
Finally, you will find the widget named "Window Buttons" on your widget selector.


1. Add Global menu, top panel
Create one top panel as Application Menu Panel. This will give you basic global menu panel.


Add System Tray widget onto it.

Add Digital Clock widget as well.

Add Find widget on the most right.

2. Add dock, bottom panel
Delete default bottom panel and create a new one, shorter in length, centered in position. Put some application icons + add Icons-Only Task Manager widget.


 
3. Get rid of all obstacles
First obstacle is the hamburger button thing on one of corners. Its name is desktop toolbox. Hide it. Right-click on desktop > Configure Desktop > Tweaks > uncheck desktop toolbox option > OK.
Second obstacle is the hot corner, when you push your pointer to an edge of screen suddenly all active windows got previewed in one screen. Disable it. Go to System Settings > Desktop Behavior > Screen Edges > click the enabled corner > select No Action > OK.




4. Desktop theme ("Plasma Theme")
Next, we need a Plasma Theme called "Mojave CT Plasma Theme". Download it from https://store.kde.org/p/1289021, and open it by clicking 'Install From File' button from System Settings > Workspace Theme > Plasma Theme.  Enable it by selecting Mojave-CT and click OK.


5. Window decoration ("Aurorae Theme")
Next, we need window decoration theme called Mojave-CT Aurorae Theme. Download it from https://store.kde.org/p/1288318. This window decoration theme is classified as "Aurorae Theme" as it uses Aurorae engine built-in KDE Plasma. Extract the .tar.gz file, and copy the folder into ~/.local/share/aurorae/themes/. Enable Mojave CT from System Settings > Application Style > Window Decorations.

Set the size to Normal.


6. Icon theme
Next, we mostly need icon theme that looks like macOS. As we use macOS Mojave version as model here, then download the Mojave-CT Icon Theme from here https://store.kde.org/p/1210856/. Extract the .tar.gz file, and copy the folder into ~/.local/share/icons/. Enable MacOs-sierra-CT from System Settings > Icons. 

7. Kvantum Theme ("Widget Style Theme")
This is the most crucial part: we need to enable Mojave-CT Kvantum Theme to make all user interface toolkits look like macOS and translucent. The theme in question is Mojave-CT Kvantum Theme, download it from https://store.kde.org/p/1288051. Extract it, and you get a directory named mojave.

First, go to start menu > run Kvantum Manager > install theme > point it up to the extracted mojave directory > OK.

Second, still on Kvantum Manager, see Change Theme > select a theme > select mojave > select again MojaveLight > click use this theme.


Third, still on Kvantum Manager, see Configure Active Theme > see Compositing ... > and give about 30% and 30% for both Reduce window/menu opacity > Save. Close Kvantum Manager window.


Fourth, now go to System Settings > Application Style > Widget Style > set Widget style: to be kvantum and Apply.

Fifth, still on the Widget Style window, see Fine Tuning > set all options to No Text > Apply.


Up to this point, you should see your window being translucent like this:



8. macOS wallpaper
You can download many wallpapers from sources like 512pixels or OSwallpapers. Load the wallpaper from right-click on desktop > Configure Desktop > Add Image > select a wallpaper file or more > enable it. You see below as example I enabled Mac OS X Leopard version wallpaper.


9. Control Buttons on Left
Fortunately, Plasma is a very customizable desktop. Go to System Settings > Application Style > Windows Decorations > Buttons. There, you can easily rearrange your window outer frame components arrangement, including, position of the control buttons (close, maximize, minimize). Simply drag-and-drop them from right to the left position. Drag other icons to bottom to hide them.

(I moved them three to the left)
10. Window Title Applet, Top Panel
Next, we need to show app name on global menu. To achieve this, we need Window Title Applet. Open the widget selection menu > find Window Title Applet > drag and drop it onto top panel. Try to run Dolphin and see if its app name "Dolphin" looks right before the global menu. Try to run Gwenview or other applications to see whether the same app name shows correctly. I found good configuration like below:

• - Icon: checked, show when available
• - Font: bold
• - Length: unchecked, fill available space
• - Maximum: more or less 1000px
• - Spacing: 10px
• - Left & right margin: 10px

Don't forget to add Spacer after the global menu widget so it won't "run" too far away from Window Title Applet.  


