These are a few tweaks I normally make after setting up a Linux desktop. Gnome ships with a handy configuration editor, which can be accessed via the terminal command gconf-editor.
List-View by Default
Nautilus, Gnome's file manager, displays files as large icons by default. That's difficult to work with, but can be easily changed with the configuration editor.
Applications can be found in the configuration editor's tree-style navigation pane. To tweak the file manager, browse to apps/nautilus/preferences. Find the option named "default_folder_view" [view screenshot] in the key pane and change it's value to "list_view." The file manager will be configured to display a list of files by default.
Editing Executable Files
When you attempt to open an executable file, otherwise known as a script, you'll be asked if you want to edit or execute the script. I spend a lot of time editing scripts, so prefer to have Nautilus open the file in the text editor by default.
This option can be found in the configuration editor under apps/nautilus/preferences. The option is named "executable_text_activation" [view screenshot] and there are three possible values; "launch," "ask," and "display." Enter "display" to have scripts open in the text editor.
Make Gnome Faster
You can speed Gnome up by turning off animations and non-essential display features such as redrawing windows as you drag them around your desktop.
This time you will be editing the window manager, Metacity. Find the configuration options under apps/metacity/general.
To speed up Gnome, just check the "reduced_resources" option [view screenshot].
Fix the Window Button Positions
For years the standard in designing window decoration has been to place the minimize, maximize and close buttons in the same place. It doesn't make sense to group the close button in with minimize and maximize, but there is a very easy way to fix it.
In the configuration editor, under apps/metacity/general, find the option named "button_layout" [view screenshot] and note the option value. It will look something like this:
menu:minimize,maximize,close
Everything on the left of the colon appears on the left of the window decoration, everything on the right appears on the right.
I recommend experimenting to find a configuration that works for you. I prefer this:
close,menu:minimize,maximize