If you are new to Linux and are using Ubuntu, you may find it frustrating that there's no instant option to easily hide/show desktop icons just like in Windows. But there's no need to worry as there are several ways to minimize or eliminate your desktop clutter and hide some or even all the icons from your Ubuntu desktop.

I prefer a clean desktop with no icons cluttering it up, but by default most Gnome based distros adds icons to the desktop for every single removable drive that you attach to your system.

Some days ago, I wrote a post about 30 gnome themes to enhance your Ubuntu desktop. In order to make one more step in Linux desktop customization, here is a list of 10 very cool icons sets for your Linux desktop.

For Windows users trying out Ubuntu, one of the first things you will notice with the GNOME desktop is how icon-less it is. Most Windows users are familiar with many icons on their desktop, including the default icons - My Computer, Network and The Recycle bin.

I have had a lot of fun playing with compiz fusion in Linux. I really like the desktop cube feature especially with the transparency settings in place to where you can see all sides of your desktop cube. Unfortunately there is a problem and that is with the desktop icons.

Icons have always intimidated me. Except for the mouseover help, two-thirds of the time I would have no idea what function they represent. Shrink them so that they fit on a toolbar, and the obscurity is compounded by illegibility.

You can spice up the look of your GNOME desktop by putting on a killer theme and match it with really cool Linux wallpaper. To greatly enhance its appearance, you will also need some equally good-looking set of icons. I’m going to share to you some of my favorite set of icons.

Many people using GNOME (either in Ubuntu or elsewhere) feel that they are missing icons to their beloved 'Computer', home folder, network servers and trash can on their desktop, but did you now they are actually included into GNOME and that you just have to enable them?

"System Tray" icons were a great idea in Windows 95, but over the years the concept has been abused. It's not uncommon to get a new Windows PC with a dozen system tray icons, usually serving no purpose other than to advertise the existance of the application to which the icon belongs.