Bonus! Alternatively, if you don't like this widget, you can use instead Application Title widget. It's without app icon and somewhat simpler.



11. Window Buttons Applet, Top Panel
Up to this point, when you maximize a window, the controls are still on the window's title bar and not joined onto top panel's global menu. It takes up more vertical space.

To join controls onto global menu, you add Window Buttons Applet onto it. I found good configuration like below:

• Decoration: Mojave-CT
• Show: is maximized
• Environment: checked, Disable borders...
• Metrics: checked, Use from decoration...
• Left margin: please test it up yourself

After setting it up right away, you need to re-login to see the correct result.



12. Finish It All
You may need some trials and errors up to this point so finally you can have desktop in full Mojave-CT style. Notice the icons on the toolbar now are "icons-only" and not with text.

(The final result with Mojave wallpaper)
Closing Words
That's all. This tutorial is not perfect and I open the empty spaces for you to add and explore more. You can adjust, modify, reduce everything you like from this tutorial. I hope you find this tutorial fun and exciting. I hope this helps everybody especially in using Kvantum Manager on GNU/Linux. See you next time. Enjoy!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Mint 19 Cinnamon with XP desktop theme "CinnXP")
This tutorial explains in step by step how to install Windows XP theme on Mint Cinnamon 19 LTS. You will download and install CinnXP to make your desktop looks like XP. The CinnXP theme is licensed under GNU GPLv3. You will need some additional programs to be installed and a few steps to enable them all. The purpose of this tutorial is solely to help everybody setup GNU/Linux for their closed people who have been heavily familiar to XP. I hope this helps everyone a lot in using GNU/Linux. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

Result Talks First
Here's the result.


(Mint 19 Cinnamon with CinnXP theme running LibreOffice, Movie Player, Synaptic, and GIMP)
Requirements

• At least Mint 18 
• The CinnXP theme package file (download it here)
• Packages: built-essential git 
• Additional programs: sassc libsassc

1. Install The Requirements
This installs two different set of programs from two different sources. First is APT, and second is Git.

Install packages:
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential git
Download additional programs:
$ make
$ cd ~/Public && pwd && ls
$ git clone https://github.com/sass/sassc.git
$ git clone https://github.com/sass/libsass.git
Install additional programs:
$ pwd && ls
$ cd sassc
$ SASS_LIBSASS_PATH=../libsass make
$ sudo SASS_LIBSASS_PATH=../libsass make install

2. Install CinnXP Theme
$ mkdir ~/.icons
$ mkdir ~/.themes
$ cd ~/Downloads/CinnXP
$ pwd && ls
$ ./compile-theme -g 20
This creates a new directory named 'pkg'. The produced themes are saved in pkg/usr/share/icons/CinnXP and pkg/usr/share/themes/CinnXP-Luna. Still in the same directory, do:
$ cp -r pkg/usr/share/icons/CinnXP/  ~/.icons/
$ cp -r pkg/usr/share/themes/CinnXP-Luna/  ~/.themes/
3. Enable Theme
Go to System Settings > Theme. Change everything to CinnXP-Luna.


To this point, you should have full desktop in XP look.

Some Problem
CinnXP theme is only desktop theme + window decoration + cursor. It does not provide icon theme so you should install an icon theme manually. The problem is that this setup missed the XP icon theme. Your icon will be the icon of the original Mint Cinnamon.

Actually, there is a perfect-look icon theme named Windows XP published by Elbullazul the owner of B00merang Project. This icon theme is said as a continuation to the one from YlmfOS GNU/Linux (now StartOS). But unfortunately, I cannot present it here, nor I can recommend you, because it is published without any license (thus renders it nonfree). I really hope the icon theme can be re-published in free license such as GNU GPL so I can add it as part of tutorial above. However, I must admit it looked perfect in combination with CinnXP:

(Mint 19 with CinnXP in combination with the not-yet-licensed 'Windows XP' icon theme from B00merang Project)

References

• https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=272018
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/202751/themes-app-not-showing-preview-for-installed-gtk-themes-window-borders-and-cont
• https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=272414
• https://github.com/juhaku/loginized/issues/3

