Since Gutsy comes with Compiz-Fusion installed and enabled by default, why not use it to create an embedded terminal on your desktop?
If, like me, you actually enjoy using the Linux CLI, and find that you spend a lot of time going back and forth from an application to a terminal window, then this is a must-have tool.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install the Advanced Desktop Effects Settings package. This is the GUI management side of Compiz-Fusion. Click on Applications, Add/Remove… Find the package in the list, and install it.

Now you need to create a new profile for the gnome terminal so that you can change the way it behaves without messing up your normal terminal windows.

1. Go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal.
2. Go to File -> New Profile.
3. Give the profile this name: embedded
4. In the Editing Profile window, on the General tab, remove the checks from Cursor blinks and Show menubar… on the Title and Command tab, Change Dynamically-set title to Isn’t Displayed, on the Colors tab, remove the check from Use colors from system theme and choose a text color you’ll be able to see on your desktop background. On the Effects tab, select Transparent background and set the Shade transparent… slider to none. On the Scrolling tab, set the Scrollbar is menu to disabled, then click close.

Now we need to tell compiz-fusion what to do with windows that have the name embedded.

1. Go to System -> Preferences -> Advanced Desktop Effects Settings.
2. Click on Utility. Enable Regex Matching.
3. Click on Effects, then Window Decoration.
4. Add “!title=embedded” to the Decoration Windows field. Precede it with “&” if something is already there.
5. Click on Window Management, then Window Rules.
6. Add “title=embedded” to the following fields: Skip taskbar, Skip pager, Below, Sticky, Non resizable windows, Non minimizable windows, Non maximizable windows, Non closable windows.
7. Click Add at the bottom.
8. Enter “title=embedded” to Sized Windows, and set the height and width of the invisible terminal window.
9. Click on Place Windows, then go to the Fixed Window Placement tab.
10. Click Add in the Windows With Fixed Positions field.
11. Enter “title=embedded”. You can leave the coordinates at 0,0 for now. Use ALT+Click+Drag to move the window.
12. Thanks to Zoldrin for this tip: Go to General Options, un-check “hide skip taskbar windows”.
13. Use this command to start the transparent terminal window:
    gnome-terminal –window-with-profile=http://ubuntology.com/feed/embedded

There are a few different ways to get this to start automatically. Try creating a script and adding it to System -> Preferences -> Sessions.

Let me know how this works for you!

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