Customizing the Ubuntu Desktop

After seeing a lot of very cool desktop customization pictures on the web, I finally decided to see what could be done with Gnome on Ubuntu 10.04 without placing a heavy resource load.  My laptop is a few years old.  It is a Lenovo T60 with an Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz, 3GB RAM, 100GB/5400 RPM hard disk, and an Intel mobile integrated graphics card.  I tried a lot of various techniques, including Gnome Do, Docky, and Cairo Dock.  I settled on use of Docky with the elementary desktop theme.  I've been very happy with the stability, responsiveness, and features thus far.

I followed most of the instructions from this how-to-guide, with the exception of adding the Gloobus Preview capability, which I did not want because it required loading a non-standard version of nautilus.

Here's a snapshot of my desktop now:

Desktop after customization with Docky & Elementary desktop theme

A focus for my thoughts...

Well, I've come back around and decided to use this blog to capture some of the work I'm putting into my varied interests... both career/work related and personal.  A big focus for me right now is open source BI tools, so I'll probably start posting a fair amount of content there.