Why I Switched Back from Arch to Ubuntu

While I've had a great deal of fun using Arch Linux I've decided to go back to Ubuntu. The biggest reason why? All the recent changes to Linux to create Ubuntu Karmic and the changes being proposed for Ubuntu Lucid. While what can be customize in Arch is fantastic and the wiki, tutorials and community are incredibly helpful, somethings are just too involved to build and too enticing to avoid. But in Ubuntu these things are getting integrated into the default distro so that anyone can use them.

Day of Conky

The Day of Ubuntu wallpaper is a beautiful and subtle transitioning wallpaper that makes your desktop scene of a tree in a field change with the passing of time. To complement this effect I've written a conky configuration that changes colour along with it.

Gnome-panel Transparency Without Shadow

Enabling desktop effects in Ubuntu can be a beautiful thing but it's default handling of window shadows with another effect I like to have which is to make my panel transparent. While I like having my windows make shadows (it makes them look more 3D), I hate it when my transparent panel casts one too.

Missing GPG Key?

Today I was installing Ubuntu on my new laptop (my Compaq F700 was sadly destroyed by extensive hardware failure for no apparent reason; the motherboard, hard drive and possibly everything else is all gone. It's been replaced by a shiny new Asus K60). I missed grabbing the GPG key for a new source I was installing. Rather than go track that down I found a more general solution for any missing GPG key.