nazham.com

Category: Computing, Linux, Python, Software, Ubuntu Tags: Linux, Python, Ubuntu

How to Enhance Your Linux Desktop with Conky

Posted July 26th, 2009 by nazham

I have been using Conky as my desktop monitoring widgets for quite some time now. Before this, I’ve been using few applications like screenlets and gdesklets, but there’s a lot of drawbacks on these applications. Among them were limited customizations, it’s difficult to develop your own widgets, unable to find widgets you’re looking for, and if you do find them, they are too buggy to be used in the first place.

Then, I’ve found Conky. I’ll never turn back.

This is the best system monitor I have ever experienced. It is highly customizable, all you have to do is modify the Conky config file. There’s a lot of widgets/variables to use, such as system monitoring tools (CPU, RAM, SWAP, Hard Drive, etc), batteries capacity, networking, and more. And best of all, it is very, very easy to create your own widgets. If you know any programming language such as Python, Perl, or even a simple Shell Scripts, then you’re off to create your own.

Installing Conky are easy as executing command below in the terminal:
$ sudo apt-get install conky

Next, create your Conky config file. Here is my config file I’m currently using.

Then, execute command below to run Conky. Put it in your startup so that it will be running each time you boot-up your computer:
$ conky -c <path_to_my_conky_config>.conf

Below are what my desktop currently looks like with Conky:

Conky Desktop

In there I’ve created my own GMail notifier, Google Reader notifier and local TV guide, all using Python. You will find more ideas, screen shots and scripts to use with Conky on Ubuntu Forum.

Cheers.

1. Installing Google Gadgets on Ubuntu 8.10 Google Desktop gadgets are interactive mini-applications that can be placed...
2. How To Share Media Between Xbox 360 and Linux I’ve got a little project going on in the past...
3. Python: Executing a Program on a Remote 64-bit Windows Machine Executing a program, exe’s, services on a remote Windows machine...
4. Twitux and gTwitter: Twitter Clients for Ubuntu Linux Following my previous post nazham.com on Twitter, I’ve just beginning...
5. Automated scp on Linux Scenario You would like to automate the export of SQL...