eDEX-UI

In the eventuality that you feel like your desktop could use a major overhaul, then you cannot go wrong with a shell replacement tool. eDEX-UI is small, but versatile terminal that completely changes the look and feel of your desktop so that the it appears like a futuristic environment without Windows.

While it may look like a neat shell replacement at first – mostly because it needs to be installed –, the application can be run and customized. The idea behind the utility is to emulate the shell of your choice in a real terminal and, the bigger the screen you roll it, the better the end effect.

As far as the functionality is concerned, the app displays valuable information about your system, such as swap, processes, RAM or CPU usage. At the same time, it includes some network monitoring features that exhibit the active connections, transfer rates or GeoIP.

On a side note, the app is still in its infancy, so there are numerous features that are lacking, but are likely to be implemented in future. For instance, it is impossible to display the contents of the current folder for Windows, although this is available for Linux and Mac. What you can do for now is input the path of files and folders in the terminal to view them.

It is worth mentioning that the program was a concept thought for portable devices initially and hence, the keyboard found on the interface. Unfortunately, this feature cannot be disabled, but there is a chance you may be able to eliminate it completely in the future.

In case it really bother you, then you can consider hiding it by modifying the Setting JSON file. Speaking of the settings, you should bear in mind that the app supports customization, such as changing the shell, keyboard layout or running the terminal in windowed mode, just to name a few.

As you probably hinted by now, the design is heavily inspired from the Tron: Legacy movie effects and more particularly, the Board Room sequence. In spite of its science-fiction futuristic look, the app comes with some real-life handy functionality, particularly advanced monitoring of your system and network.