Need a lot of help

[whs37]

I have installed Ubuntu. Took forever to do the updates. But now it works.

However, what a mess. This UNITY interface is no good for me. I cannot even find the Terminal. Is there some skin a la Zorin or Mint Mate with a proper toolbar where I can pin applications and folders and a proper start menu where one finds things. I would be grateful for advice.

[Vaphell]

a proper start menu where one finds things

ubuntu icon/WIN key is your friend
btw, press and hold WIN key to see main shortcuts supported by unity

I cannot even find the Terminal

ctrl+alt+t
WIN/ubuntu icon, 'terminal'

a proper toolbar where I can pin applications and folders

you can pin stuff in the taskbar: run app, right click its icon in taskbar, pin.

either way, if you don't like unity you can install other desktop environments right from the official repo: kde, xfce, lxde, ... whatever floats your boat.

[HermanAB]

You can install xfce or kde, but gnome3 cocks up the system so that you will have problems with those. It will be better to do a fresh install with Xubuntu. The default Ubuntu is strictly for masochists.

[pierceTN]

You can install the mate Desktop. Look HERE for install directions. It is pretty simple, just a few terminal commands.


You can also install another desktop like: cinnamon, Gnome 3, KDE, XFCE, or LXDE.


Hope that helps.



-Pierce

[Michael Dooley]

This UNITY interface is no good for me. I cannot even find the Terminal. Is there some skin a la Zorin or Mint Mate with a proper toolbar where I can pin applications and folders and a proper start menu where one finds things.

Please take a look at this page:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pr...eClassicTweaks

A useable desktop is not very far away (in time spent) from your present set-up.

[whs37]

Thanks guys. This is all very helpful. I will now 'experiment' with the suggestions. Since I run in VMware, I do not run a big risk. I copy my VMware folder for backup before things can go south.

[whs37]

Hi guys, Just a little update.

I found Terminal and was able to install my VMware Tools. This is essential for me so that I can move stuff into Ubuntu from my Windows 7 host.

I tried the Win+Ubuntu Start button. That brought up some random stuff which was pretty useless.

What I still did not find are 'Preferences' and 'Administration'. Where are they.

I have not yet embarqued into other skins. There seem to be some risks and I am also not skilled emought to really do it. I may try Xubuntu though.

Another question: How do I get this so called 'Taskbar' from the top to the bottom and how can I make it larger and pin things to it.

All this was very simple in Zorin with which I had no problems at all - see here: http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout-...ml#post2275421

Also, FireFox is very slow (it is lightning fast in Zorin). I had already noticed that a couple of years ago when I made my first experiments with Ubuntu. Is there a reason? I am downloading Chromium now which is usually fast - we'll see.

[sirriffsalot]

I can help with a few things..

If you liked what Ubuntu had to offer before Unity, just get the older desktop environments, such as GNOME2. XFCE is another good choice for more lightweight resource-usage. If you're after real lightweight yet beautiful DE's I recommend giving Enligtenment (E17) a look. I am using it with Ubuntu Studio and produces more efficient results than XFCE! It's also very customizable.

If your applications are slow from the very start, give "preload" a try

 sudo apt-get install preload

or get it from synaptic or the software center

 sudo synaptic

 sudo software-center

in case you can't get it up as with the terminal issue you had.

Preload basically lets your most frequent appplications start faster, hehe. Always helps with a good quick start on the things you want to do. Give Opera a try if Firefox is generally slow, as Opera I find is somewhat faster.. Konqueror is also another option which is in the repositories, ready to be installed if I recall correctly!

[whs37]

Thanks for your Input. Not everything is slow - just FF. Chromium is a lot faster and behaves as you would expect. The preload is an idea, but it would probably lengthen the boot time.

I will toy around a bit more with Ubuntu but I don't think it is really worth persuing. This Unity is too odd and I like my systems to work 'out of the box'. Tweaking and twisting is not my style.

Too bad I had so much trouble with the VMware tools in Mint Mate. That looked like a nice system that I would like. Fortunately I still have my Zorin which runs well and does everything I want. Else I have 2xVista, 4xWindows 7 and 1xWindows 8 plus a tablet with Android. So there is no lack of systems.

[Vaphell]

What I still did not find are 'Preferences' and 'Administration'. Where are they.

some customizations are available under the grid menu in top right corner (system settings).
In dash (that thing that appears after you press win) typing system settings should present you with the same options. Also in dash there are icons at the bottom. One of them is strictly for applications and you can filter by old fashioned categories like System, Accessories...
Dash is supposed to be smart and simply typing what you want should give it to you without clicking through bunch of menus.

Another question: How do I get this so called 'Taskbar' from the top to the bottom and how can I make it larger and pin things to it.

I don't understand the 'how do i get' part, but the rest is: you run your program, right click on the icon that appears in the taskbar, select pin to taskbar, just like in win7. In 'Appearance' you have a slider that controls the icon size.



Do you run ubuntu in virtual machine? If so you are probably gimping yourself, as the latest iterations of Unity require compositing and if the hardware acceleration is not enabled in the system, the fallback mode is not some barebone version of the thing but the CPU heavy software mode. Ubuntu with Unity DE is likely to be dog slow when virtualized.