HOWTO: Make your QT Applications Blend In

Since Bodhi Linux includes GTK applications by default, you will find they have a fairly neutral tone that blends fairly well with the rest of the system. Beyond this Enlightenment has a built in tool for changing the look of GTK applications.

What is a person to do though when they install VLC or some other QT application for the first time and it looks like this:

First off - don't panic! It is a fairly simple/quick fix to get your QT applications to blend in with the rest of your desktop. You first simply need to install the QT theme manager - on Debian based systems such as Bodhi this can be done from the command line via:

sudo apt-get install qt4-qtconfig

Once this package is installed a new option should appear in your menu under "Preferences" labeled "Qt 4 Settings". Launching this will present you with a window the looks something like this:

Only your "GUI Style" will be something other "GTK+" by default. To change this simply select "GTK+" from the drop down menu and then close the settings manager.

You should now be all set with nicer looking QT applications:

Cheers,

~Jeff Hoogland

E17 heading towards a Stable Release - No Really!

I've been pushing the Enlightenment desktop for some time now and for as long as I've been promoting it I've also been warning folks that it is under heavy development. Well folks - Duke Nuke'em Forever might have beat them to a release, but E team is prepping for a major (stable!) release themselves.

The E release manager has setup a wordpress you can find here to follow more specific details about the upcoming release. What can you do to help out with getting E17 on the road to release as a end user? Why filing bug reports of course! One thing worth noting is that if you are filing bug reports you should be keeping as close the latest SVN version as possible.

Finally - if it has been awhile since you've tried the Enlightenment desktop now is the perfect time! If you aren't inclined to be compiling software from source Bodhi Linux provides one of the best default implementations of E17 around. Arch Linux and Gentoo also provide fairly current builds of E17 in their community supported repositories.

2012 - the year of an E17 Release!

~Jeff Hoogland

Some Bodhi Linux Video Goodness

I'd like to take a moment to share a few wonderful videos one of the Bodhi team members has taken the time to put together. This first is a short sound byte/advertisement for our upcoming 2.0.0 release:

These next two show case the winners of our Desktop of the Week contest:

2nd Quarter Winners 2012

1st Quarter Winners 2012

Enjoy!

~Jeff Hoogland