Yakuake

I switched over to KDE a while ago and I have found it to be a much better desktop than Gnome. I don’t want to start a flame war, so I will leave it at that. It’s just a personal preference.

If you use KDE, I would highly recommend trying out Yakuake. It was recommended to me by some coworkers, and it is awesome. The benefit is that it allows you to get to a console with the press of a key. You don’t have to search for icons or go through menus. Also, it hides the console very quickly. The height and width are both configurable, as are the fonts, animation speed, colors, and access keys.

The default setting (F12) conflicts with Kerry Beagle, so make sure you disable Kerry Beagle or reassign the key.