(Latest KDE 5 using KDE 4 "Oxygen" desktop theme)
I am a KDE user who loved KDE 4 even before it turned its name to "Plasma". The default theme of KDE 4 is called Oxygen, where KDE 5's is Breeze. Got modern Plasma and today the latest version reached 5.15, I had lost my favorite Oxygen theme. Thanks to a Kubuntu Forum post, I find it again. I can turn my Plasma 5 into Oxygen once again. This tutorial explains in step by step how to setup Oxygen desktop theme full with icons set by some manual customization through the System Settings. It's very easy. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly. KDE neon Review | WTDAI neon | KDE Distros | neon for Graphic Designer |Plasma Vault | Plasma 5.11 Review | Plasma 5.10 Review | KDE Connect | Debian KDE Series

Result Talks First
Okay, here's the result on KDE neon 5.15.1 with really latest Plasma 5.15. It works.

Before:

(Default desktop theme of the Plasma 5 "Breeze")(Notice the start menu logo, the icons, the Dolphin titlebar, and system tray)
After:

Start menu, panel, widgets, and window turned back to KDE 4 style:

(KDE 5 using KDE 4 desktop theme "Oxygen")(Notice the start menu logo, the icons, the folder widget behind, the window decoration, and the system tray)
Dolphin and About System in the metallic theme and Oxygen folders:

(Same Plasma 5, but with Oxygen)(Notice the window control buttons, the Dolphin statusbar, blue drop shadow, and every task on the taskbar)
KDE Applications turned back to the old KDE 4 style:

(Applications in Oxygen theme)(Notice that there is no color separation between window and its decoration on each application)
The System Settings turned back to use Oxygen Icons again:

 (Notice the icons and the nostalgic scroll bar; it feels like home)
And our beloved KDE Help Center once again goes KDE 4:

(Notice the toolbar icons)
1. Install Oxygen Theme
This tutorial is applicable to Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, PureOS Plasma, and of course KDE neon operating systems.
$ sudo apt-get install plasma-theme-oxygen
2. Install Oxygen Icon
$ sudo apt-get install oxygen-icon-theme
3. Install Oxygen Cursor
$ sudo apt-get install oxygen-cursor-theme
3. Configure Them
Now you need to enable 5 configurations in System Settings: Look and Feel, Plasma Theme, Splash Screen, and Widget Style and Window Decoration.

First: 
Go to System Settings > Workspace Behavior > Look and Feel > choose Oxygen > Apply. 
Second: 
Same place, but go to Plasma Theme > choose Air > Apply.

Third:
Same place, go to Cursors > choose Oxygen White > Apply.

Fourth:
Same place, go to Splash Screen > select Oxygen > Apply.

Fifth:
Go to System Settings > Icons > choose Oxygen > Apply.

Sixth: 
Go to System Settings > Application Style > Widget Style > choose Oxygen > Apply.

Seventh:
Same place, Window Decorations > choose Oxygen > click Configure > choose Button size=small > Apply > OK > Apply.

(Making the window control buttons small)
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank all developers of the Oxygen Project who created and maintained Oxygen up to today. I would like to thank all contributors and anyone who helps this amazing UI/UX project. I am glad I can use Oxygen again in 2019 with latest Plasma. Personally, to be honest, I still like Oxygen more than Breeze (the current Plasma theme). Thank you, I love Oxygen!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Ubuntu 19.04 with icons on desktop and Nautilus File Manager 3.30)
Testing Ubuntu 19.04 pre-release on LiveCD impresses me as it's far more quicker and lighter than 18.10 backwards to 17.04 I had tested. I can feel the performance difference. It is planned to be released on next April like usual and I tested this today in February, about two month before actual release date. It features GNOME 3.30 and LibreOffice 6.1; with icons on desktop feature and Yaru Theme. On my hardware, I didn't encounter any crash or error, on the contrary it feels smooth and responsive. I think the final release will be better and interesting. If you want to test 19.04 today, go download it from the official server. Test it yourself, or install it on your testing computer, and enjoy.

