Ubuntu 12.04 Post Installation Blues ...
 

Hello everybody! :cool:


I have just installed a working Ubuntu 12.04 LTS installation on my WD My Passport Essential USB portable hard drive.

My questions are this:-

(1) How do I move the menu bar from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen?

(2) How do I move the program launcher from the left side of the screen to the bottom of
the screen?

(3) How do I change the clock readout from "Tue 15 May 5.15 AM" to "Tue 15 May 2012 5.15
a.m."?

(4) How do you change the calendar that pops up on the screen when you click on the clock
readout, from "Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun" to "Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat"?

(5) How do I get rid of the trash can in the bottom left corner of the screen?

(6) How do I restore an icon I accidentally unlocked from the program launcher bar on the
left side of the screen?

(7) How do I make Ubuntu 12.04 look like Windows 7 Ultimate?


Thax in advance for all your help.


CoolHipDude (CHD) :cool:

AFAIK-

1- Not possible

2- Not possible.

5- Not possible.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/13721...n-ubuntu-12-04

As far as 'unity' (12.04 standard desktop enviroment) goes, you're not meant to change much at all. (Ubuntu/Canonical/Mr. shuttleworth know better than users, now shut up and use it! LOL)

7- Might be possible (though I really, really doubt it). If you want win7, run win7....

If you search the Ubuntu Software Center (icon that looks like a shopping bag) for "Unity tweaks" you should turn up several packages that allow you to customize the Unity interface to your liking. Install one and tweak away!

As for #6 on your list, when you run a program, its icon appears in the taskbar/launcher. Right click on the icon and a menu will pop up that allows you to lock the icon to the taskbar.

You'll have to use the menu that appears when you click on the ubuntu logo on the top left of the screen, find the app you want to run and launch it from there first though.

Good luck!

i think gnome-3 is unhackable (or at least very hard to tweak). you should consider another ui... like gnome-2, kde, lxde, xfce, fluxbox, ... that are much more user customizable.

You cant change that much in Ubuntus Unity. And if you like Windows you can try instead Zorin
Check it out at this link
http://zorin-os.com

Good luck to you!

(7) Install the KDE desktop and tweak it to your likings. As already pointed out, Unity is not made to be so customized.

That is a good idea. I had suggested Zorin which looks like W7 and I believe is Ubuntu base.
However just replacing Unity in Ubuntu with KDE is a good choice too.

Good luck to you!

Ok, guyz.

Thanks very much to everyone who has replied to this post.

Cascade9, I have to say that I differ with you on (1) above. I have found that it IS POSSIBLE to move the menu bar
at the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen. This is how I did it:-

First, move the mouse cursor to the top of the screen, then hold down the ALT key and drag the menu bar from the top
of the screen to the bottom. As you drag the menu bar, the arrow cursor changes to a clenched fist.

I also managed to get rid of the Unity program launcher, and replace it with Cairo-Dock (at the bottom of the screen).

I also managed to work out, without reading anything or asking for help from anyone, how to create new program groups
on the dock (e.g. 'Applications', 'Desktop' [e.g. desktop tools such as Notes, Calculator, Character Map, etc.],
'Internet' [e.g. Mail, Web, etc.], 'Games', 'Programming', 'System', 'Utilities', etc. I am that *bright*.

It seems that not everyone is a fan of the Unity interface like me too.

Cascade9, I also have to say that I differ with you on (5) above as well. Along with the Unity program launcher, I
also managed to get rid of the trash can in the bottom left corner of the screen.

But I can't remember offhand how I managed to do it. I didn't record the steps that I took to get rid of the Unity
interface.

Thanks TroN-0074 for your Zorin OS suggestion.

I tried Debian. It wasn't very user friendly. It didn't install properly, it didn't set up network connections
correctly and it didn't recognise the Bluetooth module in my Mac. The maximum screen resolution that Debian was
prepared to give me was 1280 x 1024. I wanted 1920 x 1080.

I tried Ubuntu. It was generally quite user-friendly and quite ok, but it hid some things from you that you would
normally get in a full Linux system. But it did install properly, and it also set up network connections correctly
and identified the Bluetooth module in the Mac. But it misidentified my iiyama ProLite E2273HDS as a laptop screen,
with the resolution set to 1920 x 1080 (the native resolution). I read that Ubuntu is more popular than Debian.

