OK guys , I'm sorry if there's been another thread like this, but anyways :
To begin with I use Ubuntu 10.04 ...
Me and my mom are sharing a laptop.My mom likes to use Google Chrome.
I like to use Opera.
Is there any way I can tell the system to start the Opera application , but then instantly minimize it to the tray bar?
I want that because : if my mom starts the computer and I'm not around , I still want all the tabs in my Opera to load , without my mom knowing anything about my "malefic" plan ...
Any help ?
Thanks in advance.

As a long-time Opera user and reader of the Opera newsgroups, I would suggest that you post this question in the Opera for Linux newsgroup or in the Opera forums (which I've never used--LQ is the only forum I regularly participate in; I'm a newsgroup kind of guy).

thank you - i would have never thought of that
i'm going there .. though i'm still waiting for any answers here?

You don't mean at boot, you mean at desktop session startup (which you may have configured to happen automatically when you boot).

Opera can be started via the desktop's autostart facility, either directly or via a wrapper program such as a shell script if you need more features than the plain autostart gives.

AFAIK there is no way to tell opera to start up minimised, neither by command line option nor by the many configuration options detailed here.

That leaves the possibility of having your desktop's window manager (Ubuntu, so Gnome desktop, so metacity window manager?) make opera start minimised. If it is metacity then you may be out of luck because it is (by design) one of the least configurable window managers.

If the window manager cannot be used directly then it may be possible to use a window launcher utility such as wmctl (or wmctrl?). I am not yet familiar with them but they may be able to both start opera and tell the window manager what to do with its window. In this case a wrapper program may be necessary.

I use Gnome.
i don't mind it being some auto script in bin or somewhere ..
So it isn't possible as far as i undertand?
If I can't minimize it then I will instruct my mom to do it.
However , how can I make it start automatically?
I mean ... i already did it because i saw on the internet a how to , but is there any other waY?
i wen to preffered applications and at accesibility i modified one of the two options to show : custom
and then i told it opera and then i checkede run at startup ..
is there any other way to do it?

1. Since you are using Gnome, there should be (from the top menu system): System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications. Add Opera manually.

2. Look at Devil's Pie. I use Devil's Pie to do the following to Conky when it launches:
(1) remove window decorations
(2) remove it from the task bar
(3) remove it from the virtual desktop manager
(4) sticky it across all virtual desktops

If I'm not mistaken, Devil's Pie can control whether an app is minimized as well as many other options.

Why not to create separate user for each of you.
This way you and your mum can configure startup to ones liking without interfering with each other

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