[How To] Customise Unity like Never Before

By Georgi Karavasilev, Published December 4, 2011

Unity, Ubuntu's default desktop shell, has a reputation for not being very customizable.Whilst that may have been the case in its early incarnations, it's not entirely true of 11.10.Ubuntu 11.10 brings a lot of nifty changes in Unity featuring - chameleon theming, active blur, ability to change launcher opacity, relocation of the Ubuntu button from the panel to the launcher, and so on. These new features have opened up the door for a lot more customisation in Unity than many think possible.Out of the box Unity looks like this:And after a bit of tweaking I made my Unity desktop look like this: -Notable differences are:Unity Launcher placed at the bottom Dark arrows for the launcher The lack of backlit for the icons in the launcher New icon for the Ubuntu button New icons in the the Dash main windowIf you want to know how to make your Unity look like mine read on. But be advised that this guide is not recommended for those unsure of how to revert any changes made. Tweaking Unity And off we go with the first change - the bottom launcher:To install it execute the following command in terminal:sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paullo612/unityshell-rotated sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unityshell-rotated libnux-1.0-0 compizconfig-settings-managerThan start CompizConfig Settings Manager from the Dash, and enable the "Ubuntu Unity Plugin Rotated" and disable "Ubuntu Unity Plugin".[box style="info"]Note that this plugin is third party, experimental and not supported by Ubuntu. For best result ensure the Unity Dash is set to fullscreen mode.[/box] The next thing you need to to is open the "Ubuntu Unity Plugin Rotated", navigate to the experimental tab and lower the "Launcher opacity" to 0.000.Now it's time to make all other changes: -Dark arrows for the launcher Set the 'Backlit mode' to 'Always off' Change Ubuntu's button icon Change the icon in Dash main window Expo Settings should be configured like so: -Next, you need to make a backup of the following files from the /usr/share/unity/4 folder. squircle_base_54.png, squircle_shine_54.png, launcher_bfb.png, launcher_icon_back_54.png, launcher_icon_edge_54.png, launcher_icon_glow_62.png, launcher_icon_shine_54.png, find_files.png, find_internet_apps.png, find_media_apps.png, find_more_apps.png and then replace them with the files from inside this archive: - [button size="medium" color="orange" url="http://ubuntuone.com/0CvxhLSPBpdxcAZ95FGoII"]Download[/button] Then you need to do one more backup, this time backup all the files inside /usr/share/unity/4-rotated that start with the word arrow, and replace them with the icon from the archive below: [button size="medium" color="orange" url="http://ubuntuone.com/38KmQzTrjznDzcy4pWVePI"]Download[/button] The last thing you need to do is to press Alt+F2 and execute setsid unity to enjoy your new Unity! (Alternatively log out and back in)

Unity, Ubuntu’s default desktop shell, has a reputation for not being very customizable.

Whilst that may have been the case in its early incarnations, it’s not entirely true of 11.10.

Ubuntu 11.10 brings a lot of nifty changes in Unity featuring – chameleon theming, active blur, ability to change launcher opacity, relocation of the Ubuntu button from the panel to the launcher, and so on. These new features have opened up the door for a lot more customisation in Unity than many think possible.

Out of the box Unity looks like this:

And after a bit of tweaking I made my Unity desktop look like this: -

Notable differences are:

Unity Launcher placed at the bottom
Dark arrows for the launcher
The lack of backlit for the icons in the launcher
New icon for the Ubuntu button
New icons in the the Dash main window

If you want to know how to make your Unity look like mine read on. But be advised that this guide is not recommended for those unsure of how to revert any changes made.

Tweaking Unity

And off we go with the first change – the bottom launcher:

To install it execute the following command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paullo612/unityshell-rotated
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unityshell-rotated libnux-1.0-0 compizconfig-settings-manager

Than start CompizConfig Settings Manager from the Dash, and enable the “Ubuntu Unity Plugin Rotated” and disable “Ubuntu Unity Plugin”.

Note that this plugin is third party, experimental and not supported by Ubuntu. For best result ensure the Unity Dash is set to fullscreen mode.

