Customising your Linux desktop! - Week 4 of Using Linux

 

Week 4

  Welcome to the fourth episode of the "My Linux Experience 2026" series. In this episode, I will dive into a simple customisation tutorial for KDE Linux desktops, as well as share this week's experience using Linux. This will include some new apps that I have been trying out and my honest review of them. Let's dive right in.

  To start off, I am still using the same Linux distribution, the Arch-based CachyOS. I installed it for the first time four weeks ago on my brand new PC. The technical specifications are listed at the end of every post and in the "About" page.

  Customising your KDE desktop

 Linux is notably known for being very open to customisation in comparison to other operating systems, allowing users to make their desktops fit precisely their taste. Operating systems such as Windows and MacOS start off their users with a generic taskbar and few options to alter the look of it. Putting the desktops of two Windows users side-by-side won't show much of a difference; perhaps the taskbar is placed vertically or has a different colour. However, if you do the same with two Linux desktops, even if they are of the same distribution, it will most probably look like two separate operating systems.

 There are two notable desktop environments for Linux: KDE Plasma (very customisable) and GNOME (focuses on simplicity). Personally, I use KDE Plasma, as I love being able to decide and personalise how my desktop looks. KDE also has a ton of great free open-source apps such as the famous Kdenlive, which is a professional video editor software, but it is also available on GNOME. KDE also created "KDE Connect", which allows users to link their phones (both iPhone and Android works) to their computer and transfer files, music, notifications, and even commands to and from them. I have just recently learnt how to customise my desktop, and the image below is a cropped, reassembled and down-scaled screenshot of my taskbar panel.

 

 As you can see, it is separated into three "islands": one for the app manager, one for the apps, and one for the time, network, clipboard, etc. And that isn't the only customisation; I installed a theme called "Layan", which I think is just beautiful.

  So here is an actual short guide on how to install some of these themes and customise your taskbar like I did.

  1. Open your system settings, and scroll down to an option named "Colours & Themes" in the "Appearance & Style" section 
  2. Click on the "Get New..." with a little star next to it.
  3. Browse through the new window that opened and select a theme that matches your taste. (For example, if you like how MacOS looks, you can make your desktop look exactly like it. If you liked how the old 2000s Windows XP looked and feel nostalgic, feel free to download it.)
  4. Now that you have selected the theme that suits you best, close the settings as you won't need it anymore for now.
  5. Right-click anywhere on your desktop (taskbar or wallpaper) and click on "Enter edit mode" or "Show panel configuration".
  6.  In this menu, you can customise your desktop how you want. If you want to create the "islands" style of taskbar that I have, select the "Add panel" option. You can reorient the new taskbar however you like. 
  7. To make an "island" taskbar, go to "Width" and select "Fit content". Move these islands however you like. If you want, you can have two islands on a bottom row and one on the right side of your screen.

And there you go! I hope you enjoy your new desktop look.

 

 This Week's Experience

 I installed a hierarchal note-taking software called "CherryTree" which I highly recommend. Here are the pros and cons of it:

Pros Cons
Minimalistic                                                                                   Tricky to understand and get a hang of for the first few minutes
No loading time, opens right off the bat  A lot of options and not customisable
No need for logging in, saved locally

No apparent settings menu 

 Blender

 I also installed the famous 3D graphics, modelling and animation software "Blender". It is also free and open-source. I was able to add some items and render them, as well as change their properties. It worked flawlessly, and it strengthens the reasons for 3D animators to use Linux for their work.

 This is the fourth episode of my Linux Experience 2026 blog series. Every week, I upload a post talking about my experience using this unique operating system! Sign-up with your email to receive a notification when a new blog releases, it's free! 


My PC Specifications:

    AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3D

    AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

    32 GB DDR5 6000Mhz CL30 RAM

    2 TB NVMe 5.0 SSD 

 Other Components:

    27'' 2560x1440 320Hz 1ms Monitor

    B850-Plus Motherboard (WiFi 7)

    850W Power Supply

    Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB

    5x Artic P12 Case Fans

    Phanteks XT Pro   

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