cant get fully functioning panels in 12.04

[pearldrums]

I recently updated to 12.04 LTS from 10.04 LTS and am very frustrated with Unity. I don't mean to be negative, there are some very cool things happening, but I feel like the design is catering to hand-held devices and tablets, and not to my two-montitor desktop set-up.

My biggest problem is the loss of customization that the panels used to give me. I have searched the web and seen a couple of workarounds which mostly include a new enviornment, or the all famous "ubuntu classic" emulation. I haven't found cinimon to me to my liking, and perhaps I can get used to xfce, but I'd rather just have my old panels back. As far as the "ubuntu classic"... it still don't seem to provide me with the ability to customize the panel's size, color, and location like I always used to be able to. Further more I miss the plug in options where I could just add a CPU monitor to the indicator applet, add other random applets, and add launchers in weird places that I like.

I have tried unity and given it an honest shot, but the more I use it, the more I just boot windows up instead. And I don't like that. Is there any solution to my problem in 12.04 that would give me either A) fully functioning panels with a departure from unity or B) another way to customize my desktop in the ways I have requested within unity. Or should I re-install 10.04?



As a side note, is there a place to provide feedback to the developers? I don't want to list complaints here because it would just become a non-useful rant, but I would like to provide feedback that I think would be useful in helping them make Unity, and ubuntu, better for everyone.

Thanks for your help!
pearldrums

[3Miro]

The old Gnome 2 interface was killed by the developers of Gnome and has nothing to do with Ubuntu. The new Gnome 3 interface is called Gnome-shell, you can give it a try, but my guess is that you will not like it anymore than Unity.

Gnome-classic is kept by the Gnome developers only as a fallback mode. Some people use it as a full time environment, but it is not really meant to be one.

Cinnamon is an attempt to keep Gnome 2 going forward, I have no experience with it. I don't like how "unofficial" it is, as you can only get it from an external ppa, but it is your best bet for for a DE that is as close to Gnome 2 as possible.

You can get (almost) all the functionality of Gnome 2 panel with XFCE and KDE. For that matter, even LXDE may be able to give you what you need. I would recommend taking a look at XFCE, you can set the two panels to look exactly like Gnome 2.

You can try running Gnome panel or xfce panel together with Unity, you will get both the left dock and another panel at the bottom. However, setting this up may be a bit tricky, you can look for it on-line, I don't know how to do it, I have only seen people use that interface.

In short, Gnome 2 is no longer an option and you should talk to Gnome developers for that (although I doubt they will do anything about it). Try the alternatives and see what will work best for you.

Good luck!

PS: I am perfectly happy with XFCE.

[3Miro]

I just saw that:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2092617

[cmcanulty]

in classic the panels are still totally configurable you just rt cl +alt or some machines rt cl + alt + super key to configure