The next thing you need to to is open the “Ubuntu Unity Plugin Rotated“, navigate to the experimental tab and lower the “Launcher opacity” to 0.000.

Now it’s time to make all other changes: -

Dark arrows for the launcher
Set the ‘Backlit mode’ to ‘Always off’
Change Ubuntu’s button icon
Change the icon in Dash main window
Expo Settings should be configured like so: -

Next, you need to make a backup of the following files from the /usr/share/unity/4 folder.

squircle_base_54.png, squircle_shine_54.png, launcher_bfb.png, launcher_icon_back_54.png, launcher_icon_edge_54.png, launcher_icon_glow_62.png, launcher_icon_shine_54.png, find_files.png, find_internet_apps.png, find_media_apps.png, find_more_apps.png

and then replace them with the files from inside this archive: -

Download

Then you need to do one more backup, this time backup all the files inside /usr/share/unity/4-rotated that start with the word arrow, and replace them with the icon from the archive below:

Download

The last thing you need to do is to press Alt+F2 and execute setsid unity to enjoy your new Unity! (Alternatively log out and back in)

Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

Anonymous
I got used to panel on the left… But it may turn out to be useful for some people.
http://twitter.com/AutoDiamond Robert Bertalan
For me, the basic Unity is perfect…changes you call reminds me of windows and i really don’t want this.

Georgi Karavasilev
The fun part is that I also prefer the launcher on the left, but due to the fact that this article was about customization I had to mention the fact that launcher was also movable (kinda). But the rest of the changes work even without moving the launcher
http://twitter.com/weberc2 Craig Weber
The launcher on the left is a bad idea–the bottom center is much closer to where work is being done–always having to go from the left to the right side of the screen is extremely tedious.

Anonymous
Yes, but the logic behind the launcher being on the side was that it uses less space because monitors are generally wider then they are tall.

http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels
Indeed and I don’t like the launcher on the bottom. Makes it too cluttered (and even Mac-like, but that’s not my biggest issue). On the left, it’s not cluttered at all.
Freddi
I liked the reasons behind the left launcher and vertical screen real estate. But after all, it seems that a bottom launcher could finally be the solution with better usability:
It happens too often that the launcher appears unintentially and covers important parts of a window when you were trying to click something in the top left, like the window controls, menu item, toolbar button (Firefox back button), resizing a window etc. and the launcher disrupts your workflow. Most programs have important items on the top left!
A bottom launcher could only cover less important, mostly unclickable things (status bar). It is unbiased and equally distant whether the cursor is on the right of the screen or on the left.

Anonymous
Actually I get it what you are implying here.I think it’s better to disable auto hide.It’s better for navigation and problem that you think might disrupt workflow shouldn’t be a big deal then.
Anonymous
Very true. This is my biggest gripe with Unity and the reason I sometimes switch to Gnome Shell.

http://twitter.com/thisweb thisweb
They didnt used to be. The reason monitors are wider now is because we read from left to right. We need the width more for browsing etc. Unity suggests 4:3 monitors are better shape… Why?

David Gomes
You can also make the dock always visible, and then it won’t bother your work, but that wastes some space.
What I recommend is that you make the icons smaller (perfect is 38 pixels), and make it “Always Visible”.

Anonymous
Haha I didn’t read through comments my comment makes no sense now.I do the same way always with 32 px actually.I got so used to it.

Ralph Bromley
The advantage though is that this would be good for a long time windows user who is used to the menu being at the bottom.
I approve personally as unity lacks a lot of tweakability.
http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Ive been a big supporter of Unity, and still think its OK as a DE, but lately Ive been having issues with default decoration on my Desktop with AMD HD4850 graphics card and open drivers, I suddenly lost the whole look in Nautilus and got in exchange a Win95 crappy theme, it just happened and Im still quite unhappy about it, cant find any coherent answer, and nobody seems to care about it.
It actually happened with every version Ive installed since Ubutnu 10.04, so I dont know if its my PC the problem.

