Update!
Elementary OS Freya Beta 1 has been released for a while so the first and most important thing to do is to run the update manager. To do so, simply type this in Terminal:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Install Elementary Tweaks
If you like customization then elementary OS might not be the perfect choice for you. Oh wait! We have Elementary Tweaks which is an outstanding tool for customizing your version of elementary OS whether it’s Luna or Freya. It’s such a cool software that I dedicated a whole new page for it in this blog. Check it out here: Elementary Tweaks.
Fix double Google Chrome icon in Plank
If you’ve got a fresh installation of elementary OS and you already installed Google Chrome you might notice that Chrome icons shows up twice on Plank dock. You can fix this easily.
In Terminal, type:
sudo scratch-text-editor /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
Inside you can see 3 sections like “[Desktop Entry]”, under each add a following line
StartupWMClass=Google-chrome-stable
Then close Chrome, remove icon fron Plank and restart Chrome. Then re-lock icon.
If you will get “Your profile could not be opened correctly” error on browser launch – try to kill all Chrome processes (some background one could lock your profile data) by typing “sudo killall -9 chrome” in Terminal
Change button layout
At the time of writing Elementary Tweaks doesn’t support changing the button layout on Freya. You can still do it by following this excellent tutorial:
http://eos-snippets.blogspot.hu/2014/08/change-button-layout-in-freya-beta-1.html
Dual docks when using 2 monitors
When using two monitors in elementary OS the dock only shows on one monitor. If you prefer Plank to be visible on both of them, follow this great tutoral:
https://heathpaddock.com/?p=761
Install your favourite apps
If you’re new to Linux and find elementary OS lack of some useful apps here’s a tip for my favourite ones. They are available from the Software Center.
- Web browser: Google Chrome (get it from google.com/chrome, download the .deb package) or Firefox
- Instant Messaging: Pidgin, Skype
- Office Suite: LibreOffice
- Multimedia: VLC (for videos), Audacious (for MP3)
Plus these apps look native in Freya, they’re really amazing:
Vocal – podcast application
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:nathandyer/vocal-daily sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install vocal
Biride – Twitter client
64 bits
sudo apt-get install gdebi && wget https://github.com/birdieapp/birdie/releases/download/1.1/birdie-granite_1.1.0.r421.pkg20.ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb -O birdie64.deb && sudo gdebi birdie64.deb && rm birdie64.deb
32 bits
sudo apt-get install gdebi && wget https://github.com/birdieapp/birdie/releases/download/1.1/birdie-granite_1.1.0.r421.pkg20.ubuntu14.04.1_i386.deb -O birdie32.deb && sudo gdebi birdie32.deb && rm birdie32.deb
Best GTK themes for Freya
1. XGTK
It’s inspired by Mac OS X.
2. Moka Project
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:moka/stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install moka-gtk-theme
There’s also some very nice icon themes in this PPA: moka-icon-theme and faba-icon-theme.
3. Numix Project
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:numix/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install numix-gtk-theme
I also suggest installing it’s beautiful icon themes: numix-icon-theme and numix-icon-theme-circle.
