Putting the buttons back - You have got to be kidding!!!

[windyweather]

:P

Ok.. So for some reason 10.04 decided to go with the Mac style of window title bar rather than the Windows window title bar. Ok I can see that Ubuntu might like to provide the Option.

But...

Then it should provide a Graphical Means to change the settings in the Appearance control panel. Have hundreds of folks complained about this??

Ok Sure I can easily find the horrendous instructions to fix it in the help.



1. Press Alt+F2 to open the Run Application window.
2. Type gconf-editor into the text box and click
Run to start the Configuration Editor.
3. Open /apps/metacity/general using the side pane
and double-click the button_layout item.
4. Change the value to say

:minimize,maximize,close

(the position of the colon determines which side of the window the buttons appear on).

5. Click OK and the location of the windows buttons
will change immediately.


But doesn't that say how silly it is? It should be in the Appearance dialog, Right. We all agree Right??

:guitar:

- windy

PS: Ha Ha joke is on me. After doing that if you change the window style bar look, you have to do it again... How sorry is that?? Raspberries for this design...

[malspa]

Yeah, it should be easier. For example, other DEs make it quite simple to rearrange those buttons and put them on the LEFT, where they should be! :P

[windyweather]

I want to be able to suggest that my less geeky friends use Ubuntu on their netbooks. Ton of reasons why not the least of which is that it's higher performance and more secure than Win-XP [cough cough]...

These folks, most anyway, also use windows, so they will want to have their netbooks look culturally compatible with their Windows Desktops.

If they have macs too, I can see that they will like the new scheme.

Is there a "after market" upgrade to allow them to fix this and choose themes too, without resorting to this arcane procedure to put their buttons in the right place?

Thanks,
windy

[kerry_s]

i like the way it's done in xfce4, you just drag & drop where you want, you easily remove or add, just so simple.

[MichaelRX8]

I myself prefer the left side. However there is a way to have a simple graphical interface to put them however you want. Just install Ubuntu Tweak (Google it if unfamiliar). Ubuntu Tweak has an option under "Window Manager Settings" to move to either left or right.
Hope this helps :)

[windyweather]

That's what I call doing it right!!

:guitar:

Let's all hear it for Tweak...

- ww

[kaldor]

I'll never understand the notion that buttons on the left confuses new users.

And I really will never understand how it's bad design.

[windyweather]

I'll never understand the notion that buttons on the left confuses new users.

And I really will never understand how it's bad design.

Perhaps I misspoke. I think the bad design is that the choice is not a first class choice like any other part of the theme, worthy of a graphical interface, rather than a geeky edit of a text file.

Since I am agnostic and use both Windows and Ubuntu, when I installed 10.04 I found myself repeatedly automatically reaching for the wrong side of the window bar. When using these buttons I begin to move the mouse toward the buttons before the window bar is fully in focus. I suspect that mac-centric folks found it annoying that the buttons were on the wrong side in releases past.

Having the choice is great. But it needs to be a first-class choice worthy of a graphical interface, and sticky across theme changes. Currently the buttons are wired into the themes so that any theme change hammers you back to the Mac-centric look.

IMHO,
ww