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.Cosmic Cuttlefish Download | First Yaru | GNOME 3.30

My Hardware
I tested 19.04 alpha on Acer Aspire One 756, Intel Pentium 967, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD. I ran it as LiveCD session over my 16GB flash drive.

For whom the alpha is
Today, 19.04 is available as pre-release (before Beta) version which is updated daily. It is called 'alpha'. In my computer, it works smoothly already. So if you have a certain computer to test the 19.04 alpha alone, go ahead. But do not use 19.04 alpha for desktop production and do not upgrade already stable system to 19.04 alpha.

 (Download page of the 19.04 daily build: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current)
1. Whole desktop
You notice it? Yes, Ubuntu 19.04 brings back the icons on desktop area feature. However, the wallpaper is still from 18.10 right now and this is expected as 19.04 is still in alpha stage.

(The Desktop)
Did you hear the new Desktop Icon extension for GNOME 3.30+? That extension is preinstalled on 19.04. That's why we see desktop icons are there while actually this feature was removed since 3.28. Really huge thanks to csoriano to bring this feature back in 3.30. I love this.

(Thanks to Nautilus 3.30, doing right-click > Properties on desktop is allowed now)
2. Top bar
This is how the titlebars on 19.04 look like. If you come from 16.04, you will find this to be different, as Ubuntu abandoned the Ambiance theme since 17.04. This theme is called Yaru theme. More than that, because many apps here come from GNOME 3.30, you see the menus are a little bit strange as they are located on the titlebar now.

(Top bar)
(See the hamburger-logo menus opened (back), only non-GNOME program doesn't have such menu (front))
3. Icons & start menu
Here is the Yaru theme icon set. This Yaru started its debut since 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish. You will find it more colorful, more catchy.


(Icon set of whole desktop)
4. File manager
Compared to 18.10, here Nautilus upgraded to version 3.30. Noticeable visual change will be the top bar especially the path bar. Every single path when we browse is now including drop-down menu. The menu shows Properties, New Folder, and Open in Terminal. And search bar is now placed in the same place as path bar, not below, and also with drop-down menu.

(Nautilus 3.30 on 19.04 looks great with Yaru theme)
5. Software Center
The Ubuntu Software now reached version 3.30 as well. It includes support for Snap and it included with software-properties-gtk like usual.


(Ubuntu Software)
6. Applications
These are subject to change on the next final release, but at least you can see the version numbers. Generally all GNOME Applications upgraded to 3.30, while Firefox got latest version, and LibreOffice is currently stable on 6.1. If it will be 6.2 on the final, I will be very happy, as the Notebookbar is really better on 6.2.

• LibreOffice 6.1.4.2
• Shotwell 0.30.1
• Nautilus 3.30.5
• Ubuntu Software 3.30.6
• Rhythmbox 3.4.3
• GNOME Terminal 3.30.2
• Remmina 1.2.32.1
• Gedit 3.30.2
• GNOME Calendar 3.30.1
• Firefox 65 "Quantum"
• Thunderbird 60.4.0

(Apps)
(LibreOffice 6.1.4.2 with Notebookbar enabled)
Still, 19.04 alpha is an alpha operating system under heavy development right now. So I get many updates even today. See Software Updater screenshot below, it seems everything like Firefox and Nautilus and Cheese still get constant updates.

(Software versions still changing day by day)
7. Snaps
Built-in snaps software are like below. This means if we run Calculator and System Monitor, we run them as Snap programs, not as our traditional DEB programs. Again, this list can be changed on the final release.

• core 16-2.37.1      
• gnome-3-26-1604 3.26.0
• gnome-calculator 3.30.1    
• gnome-characters 3.30.0 
• gnome-logs 3.30.0 
• gnome-system-monitor 3.30.0
• gtk-common-themes 0.1-4-g88bc1b2 

(Snaps)
8. More Details
For today, we can see these information from 19.04 alpha. We know from this that 19.04 will use kernel 4.18 or later. We know the codename will be Disco Dingo. And the sources.list entries will be full with 'disco' as name of the release.


More than that, APT version is 1.8.0, snapd version is 2.37.1, and GNOME Shell version is 3.30.2.

