What’s remarkable is that these applets are highly customizable and offer a plethora of options. For instance, although I installed a brightness slider applet, I opted to adjust brightness using my keyboard rather than the slider. Thankfully, the applet allows me to assign keyboard shortcuts to increase or decrease brightness. Moreover, this applet can tweak gamma levels for each primary color and enable you to create presets tailored to your preferences. For instance, the default “nighttime comfort” preset reduces brightness to 70% and modifies blue and green gamma to alleviate eye strain.
What’s truly fantastic is that you have the ability to blend elements from different themes you’ve installed to create a personalized setup that suits you best. I incorporated a couple of additional themes on top of what Linux Mint provided, intertwining aspects from each. I’ve got a transparent taskbar from one theme, an overall dark theme with blue checkboxes from another, and dark gray and green folder icons in the File Manager from yet another. The level of control available here is phenomenal, and the user-friendly aspect is just incredible. It’s as though you’re stepping into a whole new realm of customization.
So, while I’ve been a lifelong Windows user, lately I’ve been eager to give Linux a try. To ease into it, I opted for Linux Mint on one of my laptops to retain a sense of familiarity. I’ve extensively used this laptop for work to truly immerse myself in the Linux experience.
In a similar vein, there are desklets, which are akin to tools situated directly on your desktop. I can’t say I’ve configured these yet as I’m not particularly drawn to desktop widgets, but you can come across an assortment of similar tools like clocks, weather widgets, and RSS feed readers. Additionally, by installing extensions, you can enhance specific desktop behaviors, such as one that enlarges your mouse cursor when shaken, thereby making retrieval easier.
These panels present far more customization options than Windows has ever offered. Initially, you can adjust the panel’s height across a wide range of sizes with precise control down to the pixel. A slider enables you to switch between 16 to 80 pixels in height, and the icons on the taskbar adjust accordingly. Naturally, you can also customize the icon sizes themselves. Panels allow you to choose from preset sizes for colored icons and finely alter the size of symbolic icons down to the pixel, akin to adjusting font sizes.
Let’s pivot to discuss the taskbar, or as it’s referred to in Linux Mint, the panel. To be more precise, let’s call them panels because, unlike Windows, Linux Mint permits you to have multiple taskbar-like panels that can be positioned on any edge of your screen.
Given that Linux is community-driven, you aren’t confined to the themes that come default with Mint. Right from the settings page, you have the option to browse through a theme store and download a myriad of themes that can thoroughly transform the appearance of your PC in even more profound ways. The customization choices here are on a completely different level when compared to Windows.
The aspect that truly resonated with me when I began using Linux Mint was the level of customization it offered. It’s thoughtfully structured, making the transition from Windows 11 not too alien, yet the customization options blew me away from the get-go. The vast array of tweaks you can make right off the bat seamlessly integrate with the operating system. It’s quite mind-boggling and it leaves you yearning for Windows to offer a similar level of flexibility.
If you’ve ever pondered the need for multiple panels or questioned why I refer to taskbar elements as applets, here’s where things get intriguing. Much like themes, Linux Mint allows you to download applets for your panels that add various functionalities, enriching your PC experience in unique ways. These applets cater to an array of purposes. Some substitute the default launcher with a more user-friendly interface or provide swifter access to diverse features. Others introduce entirely novel functions, such as a brightness slider.
Straight off the bat, the first two applets I configured were a network usage monitor displaying real-time upload and download speeds and a weather widget. The network widget can monitor various network devices and offers extensive customization capabilities. Although I wasn’t fond of its default font choice, I could easily switch to a different font type and size, rendering it spot-on for my taskbar. On the other hand, the weather widget showcases how you can enjoy a beautifully designed weather forecast without crowding your desktop with superfluous widgets and news. It simply fulfills its intended purpose.
The scope of possibilities these gestures unlock is vast, from adjusting volume to launching your window selector or executing a terminal command. Compared to Windows, there’s far more flexibility here.
I’ve predominantly used Windows PCs recently, but venturing into Linux Mint has shed light on the fact that Windows may lack that “personal” essence commonly associated with personal computers. Linux offers a wealth of customization options, and it’s truly refreshing to experience. While I’ve only installed it on an older, entry-level laptop thus far, I’m tempted to explore it on newer devices to discover how much better the experience could be.
Hot corners serve as an additional layer of personalization that lets you assign specific actions when you hover your mouse cursor over any screen corner. While I haven’t delved too deeply into this feature yet, I’ve customized it so that the window selector pops up when I move the mouse cursor to the bottom right corner, offering a convenient way to view my open apps.
Exploring all the settings offered by Linux Mint via its system settings app, the standout feature that immediately caught my attention was the theming options. Unlike Windows, which predominantly offers color theme selections, Linux themes can be intricately detailed. They have the ability to alter the appearance of radio buttons, folders in the file manager, and even overhaul the overall desktop aesthetic. It goes beyond just changing colors; some themes offer diverse textures and transparency levels.
- And that’s not all
- here’s the exciting part: you have the ability to rearrange the applets on the taskbar based on your personal preferences. Whether you fancy centered app icons or prefer them on the left side of the screen like in older Windows versions, you have the freedom to move them around as you please. You can even choose to separate the launcher from open apps, adding that extra touch of customization.
