Things i love and hate about Ubuntu

matthewprince · 11 Jan 2009 at 19:00

Hi,

Been using Ubuntu for a week now nearly and have had a few problems. I absolutely love the way it works, love not having anti virus on and freezing etc etc , but have the following niggles...

1: After a day or so the minimize/maximise/close disappeared.Im not using the standard ubuntu graphics driver as i installed the geforce one. The only way to get them back is to chose "none" under visual effects

2: Why is it so hard to uninstall? , I installed cairo dock and it wouldnt work , just showed a white box instead of the dock. I cant for the life of me find out how to uninstall.

3: The top bar and bottom bar are a bit "windows 95" in appearance. Would be brill to make them look nicer.

Matt

yashiro · 11 Jan 2009 at 19:11

1: After a day or so the minimize/maximise/close disappeared.Im not using the standard ubuntu graphics driver as i installed the geforce one.

Common issue. Look on here for fixes. http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php
If you're using Compiz, install Compiz Config Settings Manager and Compiz-icon.
Compiz Icon when run sits by your clock and lets you easily tweak stuff.

2: Why is it so hard to uninstall? , I installed cairo dock and it wouldnt work , just showed a white box instead of the dock. I cant for the life of me find out how to uninstall.

System Menu - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager
or open Terminal and type gksu synaptic. Always try and install apps from repositories or .deb files. They will be removable more easily for you.

3: The top bar and bottom bar are a bit "windows 95" in appearance. Would be brill to make them look nicer.

You can right click the bars and change texture/transparency.
System menu - Preferences - Appearance
You can get more themes at http://gnome-look.org/. There are also some extra themes available in the afore mentioned Synaptic Package Manager.

matthewprince · 11 Jan 2009 at 19:15

Ive looked on ubuntu forums and the solutions that have been suggested doesnt work. As for q3 i cant find anything in there to make the top and bottom bar look better?

Matt

yashiro · 11 Jan 2009 at 19:23

What is 'better'?

All themes customise the bars etc so just try something till you get one you like (or make a texture yourself).
If you're a lazy git just install ubuntustudio-desktop.

tophee · 11 Jan 2009 at 19:33

If you want flashy: remove the bottom toolbar and install awn via add/remove or synaptic. Looks a bit like the dock on a mac.

Earth[Tera].bin · 11 Jan 2009 at 21:11

I learned a hell of a lot about *nix because I had to, Ubuntu removes this quest and more or less does it all for you. ( until things go wrong ).

It holds your hand too much for me , thats why I hate Ubuntu.

matthewprince · 11 Jan 2009 at 21:13

Is the minimise/maximise/close dissapearance just related to Ubuntu 8.10? , if so i will install 8.04

I cant get it to stay there when i have extra applied in visual themes. As none selected is so boring.

Matt

yashiro · 11 Jan 2009 at 21:27

Is the minimise/maximise/close dissapearance just related to Ubuntu 8.10? , if so i will install 8.04

No, it's the Nvidia drivers and Compiz. Try using different themes, some people have noted it works. Can't confirm it myself as I have a radeon.

But generally, unless you have wireless issues I'd use 8.04 anyway.

matthewprince · 12 Jan 2009 at 09:21

Well,

I had to reinstall it last night. I went to uninstall cairodock last night. I did that and it deleted all programs off including firefox, infact pretty much everything.

I was told ATi Radeon dont work with ubuntu?

So ATi are the better graphics card to have?

I only have an AGP slot but would go and buy one if it meant not having these problems.

I really want to like ubuntu and have it as my operating system but cant ut up with these problems.

Matt

jack.mitchell · 12 Jan 2009 at 10:12

Give fedora a try, i've found it too be less buggy than the new Ubuntu.

http://fedoraproject.org/

craptakular · 12 Jan 2009 at 11:03

matthewprince said:
Well,

I had to reinstall it last night. I went to uninstall cairodock last night. I did that and it deleted all programs off including firefox, infact pretty much everything.

I was told ATi Radeon dont work with ubuntu?

So ATi are the better graphics card to have?

I only have an AGP slot but would go and buy one if it meant not having these problems.

I really want to like ubuntu and have it as my operating system but cant ut up with these problems.

Matt

although ati support has got a lot better the last 12-18months I still think nvidia has better linux support. The issue maybe with ubuntu, your always gonna run into problems with a totally new OS. Its part of your learning experience.

EDIT: I started fiddling back in 2005ish and started with suse, it was ok, but ubuntu 7.04 came along and was a lot more user friendly, now 8.10 is here and ubuntu has come on leaps and bounds, its even easier to install than XP, then theres linux mint, leave ur brain at home & insert the disk young sir! hehe
I tried Arch a year or so and got it installed, came back to it before xmas, it took me 3 days to installl lol but now I understand how linux works a lot more than if i had stuck with ubuntu.

What im trying to say is, try other OS's you may prefer fedora, mint, opensuse, arch, gentoo, sabayon, PClinuxOS, the list goes on....

or just stick with ubuntu and find guides to iron out your problems.