Closing Words
While reviewing 17.04 up to 18.10, I felt every release was heavy. What I like from this alpha version is the fact that it's lighter and quicker on my machine. I hope this will be lighter too on your machines. We are waiting for April for 19.04 to really come. Enjoy testing the alpha!

Further Readings

• https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.30
  
• https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.30/developers.html.en 
• https://csoriano.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/csoriano-blog/post/2018-11-21-desktop-icons-rc-release

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(LibreOffice 6.2 with Groupedbar enabled)
In the last post I talked about the Notebookbar and the style I presented there is called Tabbed. Actually, starting from 6.1, the Notebookbar got multiple new modes aside from Tabbed, among them are Contextual and Grouped. So if the Tabbed mode resembles MSO 2007, these two modes resemble no one, they are new unique styles requested by LibreOffice users. We will see them soon below. You can try it quickly right now by downloading and running LibreOffice AppImage without changing your GNU/Linux system. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly. About LibreOffice: Notebookbar Feature | Old Notebookbar | Enabling/Disabling It | AppImage Version | Macro | Macro Example

Correction
(Friday, 22 February 2019) Thanks to brother Rizal Muttaqin, the developer of Karasa Jaga icons set of LibreOffice, I recognized there are mistakes I made on the first and some other screenshots and GIFs here. He kindly reminded me that 'blue folder' icon is not from 6.2 but 6.1. I apologize to all readers. Thanks to him I edited this article with updated screenshots and GIF animations. But I don't remove the mistaken screenshots so you can see the subtle visual difference between 6.1 and 6.2 below:


(The 6.1, notice the blue folder icon on top-left of each window)
(The 6.2, notice the yellow folder icon replacing the blue one)
1. Basic looks
Grouped and contextual bars look like these from LibreOffice 6.2.

Groupedbar
Contextual groups
They look almost the same. The difference is at contextual bar's bottom line, it shows only labels, not menus like at grouped bar.

2. Quick switch
To switch between the two modes of Contextual and Grouped bars, simply go to menu bar View > User Interface > select either Contextual groups or Groupedbar.

 (How to quickly switch between the two modes)
3. Writer, Calc, Impress
To be more complete, here's contextual and grouped bars compared in the Writer, Calc, and Impress. You may notice on the second picture below, the contextual bar on Writer behind Calc behind Impress, missed one last section (most right). That's how the dynamic panel activated. Once it lost focus, it lost that section. Once it gets focus, it shows that section.


Contextual groups bar of all
(notice Calc gets focus and Writer lost focus)
 Grouped bar of all

4. The dynamics of contextual group
The contextual bar has 4 different partitions namely File, Clipboard, Text, and Insert. The first three are static, but the last one is dynamic, it changes by context. If you select a picture, it shows picture-related options such as Crop and Style. If you select a table, it shows table-related options such as border color and style. And so on.

(Gif animation: showing how Contextual works with picture and table)
You may find that Contextual bar is too simple and not satisfying. Indeed, the design said that Contextual is supposed to be used with Sidebar. So if you find the buttons are missing, combine it with Sidebar.

(Writer, with Contextual bar, and Sidebar showing)
5. The dynamics of groupedbar
Groupedbar is another notebookbar with all buttons showing in one space and arranged in groups without tabs. The wiki said that this feature follows the principle of (well, same as KDE Plasma) "simple by default, powerful when needed". Groupedbar is almost similar to normal toolbar we all knew because every "group" has a drop-down menu from normal menu bar starting from File to Grid and continued on most right with Menu, Tools, and Help drop-down menus. You will find convenience with the icons buttons but when it's not enough, use the menu right below them. This groupedbar is like a combination of normal notebookbar and normal menu bar so you can work in both ways at any time. 

(Gif animation: showing how Contextual menus working)
And it changes according to your object selection. Select a picture then relevant picture-related options showing. Select a table then relevant table-related options showing. It shows 4 different sections for a picture, namely Image, Arrange, Color, and Grid. It shows 6 different sections for a table, namely Table, Rows, Merge, Select, Calc, and Reference.

For picture, these are sections showing:

(Image, Arrange, Color, and Grid)
For table, these are sections showing:

(Table, Rows, Merge, Select, Calc, Reference)(They are much longer than the maximized length of Writer window so I need to unmax it and then resize it manually to show them all)
6. Contextual and grouped for document writing
For example, let's do normal thing, some simple text formatting and inserting table and special characters.

