Need a Wallpaper Changer for GNOME? Try Variety!

openSUSE, despite the vastness of the www stating it’s primarily a KDE distro, prides itself in offering a one stop shop for your operating system needs, regardless of your desktop environment preferences. And it’s true. For a couple of months, I’ve been running openSUSE GNOME exclusively on my laptop. And it worked like a charm. But there was one problem.

Whichever system I’m running, I absolutely _must _have a wallpaper slideshow complementing my desktop theme preferences. That way, I ensure my desktop is fresh and attractive to look at every time I close a window. But, as already stated, there was a problem. The wallpaper slideshow from extensions.gnome.org didn’t seem to work for me and kept on crashing. So I had to find an alternative. How? While search engines can be a good friend, I decided to ask on the forums, to get a first-hand experience. As always,  the kind geekos on the green side of the fence looked into the issue, found a solution and helped a brother out. I’ve been offered a solution, and it’s called Variety.

There was a problem in using Variety on openSUSE - the packages didn’t exist. So, naturally, malcolmlewis stepped in and packaged Variety for us to use!

How to install Variety?

Malcolm created a one-click install for this fantastic wallpaper changer. You can get it here. But, before installing, make sure to install python pillow, as it’s a dependency. You can get it here.

So what’s so special about Variety?

Along with the obvious function, which is changing wallpapers, it’s how it changes them, what really matters. You can add a local pictures folder, or, if you don’t feel like it, you can let Variety download wallpapers directly from the internet from different sources (flickr, wallbase etc.). To learn more about the app’s preferences, check out this video made by a Linux Mint user.

Variety

Do you have any experience with Variety or would maybe like to suggest a wallpaper slideshow app? Join us in the comments! And until then, remember to…

…have a lot of fun!