11.04 unity desktop alternative?

[jjww]

Having been totally happy with Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 but after a recent fresh install of 11.04 I find myself extremely stressed out with the desk top.

I absolutely hate the unity desktop. It's flakey, unreliable, with random mouseclick issues, random application crashes and poor performance both in the increased time it now takes me to navigate to the apps that I want to fire up and in terms of really slow rendering of menus.
It's awkward to start up multiple apps (I typically have my IDE, eMail client, browser, ssh terminals to remote servers and at least one terminal running at any one time)

I use my system as a serious development platform and I have come to the conclusion that 11.04 in it's default configuration format (and also with the classic log in being just as flakey) has to go. It's costing me too much in lost development time.

So I'm faced with a decision, move back to using 10.10, stick with 11.04 but find a very much better desktop alternative to unity (and I don't mean the classic log in options as already explained) or I ditch Ubuntu in favour of an alternative distribution.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, it's not, I am at my wits end and I need an alternative rather urgently and I guess I'm looking for some serious advice on what options are available to me?

[Copper Bezel]

I don't know that I understand the question. If you preferred the Classic Gnome environment under 10.10, why not use it now?

The other obvious alternative would be to upgrade to Gnome 3 and use either Shell or fallback mode with Compiz, but that would be a fairly labor-intensive process.

There are other panels aplenty, too, to use in place of the Unity shell - everything from lxpanel to (my personal standby) Avant Window Navigator (although the taskbar there is fairly Unity-like.)

[wildmanne39]

Having been totally happy with Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 but after a recent fresh install of 11.04 I find myself extremely stressed out with the desk top.

I absolutely hate the unity desktop. It's flakey, unreliable, with random mouseclick issues, random application crashes and poor performance both in the increased time it now takes me to navigate to the apps that I want to fire up and in terms of really slow rendering of menus.
It's awkward to start up multiple apps (I typically have my IDE, eMail client, browser, ssh terminals to remote servers and at least one terminal running at any one time)

I use my system as a serious development platform and I have come to the conclusion that 11.04 in it's default configuration format (and also with the classic log in being just as flakey) has to go. It's costing me too much in lost development time.

So I'm faced with a decision, move back to using 10.10, stick with 11.04 but find a very much better desktop alternative to unity (and I don't mean the classic log in options as already explained) or I ditch Ubuntu in favour of an alternative distribution.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, it's not, I am at my wits end and I need an alternative rather urgently and I guess I'm looking for some serious advice on what options are available to me?

Hi,if you want the classic gnome look you need to log out and hit your user name and go to the bottom of the screen and click ubuntu classic also compiz works in ubuntu classic. You can also use docky or awn launcher as a menu bar if you want, I personally am using awn launcher, and it works great for me, also I found person that says he has deactivated his unity menu bar, but I have not tried it, but I have the instructions if you want them.:)

[wildmanne39]

I don't know that I understand the question. If you preferred the Classic Gnome environment under 10.10, why not use it now?

The other obvious alternative would be to upgrade to Gnome 3 and use either Shell or fallback mode with Compiz, but that would be a fairly labor-intensive process.

There are other panels aplenty, too, to use in place of the Unity shell - everything from lxpanel to (my personal standby) Avant Window Navigator (although the taskbar there is fairly Unity-like.)
Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me how to get guides like yours into my signature bar, to actually show the names and not just the url. Thank you very much for your help.:)

[Allavona]

Agreed about AWN. It is most definitely a lifesaver when it comes to keeping track of whats open and going on.

I disagree with the classic login being "flaky." Its the same Gnome 2.32 that is in Maverick and many other distros out there.

Gnome3 is just a experimental as Unity is.

But from your post you describe yourself as a developer so why on God's green earth are you using an unstable platform? My suggestion is get Debian, actual Debian, no derivatives, or OS's based on Debian (Like Ubuntu.)

What your seeking is stability and that is Debian.

[Copper Bezel]

Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me how to get guides like yours into my signature bar, to actually show the names and not just the url. Thank you very much for your help.

BB code. Here's my sig (just barely under the 500 character limit.) "[" and "]" replaced with "{" and "}" for obvious reasons.


{code}{b}{u}{url=http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4795149014/the-power-users-guide-to-unity}Power User's Guide to Unity{/url}
{url=http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/things-to-tweak-fix-after-installing.html}Remove overlay scrollbars, add indicators, etc.{/url}
{url=http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/disable-appmenu-global-menu-in-ubuntu.html}Disable global Application Menu{/url}
{url=http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/how-to-reset-unity-launcher-icons-or.html}Reset Unity or Compiz{/url}{/u}{/b}{/code}


Agreed about AWN. It is most definitely a lifesaver when it comes to keeping track of whats open and going on.
I really don't understand this. AWN and Unity both put a little triangle on running apps. DockBarX, in the theme I'm using for it now in AWN, also puts a little triangle on running apps. Why is Unity's Launcher harder to read, exactly? I'm curious, because I've heard this complaint and wonder if there's an easier solution.

That said, if you're going to the trouble and resource expenditure of using AWN, I don't know why you'd be using the Unity plugin alongside it (as AWN can do everything the Unity panel does and a bit more.)

[wildmanne39]

BB code. Here's my sig (just barely under the 500 character limit.) "[" and "]" replaced with "{" and "}" for obvious reasons.


{code}{b}{u}{url=http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4795149014/the-power-users-guide-to-unity}Power User's Guide to Unity{/url}
{url=http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/things-to-tweak-fix-after-installing.html}Remove overlay scrollbars, add indicators, etc.{/url}
{url=http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/disable-appmenu-global-menu-in-ubuntu.html}Disable global Application Menu{/url}
{url=http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/how-to-reset-unity-launcher-icons-or.html}Reset Unity or Compiz{/url}{/u}{/b}{/code}


I really don't understand this. AWN and Unity both put a little triangle on running apps. DockBarX, in the theme I'm using for it now in AWN, also puts a little triangle on running apps. Why is Unity's Launcher harder to read, exactly? I'm curious, because I've heard this complaint and wonder if there's an easier solution.

That said, if you're going to the trouble and resource expenditure of using AWN, I don't know why you'd be using the Unity plugin alongside it (as AWN can do everything the Unity panel does and a bit more.)

Hi, do you mind if I use it the way it is or would you prefer I adapted it to make it look different? Thank you for providing me with this example.:D

[Copper Bezel]

Oh, go ahead - that's fine. = ) You can use gedit search and replace to switch the brackets back.

[wildmanne39]

Oh, go ahead - that's fine. = ) You can use gedit search and replace to switch the brackets back.

Hi, thank you I appreciate the help very much, I want to help as much as I can and I need to be able to make instructions as easy as possible for people to find.:D

[Copper Bezel]

Oh, um, you'll probably want to remove the [code] tags, too. = )