"Ubuntu Classic" session selection missing from unity-greeter

[Christopher Lees]

On Fri, 2011-09-09 at 00:51 +0000,
ubuntu-devel-discuss-request at lists.ubuntu.com wrote:

> I submitted a bug report to oneiric beta this morning due to the fact
> that i was unable to switch the Unity desktop off and revert to
> standard gnome. I assumed that it was an oversight. Apparently not.
> This is the answer I recieved:
> v v v v v
> from Omer Akram om26er at ubuntu.com via?canonical.com
> sender-time Sent at 11:10 AM (UTC). Current time there: 5:41 PM. ?
> reply-to Bug 844965 <844965 at bugs.launchpad.net>
> to vernondcole at gmail.com
> date Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 11:10 AM
> subject [Bug 844965] Re: "Ubuntu Classic" session selection missing
> from unity-greeter.
> mailed-by canonical.com
> --
> That is not possible in Ubuntu 11.10 and there is no chance for gnome-
> panels coming back. the most close you can get is install gnome-session-
> fallback and login to that session.
> 
> ** Changed in: unity (Ubuntu)
> ? ? ? Status: New => Invalid
> ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
> 
> My mood is now swinging between anger, frustration, and dismay.

Re-read what was written to you. "This is not possible in Ubuntu 11.10".
The reason why it's not possible is because Gnome 2.x is gone. It's no
longer maintained. It can't co-exist with Gnome 3. It's simply not
possible/practical to keep Gnome 2 around and have it work on Ubuntu
11.10.


> Until this morning, I was under the impression that Canonical was to a
> large extent user driven.

Canonical has never made a secret of the fact that it's a business, and
a "meritocracy" not a "democracy". Sorry you had the wrong impression.


> This reply makes it sound like changing my distro choice is the only
> long-term solution if I desire to glance at the top of my screen and
> see how my network is running.

The long-term solution is to wait for, or ask if there is already, a
network monitoring indicator. Changing distro will not help as I
mentioned before, Gnome 2 is disappearing. Linux Mint says that they'll
continue to ship with Gnome 2, but how long will Gnome 2 continue to
work with modern distros, and will Mint's users complain that they're
not getting the newer features of newer Gnome releases?

Another option is to change desktop environment. KDE is quite nice. You
might like XFCE. Both are easily installable on Ubuntu.


> Yes, I tried installing gnome-session-fallback.  There was no change
> in the operation of my machine.  Perhaps it would do something if only
> I knew how to turn it on?

It's the same as running Gnome Classic; you change it at the login
screen.

> Or am I completely out to lunch and everyone but me thinks Unity is
> the cat's meow?

You're not alone, but I quite like Unity myself. I just wish it could
have more features quicker, but then I guess I'm a bit selfish. I can't
code in any worthwhile language so I can't really help.

Unity does take some getting used to, but once you have you might really
appreciate it. It definitely promotes "content over chrome", giving
maximum space to your actual programs. There's more integration between
Software Center and Unity, there's more feedback (for example, a
progress bar inside the Update Manager's icon in the launcher). And it
looks alright too.

It sounds like you haven't used Unity for long enough to become familiar
with it - maybe give it a try for a week, say?