Making Unity a bit more personal

[Aventinus]

Hello Ubuntu users. I've been away a long time now from Ubuntu (have been using Arch Linux) but came back due to the stability that Ubuntu offers.

I've been a GNOME fan and a GNOME Shell super fan! Although Unity and Shell share a lot of common things, I find that Shell is a bit more modern due to the fact that it uses GTK3 and a lot more flexible (due to Javascript and CSS).

But of course Unity is also great! What I want is to make Unity totally personal (been doing that with every DE).

1. Although I removed the Global Menu, when I maximize a window, the Close, Minimize, Maximize buttons are still on the upper bar and not on the window bar. Is there anyway to fix this?

2. Through Ubuntu Tweak (and other tools) I've made the Launcher smaller and transparent. But what I really want to do is to make the Launcher present *only* the icons and not the dark background. Do you think that's possible?

3. In GNOME 2 I was able to alter the size of the two bars of the DE. Unfortunately, that is not possible in Unity. I'd like to make the upper bar a bit bigger. Is that possible?

To sum up, I believe that Unity is a great project, it just needs to offer a bit more customization.

Thank you all for the responses.

[Frogs Hair]

2. You can reduce the size of the launcher somewhat by changing the icon size in the Unity plug-in in the Compiz CCSM . There is no way currently to change launcher background.

3. The unity panel does not currently have an option to change size as the Gnome panel does.

[Aventinus]

2. You can reduce the size of the launcher somewhat by changing the icon size in the Unity plug-in in the Compiz CCSM . There is no way currently to change launcher background.

3. The unity panel does not currently have an option to change size as the Gnome panel does.

Although disappointing answer, thank you.. :)

[bowens44]

Although disappointing answer, thank you.. :)

It is disappointing. The goal of unity seems to be to force all users to have the same interface. Things as basic as moving the launcher are disallowed by design. IMO the decision to lock users into a single look and feel does great harm to linux and open source. I hope that new users realize that unity is not linux, it's just a poorly designed desktop environment.

[Aventinus]

It is disappointing. The goal of unity seems to be to force all users to have the same interface. Things as basic as moving the launcher are disallowed by design. IMO the decision to lock users into a single look and feel does great harm to linux and open source. I hope that new users realize that unity is not linux, it's just a poorly designed desktop environment.

The thing is that a free-to-change Unity would be great! Let's hope that in the future Canonical will support the individuality of the every user.

[NormanFLinux]

Windows uses the same UI regardless of which version you're running. You know what to expect with Windows every time you boot up to the desktop. Canonical is aiming to do the same thing with Unity in Ubuntu. New and veteran users see the same interface when they login into the desktop. Individuality is sacrificed for consistency and ease of use.

[dude1]

I just switched to Ubuntu a couple days ago and have been pulling my hair out. Now I just read above you can't move the task bar. I have been searching far and wide to change it.

I just installed Quake under Wine, so I wanted to make an Icon to launch it from. Well I can't figure out how to make an icon or link to run Wine / Quake, AARRGG! I guess I can't?