How do I get my pre-11.04 desktop appearance back?

[BarryM]

I have just upgraded to 11.04, and find the new desktop very unfriendly and clumsy to use. Can I get the earlier desktop appearance back, with menu in the top bar, applications running in the bottom bar (can I even get that back), and get rid of the side bar launcher once and for all?

It seems to me that the developers are trying to get too clever and introducing unnecessary gimmicks, perhaps they should remember the old adage, "If it ain't bust, don't fix it"!

[ully-mick]

the nearest you can get is gnome-session-fallback. there's loads of info on the forum about it. or you can look here - http://www.tuxgarage.com/2011/10/running-gnome-classic-with-compiz.html

[BarryM]

Thanks for your help. I have discovered that I can select the classic layout at log-in, and that seems to work, but judging by the article you referred me to, I anticipate problems when I upgrade to 11.10. Beginning to wish I had stuck with 10.04!

[SlugSlug]

Beginning to wish I had stuck with xxxx


I know that feeling all to well ;)

[ully-mick]

I found 11.10 better with gnome shell. there's lots of extensions to customise it. mine is very similar to the old gnome 2.

[pavi_elex]

When you will upgrade to 11.10, there is no way to get rid of that unity theme in root account.
You can use classic theme in user account but there is no system tab there on Panel. There are only two tabs application & Places.
So if you use root account, forget classic theme in 11.10.
Use always user account.

[Krytarik]

I have just upgraded to 11.04 ... Can I get the earlier desktop appearance back, with menu in the top bar, applications running in the bottom bar ... ?
You know, since you are running Natty 11.04, just log out and choose "Ubuntu Classic" as the "Session" option at the login screen. ;-)


... there is no way to get rid of that unity theme in root account. ... So if you use root account, forget classic theme in 11.10. Use always user account.
That's too weird to deserve much more than a plain link #-o:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

Regards.

[3Miro]

Ubuntu 11.04 comes with Unity on top of Gnome 2, hence you can select "Ubuntu Classic" and use the old interface. Ubuntu 11.10 and newer come with Gnome 3.

Gnome people killed the old Gnome 2, Gnome 3 comes by default with their new interface Gnome-shell and the old interface is available only as a "fallback" option (there is some loss of options in Fallback compared to Gnome 2). Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) decided to create their own interface and they created Unity which replaces Gnome-shell and runs on top of Compiz and Gnome 3 (in 11.04 Unity still runs on top of Gnome 2).

There is currently a huge troll war going on regarding who likes Unity/Gnome-shell/Gnome 2 or whatever else. Please don't join the war, but try all the available options.

XFCE can be easily configured to work a lot like Gnome 2, it is smaller and snappier than Gnome 2 or Gnome 3.

KDE is by far the most easily configurable DE out there, although it can be a bit heavy, it is definitely worth a look.

LXDE is the newest DE on the market and is under heavy development, on times it may seem a bit unfinished, but it is by far the smallest and fastest.

Then you have the options of Gnome-shell, Unity 2D, Unity 3D and Gnome-fallback.

Then there are Gnome 2 ports like Mate and Cinnamon.

The good news is that on 11.04 you can have Unity, Gnome 2, XFCE, LXDE and KDE installed at the same time and switch between them at login.

On 11.10 you can have, Unity, Gnome-shell, Gnome-fallback, XFCE, LXDE and KDE (I am not sure about Mate and Cinnamon).

You can try them all and pick the one that you like most.

[kurt18947]

3Miro gives an excellent summation. I'm pretty sure Mate & Cinnamon will be able to be installed on Ubuntu. I've tried both, they work but I plan to stick with Gnome 3 (shell). Try 'em and use whatever feels most comfortable.

[BarryM]

It seems from everything above that, when (if) I "upgrade" to 11.10 I am going to have to do a lot of fiddling to get my desktop appearance back the way I like it! I have at least got the classic appearance back in 11.04 (rather a relief).

I do rather wonder if there is an element of trying to be too clever in the changes with Unity, I think that my original comment still stands "If it ain't bust, don't fix it"!

Thanks to everyone who has posted suggestions.

[kc1di]

I think you may like Cinnamon DE It can be made to look almost like gnome 2 - Here how to do it:

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-cinnamon-in-ubuntu-using-ppa.html