I have Ubuntu 12.04 installed for testing and have installed gnome-session-fallback and synaptic with apt-get. I then logged into a Gnome Classic session. I am now more at home than with Unity (and will stay off my soap box for now). I did some searching on installing the clearlooks theme and found some information including a nice Youtube video. However, the information seemed a little out of date.

I did discover that there is a package in the Ubuntu repositories gtk-clearlooks-gperfection2-theme_1.1-0ubuntu2_i386.deb which is described as "gtk theme for the clearlooks engine". I installed it with no complaints and no dependencies shown. But I have no clearlooks theme choice.

Can someone enlighten me? How do I enable clearlooks or for that matter any other theme besides the four default themes provided?

TIA,

Ken

I also was a big fan of the clearlooks theme back when Ubuntu still used Gnome. Call me old fashioned, but I always thought that a pleasant light blue theme was more easy on the eyes than the default orange and purple Ubuntu "human" theme.
Here are some options for clearlooks for Ubuntu 12.04:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/c...-light-stylish
Apparently there is a "newlooks" theme that is similar to clearlooks that can be installed on 12.04:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYWwTAenOZ0 (Note that there is no sound on that video, so you will have to watch what the user does carefully).

And here is yet another reason to switch to the light and fast Lubuntu with the LXDE desktop as an alternative to the increasingly bloated and resource intensive Ubuntu with the infamous Unity desktop:
Wait for it .... Lubuntu includes the clearlooks theme as an option by default!!! Just set it and forget it!!!

Thanks tommcd,

I had found the video, saved it with downloadhelper and played it full screen so I could read the fine print. All was well until it went to gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=126920 to get that darned thing. It is not there anymore. That link is also shown as the home page on the package which I mentioned in the OP.

I had played with Xubuntu LTS. However, it is only supported for 3 years, not 5.

Then I tried Mint 13. Cinnamon is OK. Mate is fantastic. Cleaner than clearlooks. If it was any simpler I would swear it was an Apple Lisa (An interface which of course Apple "borrowed" from Xerox PARC.) However, remote desktop is broken in and by Mate. I have a bug submitted on it.

I have not looked at Lubuntu for a while. I see on the web site Bummer. I have a netbook, a server and 3 desktops to install and tweak. Once I get them working to my liking I would rather not mess with them for a decade or two.

Having said that... I may put Mint 12 Cinnamon on the netbook. It does not need too much tweaking and is a "non essential" machine. If that works out I may Mint the wife's desktop. As for my main, quad core, dual monitor desktop... CentOS 6.2 is supported until 2020

Ken

p.s. I am downloading Lubuntu and will at least setup a VMWare virtual machine to play with. Thanks again tommcd.

Clearwaita is a GTK3 theme that, according to what I've read others say, is like Clearlooks:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=145210

Another GTK3 clearlooks-like theme is: Clear Simple Old School

Thanks kkruecke, looks nice.

I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my netbook and the gnome-session-fallback. I used gnome-tweak-tool to set the following preferences:

GTK+ theme: Adwaita
Window theme: Atlanta

The results are not perfect but they are not as nauseating as the Ubuntu defaults. I have some nice wallpaper so I can tolerate the machine.

As to my main desktop... Ubuntu 12.04 and two monitors seems like a lost cause. The ATI drivers do not work per my experience and that of many other users based on my searching. Same for the nVidia drivers. I swapped out my nVidia card for an ATI card in 10.04 because of an issue with suspend/resume. About 3/4 of the time my session would be gone when I resumed. The ATI card worked great in 10.04.

I am now in the process of installing CentOS 6.2 on the desktop. The ATI drivers work fine, all of my hardware works fine (just completed install of my Brother MFC240c printer/scanner/thing). I have tested the apps I need in a VMWare virtual CentOS machine and they seem to install fine. Once I get them on the physical machine it will be bye bye Ubuntu for a while.

Ken

p.s. CentOS has Clearlooks and is supported until 2020

Since I have an nVidia card, too, maybe that is why when I resume after suspending Unity is looks all screwed up.

My suspend/resume issue was much more serious. I would have several things running. A VMWare virtual machine, a TrueCrypt volume mounted, Firefox, Thunderbird, gnome-commander, etc. etc. etc. on several desktops. I would suspend the PC and it seemed to suspend OK. When I pressed the power button to resume I would find that I had been logged out and of course when I logged in all of my programs would be shut down, the TrueCrypt volume unmounted etc. just as if I had done a logout or reboot.

I found that the nVidia card worked OK with CentOS 6. However, there was a dependency/security update issue with VLC player. That was a show stopper for me so I purchased a cheap ATI 5450 card from Walmart for about $50US. It worked fine with Ubuntu 10.04. I could have all sorts of stuff running, suspend and later resume with everything as it should be. I could not believe I had tolerated the nVidia situation for so long.

As to 12.04... I want to have two separate desktops on my two monitors. It is called "Single display desktop (Multi-desktop)" in the Catalyst Control Center and was called something similar in the nVidia tool. With 12.04 I get a proper desktop on my left monitor but the right one is simply white.

Ken

Found gtk-clearlooks-gperfection2-theme by googling today, but I'm not sure what it looks like.
There appears to be a package for Ubuntu 12.04:
http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package...fection2-theme

I think I had seen that one. Based on the changelog I did not get a warm fuzzy feeling about it and thus did not try it.

Ken

I think it's gtk2, anyway.

Very nice. Old Skool still looks better than the dime-a-dozen flat themes. Almost all flat modern themes are amateurish.