too much space around text

[Mike Fedyk]

[ This should really go to -users -- reply-to is set, if the list 
software strips out that header, please reply to ubuntu-users instead ]

Christof Krüger wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>> I am using GNU/Linux for several years now and like it very much. One
>> issue I always disliked is the extensive space, windows managers require
>> on the screen to display text. Because of this menus and windows become
>> too big thus the screen looks crowded and confusing.
> Well, this is clearly a matter of taste. Having much space around
> controls does not make the screen crowded at all. Personally, I find too
> small controls crowded and confusing.
> 
>> Also I could not manage to customize the space consumption in KDE or
>> GNOME. Is there any possibility to change this behaviour? If so, why it
>> is not changed by default?!
> All this is not just by accident. There a guideline behind this:
> http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/
> Typically, multiples of 6 pixels are used for margin and padding.

I find that these settings work well for me in gconf-editor for nautilus:

* set default view to list
* do not group directories together
* sort by modified date with newest at the top

This is great for me since most of the time I'm working with recently 
modified files and if I'm looking for something else I can just start 
typing a prefix and find what I'm looking for in short order.

Mike