Do you conky?

I've been using conky for awhile. I really enjoy having my system info readily available on the desktop. I mainly like having my IP info available. The setup is really easy. I use fedora, so I just "yum install conky". But you may have to use apt or compile form source. Once installed you'll need to set it up so that it launches when you login. I had to write a simple bash script to get this to work.

$ cat scripts/conky_startup
#!/bin/bash
sleep 5 && /usr/bin/conky

I then added the location of the script to my session preferences in GNOME. You will also need to customize a .conkyrc file. Here is what mine looks like:

own_window yes
own_window_type override
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
use_spacer right
use_xft yes
xftfont unDotum:size=8
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 2048
minimum_size 250 5
maximum_width 255
alignment top_right
double_buffer yes
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
stippled_borders 3
border_margin 9
border_width 10
default_color FFFFFF


TEXT
$color
${voffset +5}${color #689098}${font Rueckwarzsalto:size=24}SISTEMA
${voffset -31}${hr 1}$font$color
Name $alignr $nodename
Uptime $alignr${uptime_short}

${voffset -5}${color #79cbd6}${font Rueckwarzsalto:size=24}PROCESSOR
${voffset -31}${hr 1}$font $color
CPU1 ${cpu cpu1}% ${color #a6a6a6}${cpubar cpu1}$color
CPU2 ${cpu cpu2}% ${color #a6a6a6}${cpubar cpu2}$color

TOP PROCESSES
${top_mem name 1}${alignr}${top mem 1} %
${top_mem name 2}${alignr}${top mem 2} %
${top_mem name 3}${alignr}${top mem 3} %
${top_mem name 4}${alignr}${top mem 4} %

${voffset -5}${color #cae186} ${font Rueckwarzsalto:size=24}MEM/DISCO
${voffset -31}${hr 1}$font $color
RAM: $alignc $mem / $memmax $alignr $memperc%
${color #a6a6a6}$membar$color
SWAP: $alignc $swap / $swapmax $alignr $swapperc%
${color #a6a6a6}$swapbar$color
/ $alignc ${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /} $alignr ${fs_used_perc /}%
${color #a6a6a6}$fs_bar /}$color

${voffset -5}${color #fbd109}${font Rueckwarzsalto:size=24}RED
${voffset -31}${hr 1}$font $color
External IP $alignr ${execi 300 wget www.whatismyip.com/automation/n09230945.asp -O - -q}
${if_up eth0}eth0 $alignr ${addr eth0}${endif}
${if_up eth1}eth1 $alignr ${addr eth1}${endif}
Download Speed $alignr ${downspeed eth0} kb/s
Uploaded Speed $alignr ${upspeed eth0} kb/s
Total Downloads $alignr ${totaldown eth0}
Total Uploads $alignr ${totalup eth0}

And here is what my desktop looks like with conky running.



I have to admit that the layout is original. It's actually a mdification of a .conkyrc file I found through lifehacker.