Configuring Ubuntu For Asus Eee

Lately I lost my main laptop (belonged to the workplace), my older one allows me to use her Eee for now. The Eee came with Windows 7 starter edition, which I grew tired of fast. I've decided to try Ubuntu on it. Trying not to cause too much damage, I used Wubi.

Installing the main distro went without a problem, and after a reboot I had default Gnome desktop up. What I'm describing next is my attempt to get as much screen real estate as possible. Note that I'm spending most of my time in Firefox and in the shell.

General Setup

• Delete the bottom panel (right click and "Delete This Panel")
• Auto hide the top panel (right click, "Properties" and "Autohide")
• Install "Gnome Do"

Firefox Setup

• Right click on the toolbar, "Customize..." and check "Use small icons"
• Click on the "View" menu and leave only the navigation toolbar
• Uncheck the "Status bar" in the "View" menu
• Install the "Hide Menubar" Firefox addon (clicking on "ALT" will show the menu)
• I use GMail and Google Reader, so "Better GMail" and "Better GReader" addons helped
• Install "Adblock Plus" to get more content inside web pages
• This is just a personal preference, but I think installing "Chromifox Extreme" theme freed up some space as well

Terminal Setup

In the "Edit" menu click on "Profile preferences". And on the "General" tab, uncheck "Show menubar by default on new terminals" (use SHIFT-F10 to get a context menu to enable it)

Two More Things

If your kids play webkinz, install Google Chrome. It works much better there (there's always a scroll bar they can use).

As you probably figured out, I am looking for a job right now. If you know someone who is hiring, please point them to my resume.