I will try Linux Mint v. 12.0 next. I hear that it does not have the Unity interface (thank god), and I hear that
Linux Mint's popularity seems to be on the rise whereas Ubuntu's seems to be on the wane because of the Unity interface.

I have seen the YouTube video clip that showed how to get Ubuntu to look like Windows 7. I didn't quite follow what was
demonstrated. So I will have to have another look again.

If Linux Mint doesn't work out, I might consider trying out Zorin. The downside is that Zorin doesn't seem to be as well
known as Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, Manriva, etc.


CoolHipDude

Well one of the suggestion for you there was to try KDE too. That way you dont have to re install the Operating System just the graphical interface.

And about Zorin is that it is Ubuntu base so you have all the stuff you like about ubuntu plus whatever else zorin have to offer.

However this are just suggestions at the end you can always do anything you like.

Good luck to you!

aside from cost, any reason why youre not using windows-7 ? you seem to like it.

TroN-0074, I have just finished setting up Linux Mint on the external usb drive. It seems to work as well as Ubuntu, but when I try to start up Stellarium 0.11.2 (after installing it), all I get is black screen whereas it installed fine in Ubuntu with no problems (and the Windows version also installed fine in Windows 7 too). Have just emailed the Stellarium project director to ask what to do. I don't know if I am 100% happy with Linux Mint at the present. Maybe I just need time for it to grow on me.

I have also ordered another external usb drive, and when it comes (in the post atm), I will definitely be installing Zorin OS on it and see how it compares with Mac OS X, Windows and Linux Mint. Mandriva One 2011 also uses KDE. I may try it out sometime in the future.

Schneidz, as to your question, I am happy and fine with Mac OS X and Windows 7 on the Mac Mini (Windows used to crash from time to time on my old HP laptop, due to the obsolete graphics card in the laptop, whereas Windows hasn't crashed yet so far on the Mac, which I am very happy about), but I don't want to spend the rest of my life with blinkers on. I want to see what's out there.

I had tried openSUSE and Xandros once some years ago, but the installer was text-based not GUI-based, I couldn't get anything to work and I couldn't get anywhere with these OSes. But now we have GUI installers, some OSes coming with Windows installers (like Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, etc.) and I want to see if Linux Mint, Zorin OS and Mandriva Linux are as easy to use as Mac OS X and Windows.


CHD

Be aware that USB 2.0 is a low slower than internal HDDs, and all USB transfer use more CPU than IDE/SCSI/SATA transfers. So any OS installed on an external USB HDD is going to be slower than an OS installed on internal HDDs. ;)

I did put 'AFAIK' (as far as I know) in for a reason.

Its hard to know for sure what is possible and what isnt with unity. Things that were supposed to be fixed in unity are being made movable, with both offical and unoffical tools. Mostly in some effort to stop to movement of unhappy x-ubuntu users to other distros.

While you might be able to change some things that werent possible in the past, its still a very poor base for someone trying to recreate a windows 7 like interface.

Its not just unity, gnome 3.X is also pretty important. Short version- ubuntu used to use gnome 2.X. Canonical (ubuntu 'owners') started devloping unity (as a desktop/UI for laptops originally). Gnome foundation drops gnome 2.X. Mint keeps gnome 2.X (now forked to 'MATE'). Ubuntu moves to unity instead of the gnome 3.X desktop.

Ubuntu lost/is losing a lot of users who were/are unhappy with unity and/or gnome 3.X (either gnome-shell or gnome fallback) and/or the heavyhanded approach taken in the move to unity. When they leave to other distos, mint is by far the closest, as mint is based on ubuntu.

Some (most I would guess) of those 'how to make ubuntu xxxxxxxxx' videos will be for eariler versions of ubuntu, and are not applicable to 12.04.

You've said you want to 'see what's out there', here is my advice- stop distro hopping and try the different DEs (KDE 4.X, Xfce, Lxde, maybe even Gnome-shell and Gnome-fallback). I'd normally suggest trying some WMs as well, but I dont think they would suit someone wanting to have a windows 7 like interface. KDE 4.X is by far the closest to a windows 7 interface and capabilities, and its where you should probably start, but at least have a look at Xfce and Lxde.

Dont bother with gnome 2.X, its discontinued, and wasnt that much like windows anyway.

I dont have a problem with distro hopping for people trying to figure out what package management they perfer, etc, it just doesnt make much sense to distrohop trying out different desktop enviroments (and default theming for that matter...as far as basic interface goes Zorin OS 5.X is just gnome 2.X using a different theme to other distros). It makes more sense to have a try of all the DEs and figure out what you like.