Contextual:

• change font
• bold, italic, underline
• left, center, right alignment
• enlarge and decrease font size
• create table

(Gif animation: Contextual bar, trying some features to edit text)
Grouped:

• change font
• bold, italic, underline, strikethrough
• line spacing
• bullets and numberings 
• paragraph spacing
• insert table
• insert special characters

(Gif animation: Grouped bar, trying some features to edit text)

Among the two, I like insert special character new menu the most. It's smart, it presents the most used ones (like copyright and infinite signs) on the front, while letting you to add up more yourself. I like it.

7. Some Problem
My LibreOffice version is 6.2.0.1 AppImage. On contextual, the menu Style and all of its sub-menu do not work. I cannot make a picture goes grayscale, nor make it as watermark, nor anything from available sub-menus. This is not a problem on Grouped, as I can make it goes grayscale, or give a watermark, or use any editing button available there. I wish this problem will get improvements in the next release.

Closing Words
For now, I like Groupedbar more than Contextual. Because it gives me more controls. How about you? Do you like it? But really, LibreOffice developers have produced awesome new things with these. I would like to see the next improvements and further use them regularly. That's all. Enjoy!

Further Readings

• https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Using_the_notebook_bar
• https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/NotebookBar
• https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2016/12/21/the-document-foundation-announces-the-muffin-a-new-tasty-user-interface-concept-for-libreoffice
• https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2019/02/07/libreoffice-6-2
• Official Release Video LibreOffice 6.2 New Features (via Invidio.us)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (To control your Debian KDE system)
Continuing the third part, this article discusses about further managing and controlling your Debian system through the KDE System Settings. In brief, you will see how to manage users, panel, kill process, change language, switch keyboard layout (with Korean Hangul as example), and create custom shortcut keys (Ctrl+Super+F to open Firefox browser as example). Happy learning!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.See also Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

1. Manage Users
You can create and delete new user account easily. You can change your password and avatar here.

(User Manager on Debian KDE)
The result can be seen on your start menu and on the session screen.

(Left: your avatar shown on start menu; right: shown on session screen)
2. Manage Panel and User Interface
On Debian KDE, you may have more than one panel in any position, and you can add widgets on the desktop area.


 (Four acts: in clockwise order: (1) new panel on top (2) settings of bottom panel (3) widgets in form of clock, CPU monitor, calendar, and photo slideshow (4) widget selection panel)

3. Manage Running Processes
Use KSysGuard to see system load and running processes behind the scene. You find it on the start menu Applications > System > System Monitor.

On the first run, KSysGuard looks like below. It shows processes being run on your Debian KDE system. Most of these processes are invisible as they run in background. You can sort them out by Name, CPU%, and Memory Load.

(KSysGuard; left: process list, right: load graph)

You can "kill" a running process (get rid of it from your memory space) by clicking on it > End Process > the process "killed". 
 (End process)
You can see the parent of the process by selecting 'All Processes, Tree' from the selection on top-right. For example, you can see below that 'firefox-esr' process is the parent of 'Web' process.
(KSysGuard, tree mode)
4. Switch User Interface Language
Debian GNU/Linux by default included more than 50 languages. If you don't speak English, you can switch the user interface to use your mother language instead. For example, you can switch to Indonesian, or Japanese, or, German, or Arabic, or anything else. 
To switch language, 

• go to start menu > System Settings > Regional Settings > Language
• you see the Preferred Languages box is empty, it's normal
• choose your language from the Available Language (left) and click the '>' button to put it in the Preferred Languages (right)
• OK and logout and login again
• do it for any other language.

To switch the language back to English, simply remove your language from the Preferred Languages box and relogin.
 (Language choices)


Here is a depiction of a Debian KDE system with 4 different languages namely Korean, Japanese, German, and Arabic. If you want to switch between the four of them, you simply logout and login after putting the language name into 'Preferred Languages' box. Easy.

