Lucid Menus - Fight the changes
Ubuntu 10.04, the Lucid Lynx, is almost ready for release out! The New Ubuntu LTS is available for downloading.
With every new release comes change, and in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, the most striking change is a brilliant new color-scheme. Very bold. Very purple! – That's gonna go over better with some than with others.
Ubuntu has always had a very unique color-scheme, and Lucid Lynx is no exception.
When I installed my first version of Ubuntu in '07, I thought the colors were awful, – but after a while I changed my mind – I for one will miss the now infamous Ubuntu-browns.
Love it or hate it, Ubuntu is Linux spawn – think configurability – Two clicks of the mouse and you've got a different theme installed. Three or four clicks – and you've built a custom theme!
With every new release also comes the "Is Linux ready for the Desktop" diatribe in the forums. To all I say: Linux was "ready" for the desktop half a decade ago!
Doubt it? Download and install an older version of Ubuntu, maybe Feisty Fawn, Dapper Drake, or one of the older Debian releases, and tell me what's "not ready"?
– Enough of the flaming already, let's get back to configurability!
New Menu Location
The second change you're likely to notice in Lucid Lynx is that the window control buttons have been moved to the left.
Update: There is a sticky in Ubuntu-forums regarding proper protocols for changing the button layout. Here's the relevant component, and please, go have a look at the sticky because there's other pertinent information for people upgrading to 10.04.
Prefer the right-hand button layout? – Instructions from Ubuntu-Forum Sticky:
Minimize, Maximize and Close button placement.
A decision has been taken to move the placement to the left. Mark Shuttleworth explained that this was because "something" is going to be placed in the right hand area in the next release. Moving the buttons now would help enable this change.
[[Update ]http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/333The buttons are in the old location on all default themes apart from Ambiance,Radiance and Dust, If you still want the Ambiance ,Radiance or Dust theme but with buttons on the right, choose one of those other themes and use the Customize button to achieve what you want. e.g.
1. System > Preferences > Appearance
2. Select the theme icon "New Wave"
3. Click the button "Customize.."
4. Select tab "Controls" and select "Ambiance"
5. Select tab "Window border" and select "Ambiance"
6. Select tab "Icons" and scroll down and select "Ubuntu-mono-dark"
7. Select "Save Theme" to your choice.
Using gconf-editor is not the right approach as this could bork future themes. This change makes it easier for themes to do interesting things with window borders. Unfortunately, if the wrong approach spreads, they won't be able to do that.
Just hit Alt+F2 together, type "gconf-editor" in the pop-up window, scroll down and expand "apps", then "metacity", then "general". There you'll find a line that reads:
"button_layout | maximize,minimize,close" (It's the 8th line down from the top). The button layout can be user-defined. Click, or double click the entry, and enter your preferred button layout. The options are fairly straight-forward. You can have "menu", "maximize", "minimize" and "close" in any order, so long as the entries are comma separated. To select which side of the window the buttons appear in, use a colon (:). Default positioning is on the left, so leave the colon out if left-hand controls are what you want, or use the colon to move the buttons to the right.
For example, to have the close, maximize and minimize buttons on the right-hand side, you'd enter menu:minimize,maximize,close. "Close" and "menu" buttons on the left and minimize/maximize on the right would be "menu,close:maximize,minimize".
This technique will work on all themes, but some of them look better with the controls at the left and/or in a certain order.
UPDATE: The crossed-out approach (above) works, but apparently it's not the right way to go about moving the buttons because there are plans afoot to use the space, (see the quote below), so I've struck it out. Please use this technique only as a last resort and instead follow the instruction quoted from the forum-sticky.
Mark Shuttleworth, head-honcho of all things Ubuntu, made a statement explaining the whys and wherefores of the move.
Quote source: UbuntuGeek.com:
Mark Shuttleworth’s response to left side button criticisms.
The default position of the window controls will remain the left,throughout beta1. We’re interested in data which could influence the ultimate decision. There are good reasons both for the change, and against them, and ultimately the position will be decided based on what we want to achieve over time.
Moving everything to the left opens up the space on the right nicely,and I would like to experiment in 10.10 with some innovative options there. It’s much easier to do that if we make this change now. I appreciate that it’s an emotive subject, and apologise for the fact that I haven’t been responding in detail to every comment - I’m busy moving house this week. But the design team is well aware of the controversy,your (polite) comments and more importantly *data* are very welcome and will help make the best decision.
When we have a celebrity bug report like this, it’s a real exercise for our values of communication, civility, and ubuntu. Thank you to those who have pointed to the code of conduct when things get heated. And thanks even more to those who FELT heated but didn’t let it show.
If you prefer the right-hand layout and insist on having the buttons on the right, you might miss out on whatever the devs have up their sleeves for the subsequent bi-annual releases. - Ubuntu hasn't disappointed yet, so I might just try getting used to the new layout.
The controls can be set through the terminal as well.
Again, this is not the right approach - implement at your own risk - (it won't break anything).
gconftool-2 -g /apps/metacity/general/button_layout
will show the current layout, and (the wrong way to change the layout):
gconftool-2 -s --type string /apps/metacity/general/button_layout "menu:minimize,maximize,close"
will set the minimize, maximise and close buttons to the right, and the menu button at the left.
