The plasma desktop effect of KDE is mouth-watering. It not only looks beautiful, but also has a good amount of usability. But, the interface is available(by default) only on the KDE desktop environment.

Here is an easy way to get the plasma effect on Gnome along with Emerald and Gnome. The tutorial works on Ubuntu Karmic Koala.

Steps:

• Go to System >> Administration >> Hardware Drivers, select the latest driver for Graphics and activate it.
• Go to System >> Preferences >> Appearance >> Visual Effects, activate the extra mode.
• Press Alt+F2, bring up xterm. Install required packages with the command

  sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager emerald fusion-icon kde-minimal
  compiz-kde kdeplasma-addons plasma-scriptengine-python gtk2-engines-qtcurve

  , this installs the packages named here.

• Save the given code into a file, say “GnomeDesk.sh”,

  #!/bin/bash
  killall fusion-icon
  killall gnome-panel
  killall plasma-desktop
  gnome-panel &
  fusion-icon &

  This will create a launcher for Gnome desktop.

• Save the given code into a file, say “PlasmaDesk.sh”,

  #!/bin/bash
  killall fusion-icon
  killall gnome-panel
  killall plasma-desktop
  plasma-desktop &
  fusion-icon &

  This will create a launcher for Plasma desktop.

• Now, run these commands:

  chmod +x ~/Desktop/plasma-desktop.sh ; chmod +x ~/Desktop/gnome-desktop.sh

  This makes the files executable.

• Open “gconf-editor” by typing it in the terminal. Go to the location

  desktop >> gnome >> session >> required_components

  and remove the “gnome-panel” value in the “Panel” section. This prevents Gnome panel from being reborn each time.

• Install any Emerald theme.
• Run the PlasmaDesk script you just created.
• From Compiz Fusion icon, select  Window Manager as Compiz and Window Decorator as Emerald.
• In KDE menu,  select Favorites >> System Settings >> Style, and set “GTK+” in  ”Widget style”. Use the Humanity Icon set for best results.