Being a wallpaper fan, I love to collect beautiful wallpapers and rotate them on a regular basis on my desktop. Being a Ubuntu user, I have also tested several wallpaper changing apps for Ubuntu. After a while, you will discover that most of them are similar, do their job (changing the wallpaper) well and don’t seem interesting enough to warrant a review here. I tried Slidewall and its ability to set a live wallpaper on your desktop is a cool feature. Let check it out.
Like any other wallpaper changer, Slidewall allows you to pick your folder of images and change them at a regular interval. The thing that is different is that you can get it to download live wallpaper and run it on your desktop as well. If you are not aware, live wallpaper are wallpaper that updates itself on real-time. Examples are clock wallpaper and weather wallpaper.
Installation
Open a terminal and type the following:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fioan89/slidewall sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install slidewall
Usage
Run the Slidewall app. There are only three tabs in the configuration window: Preferences, Slideshow, Live Wallpapers.
The Preferences is pretty simple and standard. You can select whether to start with slideshow mode or live wallpaper mode, the interval to change the wallpaper and should it run on startup.
The Slideshow tab allows you to select the wallpaper folder or individual images. Once you have done selecting your wallpapers, you can click the “Start” button to start the wallpaper rotating.
The last tab is the Live Wallpaper where you can select from the various live wallpapers to display in the screen. The first one is the “new wallbase” where it will check for the latest wallpaper from its server every 15 minutes and display them on your desktop. There is also the Live Earth wallpaper where you can see the updated earth condition every 20 minutes.
You can also choose the live clock wallpaper where the clock will be updated every minute. If none of the clock design catches your attention, you can also source for more clock wallpaper from here and import the .wcz file to Slidewall.
Other than the mentioned above, Slidewall doesn’t seem to support any other form of live wallpaper yet.
Slidewall also comes with an appindicator so you can easily switch wallpaper from the system tray.
Conclusion
As a wallpaper changing app, Slidewall is pretty basic and does the job well. The ability to display live wallpaper is a bonus though. If you are into live wallpaper, then this is probably the app for you. What do you think? Do you appreciate such app? What other form of live wallpaper would you hope to see in Slidewall?
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox
Sign up for all newsletters.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. We will not share your data and you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe
Damien Oh
Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.
Comments (2)