Getting frustrated with Ubuntu....

[me]

>  my biggest complaint about the desktop right now is, that in windows xp I
> have an enormous amount of room.  I have a 19" LCD display driven by a
> GeForce FX 5200 AGP 8x 128mb video card.  This is one of the old LCD
> displays so i have to run it at a max of 1280 x 1024 @ 75hz.  Which gives me
> this wonderfully huge desktop.  EXCEPT in GNOME!!  it Gnome it feels like
> 640x480.  I have no room.  Yet I go to the resolution control panel in gnome
> and it says I'm in 1280 x1024.  I don't get it!.  I hate having no room to
> wokr.

make sure you really use the resolution, as is said: the configuration
of the resolution and refreshrate are things of your X server, your
WindowManager should not have to do anything with it - even if it
sometimes does interfer...

there is a item on your monitor menu (button at the LCD panel), that
displays the info what is reality.
if that does match your selection, maybe you set some accessibility
features or should try another theme.
also try the multiple desktops, they are really fine to organize stuff
and provide space.

if you find out that the resolution displayed is not as you like you
should search the forums on how to configure X or learn it by yourself
:/etc/X11/XF86Config

peace