One of the most appealing aspects to Linux is that you’re free to do whatever you want with it. I mean that in every reasonable sense of the phrase.
Is that desktop of yours not snazzy enough? Change it! Are you missing a feature out of a program that you really like? Grab the source code and add it (assuming that you have some programming skills). Regardless, you have the power!
I’d make a fair bet that most of us treat Linux as a bit of a toy. That’s not to downplay the importance that it has in production areas, rather the sheer depth of where a user can go simply begs one to pry.
That being said, it boils down to what type of user you are. A lot of times, this aspect is the gravitational center for your customization escapade. If you’re a big mouse-er, you’re going to want to do all you can to not use the keyboard. The inverse is true as well; big typists probably don’t want to “mouse around” as much. No matter which side of the fence you’re on here, you’ll also want to make the experience visually appealing.
Luckily, software exists that cater to both ends of the spectrum and everywhere in between.
To save you a small bit of the hassle of looking around, here are three pieces of software that should help in bringing a little more life to your system. All of these are in most RPM/DEB-based repositories.
Guake
Guake is a small Python module that gives you a globally collapse-able terminal. So instead of mousing though a series of menus, you can simply press the F12 key to toggle the Guake terminal visibility. It supports tabbed sessions, will maintain the state of each session after being hidden, and is customizable much in the same way many typical terminal emulators are.
Docky
If you’ve ever seen a Mac and been envious of the icon dock they have, this is the alternative you need for Linux. Docky hangs out at the bottom of your screen and holds icons for launching programs at your disposal. You can add icons to the dock by simply dragging them to it. The dock supports effects, skins, and custom applets. (NOTE: You may also want to check out Avant Window Navigator. It’s a great alternative to Docky but is a bit buggy under GNOME3)
gDesklets
Now that your terminal is tucked safely away and your icons are in a dock instead of the desktop, you’re finding yourself with a lot of free screen real estate. Why don’t you spice it up a bit with some desklets? These are the equivalent to Windows Desktop Gadgets. Some common ones will put a clock on your desktop, give you a nice update to the current and forecasted weather, provide an interface to your favorite media player, and even act as a RSS feed reader.