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View Full Version : 14.04.1 Gnome Flashback change top taskbar - remove active and add apps



archaeometrist
August 14th, 2014, 06:33 PM
i just upgraded to 14.04 because of problems with drivers in 12.04 (I got a message to upgrade because the problem isn't a security issue and won't be high on anyone's priority list).

The first thing I did was go to "Gnome Flashback". This is a DESKTOP, not a tablet, and I absolutely WILL NOT USE UNITY. If I need to use a tablet, I will use mine. So no "Unity" answers. (I'd rather spend the week needed for installing and configuring a different distro than ever use Unity).
The second thing I did was try to put my taskbar back the way it was. I can't. ALT-right click and ALT-SUPER-right click do NOTHING. The taskbar is almost worthless the way it is... I have no use for the "Active Window"-like button up there (I use the little X to close windows), and used to have multiple programs that I used frequently (like - several times a day) up there for quick starting. The only value to it right now is the Applications and Places Drawers (plus the time and the power button on the right).

I also have no use for the "feature" that shows some sort of overview of the different desktops when the mouse moves to the far left top corner - in fact, it's irritating me to the point of wanting to scrap Ubuntu, because that's where I go to activate applications and close windows. (I often will have a dozen or more windows open at one time, and pop in and out of programs all the time - that is when I'm not in class.) Several times a day I have to click on the active desktop (on the right) to get back to where I belong. (I also use all four desktops and wish the old 2x2 icon/buttons in the bottom right of my main monitor was back.)

(1) How do I change and configure the top taskbar? Get rid of that worthless "Active Window" like button, and install quick-start applets/buttons for my frequently used apps - without changing how the rest of the desktop operates?
(2) How do I get rid of that worthless feature that activates every time I move the mouse to the top-left corner of my main monitor? (I have and use -all the time- dual monitors.)

Change for the sake of change may be nice to some folks, but for those of us who use a computer as a tool, unless we try to do the changes ourselves because they make things more efficient - LEAVE THINGS ALONE!!!!!!!!
:mad:

Frogs Hair
August 14th, 2014, 06:57 PM
The overview feature you describe reads like you are using the Gnome Shell which is not developed by Ubuntu but Gnome. I suggest you look in to installing the Flasback Session which is more like the old Gnome 2. There are other window managers available besides Unity and the Gnome Shell.

Opinions about desktop environment preferences belong in a chat forum rather than a support forum. There are no developers here to read opinions that have been expressed hundreds of times since 2011.

http://xubuntu.org/
http://lubuntu.net/
http://www.kubuntu.org/

kansasnoob
August 14th, 2014, 07:47 PM
I believe you're confusing the new GNOME Classic session with Flashback w/Metacity:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2220264

archaeometrist
August 16th, 2014, 05:16 AM
I'd tried the Flashback, but the panels wouldn't show and I thought that was a new "feature" of some sort - like hidden panels that required some keystroke to activate, and after running gnome classic on 12.04 I thought it was the same gnome (I was wrong). it turned out it was a bug in my system, and I found the fix and now have working Flashback.

Thanks for the replies... it got the lights turned on, so to speak. Now things work about as they should - and fingers crossed, a "new" layout won't come along.