How to customize our GNU / Linux Operating Systems?

Customize GNU / Linux with Grub Customizer

Many GNU/Linux users have as a personal challenge, apart from using it for the specific purpose for which they choose it as their Operating System, to be able to customize their Distro as much as possible to show how versatile and powerful this Free Operating System can be compared to proprietary ones.

Each Linux distribution (DNI) has its own specific applications and tricks for efficient and effective customization, but many are common and can be found in each distribution's repositories. In this post, we'll mention and explain the most well-known and common applications across all distributions , aiming to help Free Software and GNU/Linux users achieve their customization and optimization goals.

Customize GNU / Linux

Among the Personalization Applications we find:

Grub Customizer

It's a graphical interface that allows us to manage the boot menus of the GRUB2/BURG system in GNU/Linux operating systems. Created by Daniel Ritcher, it's currently at version 5.0.8 and is hosted on Launchpad . This application allows us to do, among other things:

MOVER, delete or rename boot records from GRUB menu,
Edit menu contents or create new boot records,
Run the Boot Manager reinstallation on the Master Boot Record (MBR),
Configure the default Operating System to run at startup,
Manage certain kernel parameters,
Edit the GRUB background image and boot menu text colors.

Equivalent or similar programs: Startupmanager , KGRUBEditor and SuperBootManager.

Plymouth / DEBIAN Plymouth Manager

Plymouth is another program for the Management of the startup of the Operating System focused on providing a graphical mode at the start of the Operating System, that is, allowing the display of an animation or static, instead of the text mode (display of initialization messages) that is displays when the computer starts.

In some systems like Ubuntu or Mint it is installed by default, and in others not, like DEBIAN. Plymouth is a terminal program and DEBIAN Plymouth Manager is a Graphical Interface for Plymouth native to Distro MX-Linux 17.

This application allows us, among other things:

Install / Delete Themes
List Topics
Change the current Splash theme.

It can be used via console (Plymouth) and / or via graphical environment (DEBIAN Plymouth Manager) to perform the aforementioned actions.

Equivalent or similar programs: Plymouth Manager

Login Managers

Display Managers (DM), also known as login managers , are applications with graphical interfaces that are displayed at the end of the boot process of a GNU/Linux Operating System, instead of the default shell, and primarily allow a User to log into the System.

Currently the ecosystem of Distros GNU / Linux has good and wide alternatives for Screen Managers. Since their diversity is as wide as that of window managers and desktop environments.

These managers usually provide a certain degree of customization and availability of themes, and most are configured or optimized via terminal or console by modifying their configuration files.

Among the main, most used and known are:

GDM
KDM
LightDM
ssdm
LXDM
MDM
Slim
xdm

Some of them, like LightDM, include graphical applications that allow for their manipulation. For LightDM, there's "LightDM GTK+ Interface / lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings" which has four working sections that facilitate the customization of the Welcome screen and its elements, such as:

Appearance: Theme, Icon, Font, Wallpaper and User Image.
Panel: Wigdets of Time, Date, Language, and the Accessibility, Session and Power Menus.
Window Position: To position the window where the user registers and logs in.
Others: Allows you to configure the default Accessibility applications of the Screen Manager and the Screen Power conservation parameters.

Others such as KDM or SDDM through the General Settings panel of the Desktop Environment are configurable.

Operating System Appearance Settings Window

Managers Window

Window Managers are applications whose function is to display the graphical windows of the applications installed on the Operating System to the user, so that the user can interact with them easily.

Therefore, every graphical operating system comes with a window manager that is usually associated with the desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, Plasma, XFCE, LXDE, among others) to create the system's graphical effects and windows.

Among the most used and well-known Window Managers are:

metacity (gnomes)
Mother (gnomes)
Kwin (WHERE)
XFWM (XFCE)
Enlightenment (Enlightenment)
Blackbox (KDE/Gnome)

And among the less known and used are:

Each one has its own configuration tools that will allow the chosen Desktop Environment to be seen in a unique and personal way, so that each user can have a personalized Distro to the maximum!

Window Manager Settings

Finally, to customize our GNU/Linux Distro we can use Conkys through ConKy Manager or a Dock , choosing between Docky, AWN, Cairo Dock or others of your preference.

With this we could customize and optimize our GNU / Linux Operating System.