Cooking Linux the right way: Gnome setup
Preface
In this article we'll go through the following steps:
- Setting up network accounts
- Enhancing performance
- Starting apps automatically
- Placing apps automatically
- Minor tuning: tray, clipboard, and desktop indicator
Great, let's do it!
Setting up network accounts
If you have a Google account, you may do it the old way: set your Gmail account in an email program or use a web interface for Gmail and Google Drive. Instead, you can do it once in Settings – Online Accounts. After that, the following will happen:
- Compatible email programs like Geary and Evolution will show your mail
- Nautilus will show your Google Drive as a folder
More than that, if you have another email account, Gnome-way is to add it in Online Accounts as well.
By the way, Deja dup backup tool will require authorization to use Google Drive, but it works.
Enhancing performance
The main trick here is to turn off animation. In Gnome version 2.42 it can be done in the Accessibility tab (I also turn on the large text setting there), before that it was in Gnome Tweaks.
You can also visit the Power tab in Settings to check power mode – if you need performance, you can turn it on there.
Starting apps automatically
In my opinion, starting apps manually at a system startup is a waste of time. I use gnome-tweak to start apps I need:
- Terminal
- Nautilus
- Chrome
- Telegram
Placing apps automatically
The next step is to use workspaces. I limit the number of workspaces to three not to get confused (Settings – Multitasking) and also turn on the setting 'Application Switching – Include applications from the current workspace only'. Then you can install Auto Move Windows extension and set auto-started apps, for example, like this:
- Terminal + text editor
- Nautilus + Chrome
- Telegram
Minor tuning: tray, clipboard, and desktop indicator
The tray was required by Telegram and Skype, now it's used by Skype only. So, I still prefer to have a tray not to look for Skype when I need it and Tray Icons: Reloaded extension does it.
Clipboard history is essential when you do a lot of copy-paste actions, so extensions like Gnome Clipboard allow you to choose what to paste. I'd rank this number 1 for productivity because instead of switching multiple times between the apps it allows me to copy multiple links, switch to another app and paste anything I want. By the way, two hints:
- You can select the path for copy-paste in Nautilus hitting Ctrl+L.
- Copy-paste works in the Terminal with Ctrl+Shift+[С|V] by default.
I also like to have a workspace indicator whether it's visual or just a number.
That's all, I wouldn't spoil Gnome too much with extensions when they begin to conflict with each other, consume memory, and crash. :)
Conclusion
I used this setup for heavy-duty copy-pasting at work, and it works fine for me. I even do not bother that the clipboard extension doesn't have a hotkey. For the rest just use hotkeys and everything will be fine. :) If you need more productivity, stay tuned for terminal and text editors setup.