 (Four different languages: clockwise order: Korean, Japanese, German, Arabic)[Arabic script is right-to-left so the desktop arrangement above follows the script]
5. Switch Keyboard Layout
Following the user interface language, you may want to change the keyboard language. I will give you one example: Korean (Hangul), so you can type in Hangul script. How to enable Korean (Hangul) script keyboard?

• go to start menu > Applications > Settings > IBus Preferences
• go to Input Method tab > click Add > language selector dialog appears > search for Korean > select Korean > select Hangul > OK
• you see Korean - Hangul option under English - US keyboard layout selection

(In clockwise order: (1) IBus Preferences, the foreign keyboard manager (2) List of enabled keyboard layouts including Korean (Hangul) (3) enabling Hangul mode from system tray (4) adding Korean (Hangul) into IBus)
6. Customize Shortcut Keys
Debian KDE can give you shortcut keys for (1) normal interaction (2) running program (3) executing command (4) desktop interaction. 
(The four different options: Custom, Global, Standard, and Web shortcuts)

How to make a custom shortcut? I show you an example to call Mozilla Firefox by pressing Ctrl+Super+S. Every time you press it, Firefox browser runs. To make it:

• go to start menu > System Settings > Shortcuts > Custom shortcuts
• click Edit > New > Global > Command
• name it Firefox > go to Trigger Tab and set Ctrl+Super+F > go to Action tab and set firefox > Apply
• test it.

(Custom shortcuts on Debian KDE)
References

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/456133/unable-to-type-in-korean
• http://kimchicloud.com/how-to-say-welcome-in-korean

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(LibreOffice 6.2, with Notebookbar enabled, running as portable app)
LibreOffce version 6.2 released recently at 7 February 2019. It is the latest stable release of the best office suite software ever. It is available for GNU/Linux, Windows, and macOS. But how to run it on GNU/Linux (Ubuntu and other distros) without adding PPA and without changing the system? Easy, you can run LibreOffice in AppImage format. You download the file, you give it permission, and double-click it to run the program. It is portable, without any installation to the system, and you don't lose your previous version of LibreOffice. Finally, let's get going!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.Read more about LibreOffice: Notebookbar Review | Macro Intro | Macro Example

Where to Download appimage?
Go to https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage and download the Basic-Fresh option.


Up to today, LibreOffice Portable for GNU/Linux (appimage version) is only available as 64-bit. If you want 32-bit version, you can kindly ask the maintainer Antomio Faccioli. Huge thanks to him we have AppImage versions today.

Running the program
Once you have the file (file name example: LibreOffice-6.2.0-x86_64.AppImage):

1. right-click file > Properties > Permissions > give check mark as Executable > OK
2. double-click the file
3. the program runs.

(Gif animation: step by step to run LibreOffice Portable (.appimage) program)
It looks exactly the same as normal LibreOffice (executable format: .deb) we installed from official repository. It means the user interface, the theme, and the appearance do not make any difference to us. See below how Writer, Calc, and Impress running as portable application on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Writer 6.2
Calc 6.2
Impress 6.2

Add AppImage to start menu
I know it must be hassle to run the actual AppImage file again and again. The solution is easy: simply put the LibreOffice Portable onto your start menu. To do so, every GNU/Linux distro has their own way, for example on Unity and GNOME desktops, you use the program called Alacarte Menu Editor.

1. Run Alacarte.
2. Go to Office category and create New Item.
3. Name it LibreOffice 6.2 Portable
4. Give the path of the actual .appimage file, for example, /home/master/Downloads/LibreOffice.appimage
5. Select an icon
6. OK.

  (Very easy to edit start menu items with Alacarte)

Go to start menu and find your LibreOffice Portable there. Happy working!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This is a step by step tutorial to make LibreOffice Calc macro examples with SUM function. We will make a simple cash register program within Calc. You will make use the =SUM() function to total the prices. You will create two macros and call them from two push buttons on the Calc sheet. Continuing my first macro tutorial ever, this is also intended for new comers without prior experience about macro but want to create one. Happy working!

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About LibreOffice, see also Macro Intro | Notebookbar Review | Impress Custom Template | AppImage

Summary

• Result first
• Table you should create
• First step, create calculation macro
• Second step, create clearance macro
• Third step, test them
• Fourth step, create buttons
• Fifth step, play
• Bonus, create custom toolbar like in the animations
• Closing words
• Further readings

Result First
The program is really simple. It first calculate every item amount, then total all amounts. Only that. There are only two buttons, one to calculate the total price, and one to clear all cells. I hope you can grasp the basic by this.

