I have very specific tastes about how my system should look. I prefer the lean and fast appearance. This is one of the main reasons why I like KDE so much – you can customize the system to perfection. Gnome does not have this much options.
To modify the looks and shortcuts for the system, take KDE Menu->Control Center. Go Wild!!
This is how I have set up my system…
Appearance & Themes
Launch Feedback
- Busy Cursor = Passive Busy Cursor
Screen Saver
- Start Automatically = Off
Style
- Widget Style = MS Windows 9x
- Enable Tooltips = Off
-
Effects
- Enable GUI Effects = Off
Window Decorations
- Window Decorations = KDE2
- Draw Titlebar stipple effect = Off
- Draw Gradients = Off
-
Buttons
- Show window button tooltips = Off
- Use custom button positions = On
- Button Order = Menu, All Windows, Above others, Title, Minimize, Maximize, Close
Desktop
Behavior -> General
- Show tooltip = Off
Multiple Desktops
- I like 8 desktops
Panels
- Arrangement -> Size = Normal (Bigger Main Panel)
Menus
- Quick Browser Menu -> Maximum number of Entities = 25
- Quick Start Menu Items -> Maximum number of Entities = 0 (Hides the ‘Recently used software’ at the top of the KDE Menu)
Appearance
- Enable icon Mouseover effects = Off
- Show Tooltips = Off
Taskbar
- Show Windows from all desktops = Off
- Sort alphabetically by application name = Off
- Group Similar tasks = Never
Window Behavior
-
Titlebar Actions
- Titlebar Double-Click = Maximize
-
Moving
- Display contents in moving windows = Off
- Animate minimize and restore = Off
-
Advanced
- Active Desktop Borders -> Only When moving windows = On
Regional & Accessibility
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Too many changes to list.
Sound & Multimedia
- System Notifications -> Turn Off All ‘Sounds’