Ubuntu’s Unity is fun and all, but I’m giving Gnome Shell (apt-get install gnome-shell) a try.
A new desktop environment is a great excuse for the Gnome developers to
implement a new settings framework and simplify what’s shown in the UI.
I was running into the screen dimming delay, which was too quick by default.
It’s an easy change:
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power idle-dim-time 30
Behind the scenes, gsettings
uses dconf as a backend. Both clients can
monitor changes. In
one window, run dconf watch /. In another,
gsettings monitor org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power.
dconf lets you monitor the whole namespace - gsettings requires
a schema, which maps to a subtree in the dconf space.
Now, try that gsettings line again and see the changes monitored at both levels. Changes through the GUI will also show.
It’s great when a system either chooses the exact same defaults that I’d
use or lets me tune the difference, but hitting that exact spot for
everyone isn’t really an option. Like Firefox’s about:config, that
balance between making the most common settings visible and the rest
tweakable for people who care seems like a nice compromise.
)