I've just read an article about 10 ways to improve the GNOME Desktop, and I must admit that many points are sensible. Let analyze them.

The default file manager in the GNOME desktop environment is Nautilus. If you've been using GNOME for a while, then you're probably familiar with Nautilus' built in Nautilus Scripts function. The Scripts function is great, but there's an even better way to add functions to Nautilus; with Nautilus Actions.

Nautilus is the default file manager used in Gnome by most of the Linux distributions, now even though nautilus is extremely user friendly and has wide array of features (including ability to extend it's feature set with scripts and extensions). All these features does make nautilus bit resource hungry especially if you are using older machine.

Thunar is a lightweight file manager included in the Xfce desktop environment. It has a simpler interface compared to Nautilus, the default file manager which ships with GNOME. So, what are the features which come with Thunar, and what makes it a viable alternative to Nautilus?

Using dark themes in Gnome has always has some issues. Due to issues in Gnome and GTK apps, some application have problems like dark fonts on dark background, text areas grayed out, and multiple issues with OpenOffice. Here is a quick guide to solve many of the problems I encountered using dark themes in Gnome.

I have never been a big fan of the default Brown/Orange GNOME themes that ship as standard with each new Ubuntu distribution. It turns out that there is a brilliant project called Gnome-Colours that has set itself the task of dealing with this problem.

Gnome is a great desktop environment.  But it's not perfect.  If I could pick five things for the Gnome developers to change or improve, here's what they'd be.

Gstyle is a new full Gnome theme manager with some really great features which I am sure you will love if you like to customize your Desktop look constantly. Gstyle can automatically download and install wallpapers, Xsplash, GTK themes, icon themes, full themes, mouse pointers and more from gnome-look, deviantart, customize.org and others, or directly from the software source.

GNOME Commander is a free two pane file manager in the tradition of Norton and Midnight Commander, it is built on the GTK-toolkit and GnomeVFS. GNOME Commander aims to fulfill the demands of more advanced users who like to focus on file management, their work through special applications and running smart commands.