Linux question on screen layout and behavior - how flexible is Ubuntu's standard interface?
I have toyed off and on with Linux over the years; Ubuntu has seemingly matured into one of the most suitable and comfortable distributions for me. But there are a couple of screen-related issues (not problems) where my preferences and likes are not the same as Ubuntu’s.
My question is: are these (below) configurable in some way (given the general flexibility of Linux, they should be) or am I stuck with them?
1] The three icons (minimize, maximize, and close). In Windows, they are always on the upper right corner of the window or the screen. I’m used to them there. Ubuntu (and other Linuxes) put them on the upper left corner. Can they be moved to the upper right?
2] The latest release has that godawful banner application toolbar on the left of the screen. Can that be moved to the bottom (like a Windows toolbar) to less distracting? Or better yet, can it disappear altogether?
Thanks
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
4 Answers
I know you can do 2] because I’ve done it… so long ago now that I can’t remember how, but I would have googled something like “linux move taskbar to bottom” – and I recall that it was quite easy to find (here is one of the first hits for that search). A lot of people want to be able to make the layout more familiar, so there are a lot of forum posts along those lines.
Not so sure about 1].
I actually got so tired of unity on ubuntu that I switched to mint: http://www.linuxmint.com/
They’ve got several desktop environment options.
There are many ways to skin Linux. Beyond themes, there are entire new Window Managers.GNOME, KDE, Unity, Xfce… the list goes on. Some have the bar on top, some bottom, some on the side. As for window buttons, some themes place them on the right. There are themes that look exactly like Windows and OS X.
You aren’t stuck; you just haven’t explored your options.
If you want to stay with the default interface, I’m afraid you’re pretty much out of luck.
1) These instructions used to work. You could try them, but I’m fairly confident that they won’t work anymore, and that there is no more way to configure this at the moment.
2) Moving the Launcher (as it’s called) is not supported by default. There was a way to install a modified version made by someone, but that was for an older version of Ubuntu and likely quite unstable. See the answers to this question.
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