(Gif animation: final result of this simple tutorial)
The Table Used
Create this blank table (from A1 to D7) as the place to run your macros later.


First: Create 'Calculate' Macro
This macro will calculate subtotals and total. Please remember, to record spreadsheet functions (SUM, AVG, etc.) you use click and Shift+click instead of typing the cell addresses and ranges. We will name this macro 'calculate1'.

0) Record macro
1) Type under Quantity column: from 1 to 5
2) Type under Price column: from 100 to 500
3) Type = on D2 and click B2 and type * and click C2 and press Enter
4) Drag the result of D2 down to D6
5) Type =SUM( on D7 and click D1 and Shift+Click D6 and press Enter
6) Stop recording macro
7) Name it calculate1

(Gif animation: record a macro to calculate cells)
Second: Create 'Delete' Macro
This macro will empty all cells. We will name this macro 'delete1'.
0) Record macro
1) With keyboard arrow keys, select cells from B2 to D6 and press Delete
2) Select D7 and press Delete
3) Stop recording macro
4) Name it delete1

(Gif animation: record a macro to delete cells)
Third: Test Macros
Before adding any button, we need to test the created macros. Gif animation below shows the two macros as two toolbar buttons (see bonus section below to create your own custom toolbar) to call them quickly as I want. See I filled up the cells and pressed 'calculate1', then it calculates. See I pressed 'delete1', then all cells emptied. That means the test result is OK.

 (Gif animation: test created macros quickly and easily)
Fourth: Add Buttons
To add user interface elements like push button, you will need Form Controls toolbar. Go to menu bar View > Toolbars > Form Controls to show it.

• Add first button and assign 'calculate1' macro.
• Add second button and assign 'delete1' macro.

This gif animation shows how to add new buttons:

(Gif animation: creating buttons on the sheet)
And this animation shows how to assign a macro to a button:

(Gif animation: assign macros to buttons)
See? It is very simple. Up to this point you have completed all necessary tasks.

Finally: Play
Now, play your buttons like in the first animation above. Congratulations, you have created first calculation macro on LibreOffice Calc.

How To Create Custom Toolbar
As a bonus, you can create a custom toolbar that contains your frequently used menus as well as your most used macros. Just like gif animations above! To do so,

1) go to menu bar Tools > Customize > Toolbar > create a new toolbar > name it 'Macro' > Add Command > from left panel: select BASIC > from right panel: select Record Macro and press Add > back to left panel: select LibreOffice Macros > My Macros > Standard > Module1 > from right panel: select a macro and press Add > OK

2) call your custom toolbar: go to menu bar View > Toolbars > 'Macro' > it appears.

 (LibreOffice: setup a new custom toolbar)
See? Nothing hard, right?

Closing Words
That's all. I would like to say thank you to soukaina as her video Les macros avec le tableur Calc(LibreOffice) (in French) is the base of this tutorial. Thank you, your have made your video very clear, I can learn so much from your one video although I don't understand French. Anyway, the macros in this article still do not have feature to record every transaction or to calculate taxes or even more advanced, to print out the receipt. These macros are just the basic things. It is very exciting for myself as this is my first chance ever to learn about macro and I have been wanted to learn it since a long time ago. I hope I can record my own learning process in the next tutorials. Happy working!

Further Readings
Just like the previous tutorial, I give you the same references once again.

• Les macros avec le tableur Calc(LibreOffice)
• Recording a Macro and Adding a Button in LibreOffice 4 (video)
• https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Macros
• https://documentation.libreoffice.org/assets/Uploads/Documentation/en/GS5.1/HTML/GS5113-GettingStartedWithMacros.html
• https://prahladyeri.com/blog/2016/02/ten-libreoffice-macro-recipes.html
• https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/macro
• https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Recording_a_Macro
• https://www.debugpoint.com/libreoffice-basic-macro-tutorial-index (my first encounter with LibreOffice macro was from this DebugPoint site)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.