This is a Gnome Panel applet designed to change the background on you desktop. The source tarball (uncompiled source code in tared gziped format) is here.

These are the features included in the current version (1.0.0-beta2) of gBackGround:

• Small size:

  I have tried to preserve Panel space by making the applet small. Besides, it really doesn't need to be any larger.
• Change your background without launching your Window Managers configuration manager.

  1. Random picture:

     The applet has a list of all files in the directories (as well as individual files) that you have requested be put in it. The Random Background button will choose one of these and display it in the current mode.

  2. Moving picture:

     I have incorporated the moving background feature found in MagicBG. It's nice if you don't need to do anything with your processor :)

  3. Choose your background:

     When you push the Pick Background button it will bring up a window that will let you pick from thumbnails of your backgrounds. For speed and convenience the thumbnails are grouped by the directory they live in or as a group of all individual files.
• Automatically change your background:
  You can set gBackGround to automatically change your background after a certain length of time. How long is up to you. You can set it to pick random backgrounds or go through the list of backgrounds in the order you entered them, first all of the directories then all of the files.
• Configurable:
  Many features are fully configurable, ether from the Properties dialog or, for convenience, from the drop down menu. You can set:
  1. The way backgrounds are displayed in three ways.
     • Tiled.
     • Scaled. All Scaling is max aspect and larger images are always scaled down to the size of your desktop.
     • Centered. Scaled images are always centered.

  
  

  2. The way gBackGround guesses what type of file it is reading.
     gBackGround uses gnome MIME in one of two flavors. You can set it to use the contents of the file to try and guess the MIME type of the file or use a pseudo MIME that looks just at the filename. "Real" MIME types are more accurate but take longer, the other method is quicker but less accurate.
  3. The way that gBackGround starts up.
     You can set it to start with a random background, the background it had when it was last saved (this is usually when you log off) or not to display a background on start up
  4. And, of course, what files and directories you want gBackGround to look for with an easy to use dialog accessible both from the properties dialog and from the Choose background window. This dialog has separate lists for the directories and files you have included and will let you preview files before adding them or removing them. You can also enter directories and files manually in the text entry.

• Note users with The Enlightenment window manager: The current version of gBackGround will only work on your default desktop due to the way multiple desktops are implemented. You may also need to set your Enlightenment to not put a background on your default desktop as it may interfere with gBackGround.

Changelog

Here are some screenshots of my little applet (Many provided by Ingrid Schupbach):

This is the applet. It will sit on your Gnome Panel. It has two buttons. One to get a random background and one to pick your background:

Here is the window for picking your background. It has a combo box for choosing which directory (or a list of separate files) you want to look at and a button to add and remove files and directories:

Here is the file selection window. It has separate lists of your files and directories that you have added and a preview area:

And here is the properties window. As you can see it lets you get to the file selection window, change how you display your images, change if and how your background is automatically changed, how gBackGround starts up, and the method for determining mime types. Many of these options are also available in the dropdown menu:

If you want to see everything together you can look here.

Here is some old stuff, I don't know why you'd want it but here it is:

gBackGround-1.0.0-beta2 gBackGround-0.9.6-beta gBackGround-0.9.5

If you have any problems, questions or suggestions about gBackGround you can email me at govindsalinas@email.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can. PS. I've had to change ISPs recently so my old email is no longer valid.

I apologize to anyone who has been trying to contact me.

Enjoy.