Zorin is just another ubuntu based distro. I personally dislike it, I cant stand distros that require 'donations' for d/ls (yes, I know, there is a 'free' version). It sure smells like Zorin makes money from users who want a 'windows 7 like desktop'

Its also caught the 'make our own desktop' disease from ubuntu-

http://zoringroup.com/blog/2012/03/2...ut-zorin-os-6/

Yes, I'm aware of that and I think I can live with that. Hopefully, the next time I buy a computer, I will have some Linux experience under the belt and partition the first hard drive into two, one for Windows and one for whichever flavour of Linux I am most comfortable with.

Really?

Yeah, me too.

Yeah. The YouTube clip 'How to make Ubuntu look like Windows 7' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GB5RClNwo) says that the method won't
work with Ubuntu v. 11.04 and newer, and the method shown in 'Make Ubuntu Linux look like Windows 7' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk0xi01W9vk)
seems to work for versions of Ubuntu that doesn't use the Unity interface.

So you think I should try out Mandriva Linux 2011? (http://www.mandriva.com/en/) I see that Mandriva Linux uses the KDE environment, and judging from the screenshots on the Mandriva website, KDE does seem to be similar to Windows.

Why did the GNOME Foundation drop GNOME 2.x, opting to focus all development work on GNOME 3.x instead?

Which is better, KDE 4.x or GNOME 3.x? And why? Which distros, apart from Mandriva, uses KDE 4.x?

Which distros uses Xfce and Lxde?

I agree with you re distros that require 'donations' for downloading, but I guess it's to fund further development and at least $10 isn't too much to ask for in Zorin OS's case but $59 for the powerpack version of Mandriva Linux 2011 is a bit too steep for my taste.


CHD

Yep, really. :D

That was a _really_ short version, its very political, quite technical and at times get into 'he said they said' arguements.....


Too technical for a simple answer, even if there was one. Very political.

I prefer KDE 4.X. I dont know, I didnt like Gnome 2.X, and I dont like gnome 3.X (either shell or fallback). I'm biased.

Lots of distros use KDE, Xfce and Lxde. With the *buntus-

Kubuntu- KDE 4 (kubuntu-desktop package)
Xubuntu- Xfce (xubuntu-desktop package)
Lubuntu- Lxde (lubuntu-desktop package)

Even distos that offically use desktop XXXX quite often have 'respin' or 'community' versions with different DEs installed out of the box. A good example is Fedora-

http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options

The easy way to have a look at the different desktops is to install them. Yes, you can have Gnome 3, KDE 4, Xfce and Lxde all installed at once. It will probably make your menus as messy as hell, as all the desktops pull in different programs and applications for the same job. Eg, KDE 4 uses Dolphin as a file manager, Xfce uses Thunar, and installing both KDE 4 and Xfce (in most cases) means that you will have thunar and dolphin in your menus.

Adding desktops with linux is easy. Either use the package manager, or install from the command line. Yes, I know, you dont want to use the command line, but sometimes its a lot easier and faster. To install xubuntu-desktop on ubuntu from a GUI, you have to open the package manager, type your password, and either click though or search for xubuntu-desktop. From a command line, you just open it, type 'sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop', type your password, and its installing.

If you know the right command (or some sodding around in a package manager) , you can normally totally remove all traces of desktop XXXXX and leave only desktop YYYYY.

For ubuntu, the psychocats page is a great resource for that sort of thing-

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/

Even for people who arent that comfortable with command line, the psychcats 'pure xxxxxxx desktop' commands are really well done, easy to use and IMO simpler than pocking around in a GUI package manager.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purexubuntu

Its not that much, but its still wrong IMO. Most or all of the 'development' is done upstream. Zorin right now (without its "Zorin Desktop") is just rethemed and modded ubuntu 11.04, which is just a modded ('updated' and 'unfreed' LOL) debian 'sid' circa october 2010.......

CoolHipDude,

I tried this
"First, move the mouse cursor to the top of the screen, then hold down the ALT key and drag the menu bar from the top
of the screen to the bottom. As you drag the menu bar, the arrow cursor changes to a clenched fist."

But i am not able to drag the menu bar. Am I doing something wrong? Is the menubar locked in any scenario?

Thanks
Ajith