Asus EEEPC 701 and 900 Anshul's Theme Manager = ATM

I can only report that this theme manger works great in Asus EEE PC 701 and 900 Xandros EASY DESKTOP Netbooks. Because this is Soooooo Neeeeew that these are the only 2 Netbooks so far that this script has been tested on. Anybody with a Asus Xandros Easy Desktop should try this script out. I run it on my Xandros Easy Desktop and it is the bomb In my opinion. Gives you a way to change wallpapers and themes and icons and also give a bouncy icon Mac look via a GUI interface. Simple to use also.

Here is what the author (a really good guy) of this script has to tell you about this

ATM-the theme manager for my eeepc
For my eeepc vanity needs i used to use theemer a wonderfully designed application with great gui.However,of late,i have not been using theemer as there is a bug in it on using gradient based images for the tabs in AsusLauncher the text on the tabs disappear which seems to be due to resizing of images in theeemer.I like changing my desktop look often and since i was unable to get theemer to work the way i wanted it to , I decided to make my own little script with gui using gtkdialog .

More Here

If you use his script to change your wallpapers or whatever in Easy Desktop on your Asus EEE PC Netbook. Please take the time to thank him and let him know you appreciate his hard work. If running something other than a 701 or 900 Asus EEE Let him know it works on your model or what doesn't work so he can incorporate it. He did that for me on my 900 when I tested his script. He is a very nice guy in my opinion also. I love my customized Xandros Easy Mode Desktop.







The second screenshot shows the difference between Anshuls older version 1 script and now his latest which I used which is Version 2.2. Notice how I changed the Desktop icons and how the taskbars look now between the two different versions and screenshots. I think Anshuls (thanks man) script is the bomb!

Update: Anshuls site has moved.

Update: He has another new site also

Karmic Koala Alpha5

I downloaded Ubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha 5 today and gave it a test in my laptop. This laptop has Intel 945 graphics chip and it performed horribly with Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04). For this reason, I still use Ubuntu 8.10 in that laptop and in my desktop I use 9.04.

The Live-USB booted with no issues. The boot process now uses Xsplash instead of Usplash and it is different than the previous version. The rest of the artwork is still the same, but it should change a lot until September 24th when the Artwork deadline exprires. The notification system dims & blurs when you hover the mouse over it and it simply looks awesome!!!

Default desktop, showing the cool notification system

The first thing I wanted to check was of course the performance of Intel graphics chip. Compiz worked flawlessly and glxgears run at about 1000fps, which was almost equal to 8.10 installed on the HDD. In 9.04, it had regressed several times slower.

I connected using an ethernet cable and as usual it worked fine.
Sound was fine too and after 5 hours of running from the Live USB, it didn't crash (some applets crashed here and there, but the X system never)so I guess I could even upgrade now to this ALPHA version and start using it for my everyday computing!! After installation it will boot and run a lot faster compared to the live-USB and previous versions, since it uses the ext4 filesystem by default. By the time the stable version is released, the stable kernel and the tweaks by Ubuntu developers will probably give it another boost to speed along with stability.

I noticed a bug, the workspace switcher won't allow you to increase the number of virtual desktops, It was already submitted to Ubuntu's Launchpad, but not to Gnome bugzilla, so I filled it in the latter(copied Ubuntu's bug report actually...)
So, that makes me a Gnome developer now, I guess...LOL!

Update: The bug is marked as fixed in Gnome bugzilla.

Summary of tests I performed on my laptop:

• Graphics card: ✔
• Sound: ✔
• Ethernet: ✔
• wireless: not tested
• Microphone:✔
• Touchpad, usb ports:✔
• Function keys: ✔

So does an upgrade to Karmic Koala seem a good choice?
For those with Intel graphics, it is an absolute must, since the driver in Jaunty was slow & broken and made many Ubuntu users skip that version or switch to other distros. For everyone else, it is a welcome (and free...) upgrade which includes a new kernel, ext4 by default, Firefox 3.5, Openoffice 3.1 and Gnome 2.28.

Next Alpha ver.6 will be available in September 17 and it will probably include new artwork, since the Artwork Second Drop, will take place in September 10th.