i'm having a blast playing around with ubuntu and setting it up to do some pretty advanced work for me. all in all, it is great. however, in the pursuit of perfection, i have a couple issues i'd like to resolve and i'd appreciate the help of others more knowledgable in these areas than myself.

1. i like list view and *hate* icon view. how can i set up list view as the default? i'm sure it is a simple setting, but i can't find it.
2. when in list view and list view is full of files (scroll bar required), i can't get right_click -> Open Terminal (I installed the package that allows this). is there any way around this?
3. I like to be able to view each partition and how full it is. KDE has a "partition viewer" - i can't remember the name. "K" something... -lol- does gnome have something similar?
4. I often switch between users. when i do, i end up having to input my password twice - which is counterintuitive to me. switch user -> input different user -> input password -> given choice to or Return to previous login -> choose previous login so i don't lose my open work -> re-enter password (2nd time!) -> see new user desktop.

anyway, i appreciate your help and i'm really enjoying all th epower that ubuntu and gnu / linux provide.

To view the free space left on your partitions, type at the terminal.

You can change the default behavior of windows by going into Nautilus (go to Places->Home Folder) and click on Edit->Preferences and from there, the first option sets the default behavior of Nautilus. Close and re-open the window and you'll have your list view.

Also, to get a GUI description of your filesystem status, use System->Administration->System Monitor and click on the File Systems tab.