Please stop complaining about Unity and install Gnome Shell

[Jim Byrnes]

On 10/26/2011 08:02 PM, sktsee wrote:
> On Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:38:00 -0500, Jim Byrnes wrote:
>
>> On 10/26/2011 06:45 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
>>> On 26 October 2011 23:17, Jim Byrnes<jf_byrnes at comcast.net>   wrote:
>>>> On 10/26/2011 03:46 PM, sktsee wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:32:45 -0500, Jim Byrnes wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 10/26/2011 03:21 PM, sktsee wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:29:23 -0500, Jim Byrnes wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> [snip]
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> +1 for Xubuntu.  I've been running it in VBox for a couple of days
>>>>>>>> and so far it seems to be the closest thing to Gnome2 in 10.04
>>>>>>>> I've found.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> You guys just aren't exploring your options enough.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://tinypic.com/r/2qxbzao/5
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I got this desktop by installing/removing some packages from the
>>>>>>> Ubuntu repos, making some config changes with gnome-tweak and
>>>>>>> dconf-editor, and then adding few applets.  Save for the theme,
>>>>>>> it's pretty much how my 10.10 Gnome2 desktop looks layout-wise.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Looks pretty good, much better than anything I have been able to do
>>>>>> with Unity.  One thing I don't see that is important to the way I
>>>>>> work is workspaces that display the icons of the apps you have open
>>>>>> in them and can be switched to by clinking on them. Unless that is
>>>>>> in the right hand corner of the bottom panel and my eyes aren't good
>>>>>> enough to make it out.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks for sharing.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, its the same workspace switcher currently with 4 workspaces and
>>>>> number open apps on each of them.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> OK, you have my attention and probable a lot of others that are
>>>> uncomfortable with Unity right out of the box.  Is there a how-to
>>>> somewhere that would give some guidance on accomplishing what you did?
>>>
>>> I believe I've already posted this 2 or 3 times, at least, but:
>>>
>>> http://blog.poggs.com/2011/10/ubuntu-11-10-for-productive-people/
>>>
>>> However, note, this is configuring GNOME 3's Fallback Mode and the
>>> expectation is that this will be removed from GNOME 3 before very long.
>>> It is a /lot/ less customisable than GNOME 2 was, anyway.
>>>
>>> Honestly, I think you're better off with Xubuntu and Xfce.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Was that a picture of a gnome fallback installation?  Maybe I jumped to
>> the wrong conclusion but I thought it was a tweaked and customized
>> Unity.  I tried the gnome fallback mode and couldn't get it to work very
>> well.  Even if that is the fallback mode it looks like sktsee was able
>> to do more with it than I was.
>>
> Yes, it's the fallback mode, but the fallback isn't base on gtk2/gnome2
> tech, but new gtk3/gnome3. The next version of Ubuntu, Precise
> Pangosomething is slated to be a 5 year LTS and it includes gnome-
> fallback-session. Fallback isn't going anywhere soon.
>
> Anyway, here's a quick rundown of how I got my desktop configured.
>
> The first two steps affect Unity, which is what I started off looking how
> to configure. I applied these changes before configuring gnome, so I
> don't know if they would have been an issue or not. If you like the
> overlay-scrollbar and global appmenu in Unity, skip these steps.
>
> 1. Remove overlay-scrollbars package
> sudo apt-get purge overlay-scrollbars
>
> 2. Turn off global appmenus
> sudo sh -c 'echo "export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0">  /etc/X11/
> Xsession.d/81ubuntumenuproxy'
>
> 3. Install gnome-shell, gnome-tweak, dconf-tools, gconf-editor
> sudo apt-get install gnome-shell gnome-tweak dconf-tools gconf-editor
>
> Logout of your session and then log back in selecting Gnome Classic (I
> chose the "No Effects" version) from the session chooser.
>
> Upon login you should have the familiar gnome-panel on the top and bottom
> of the screen. From there you configure the panels pretty much like you
> did in Gnome2. The thing you have to remember with this version of gnome-
> panel is to hold the ALT key down while right-clicking on a panel area to
> add/remove/move applets and configure preferences for the panel itself.
>
> The applets I added were
> show desktop
> force-kill application
> trash
> notification area
>
> Another thing that's different the absence of the System menu on the
> menubar (Applications Places). These items are now found in the "Other"
> menu category under Applications. Like before, you can right-click the
> menubar and choose to edit the menus to your preference.
>
> The remaining items like home and computer icons on the desktop, metacity
> window decorator button layout, etc. can be set with the configuration
> tools. Start with gnome-tweak (Advanced Settings in the Other menu) then
> gconf-editor, and then dconf-editor. Most gnome core stuff will have
> their settings in dconf, but there will still be some things that have
> not transitioned yet from gconf, so if you don't find one setting under
> there, then look to dconf.
>

Thanks for the additional information.

Regards,  Jim