Anonymous
This seems to be an issue affecting Ubuntu 11.10. The best solution I have found at this point is to open a terminal and type, ‘nautilus -q’. This will kill and reload Nautilus. It should then have the correct theme.
My computer does it as well and it happens randomly. Hopefully, these issues will be sorted in the 100 Papercuts project and we won’t be seeing this behavior in 12.04.

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Thanks, will try, but its not new nor exclusive to 11.10, at least I have suffered this sin Lucid Lynx.

Anonymous
I did experience it in 11.04, but my 10.04 box doesn’t seem to have this problem.

http://dan.cx/ Daniel15
I encounter the same issue with a HD6670 and the fglrx drivers. I usually run “killall nautilus” which fixes it.

http://twitter.com/snwh Sam Hewitt
It’s still not customizable out-of-the-box -which is what would be ideal- and it’s still very limited in what we can customize easily.
At least this (sort of) a step forwards.
http://profiles.google.com/lilianftp Moraru Lilian
Looks something like KDE.
*Edit: Sure it does cause you even used icons from KDE :)
*(Edit+1): I do love a lot more for the bar to be on bottom. Kind of gives more space for my applications. My widescreen is not so wide as Unity thinks, it takes to much space from left.

Georgi Karavasilev
That’s cuz I’m using to Oxygen icons (porting them to Ubuntu) and there is of course the wallpaper than is extremely KDE-ish:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100530892038948253747/MyFirstAlbum#5682168348938576466

Anonymous
The wallpaper is not just extremely KDE-ish, it’s actually a merge of 2 (maybe 3?) KDE 4.x releases.

Georgi Karavasilev
Of 3 :)
Ethais and two other, which names I don’t know :P

Scott McKenzie
Put a window over Unity and it will auto-hide. Now your wide screen is wide again.

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
And set size to 32.

Anonymous
and KDE looks something like KID-DE =) but this one looks and functions better…

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4LXTMAC7KVMD7JBKWBCCBU4HSU inner_turbulence
See the screenshots. That’s KDE. Nothing but pure KDE, even the dock below is just plasma. Now eat your words.

Anonymous
didn’t say it’s not =)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Uri-Adonay-Herrera/100000821548713 Uri Adonay Herrera
DO Want.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PRX2RB52YGLWAPXZHIQSUNYYOI Eduardo
You forgot to mention how to change the icons in the dash main window
Anonymous
I’d like to be able to drag my launcher to what ever edge of the screen, but this is a great start to Unity customization. Lets hope for a real boost in customization for 12.10. However, I’m really happy with the default Unity layout and have no real need to customize it greatly.. Only shrink the icon size in the launcher.
https://launchpad.net/~grzesiek1e5 Grzegorz G.
Rotated Unity is what makes Ubuntu acceptable by people converting from Windows.

Sashin Ranasinghe
People aren’t as change-phobic as you’d think them to be.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YFITUCEHTSICZWD7LIXNPFP62I Pffffff
Say it to the Gnome2 users than don’t want Gnome shell.

Sashin Ranasinghe
#vocalMinority

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
I came from Win7 and skipped KDE, went directly to Gnome 2.x, which doesnt look like Windows at all, then jumped to Unity without looking back, which doesnt look either like Windows nor Gnome at all.
Now Im trying Gnome Shell, which is too completely different from all the others.
People are very open to change, more than many fanboys think they are.

Essay Tew Phaun
Think I’m gonna stick to Gnome Shell.

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Tried this already? you gotta love it.
https://extensions.gnome.org/
Only problem is install button is gone with Opera, works fine in Firefox. And I dont care about Chromium.

Anonymous
It doesn’t work in IE9 or 10 either, is something wrong?
:-P

http://profiles.google.com/lain.halfbit Lain inVerse
Dood…
Anonymous
i like launcher on the left side, i am already used to it

Georgi Karavasilev
Me too, but the changes work even if you don’t use the bottom launcher :P
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip
+1 but its good for folks whom like it on the bottom

http://www.tux-crazy.com Tux Crazy
Woah, Ubuntu meets Mac meets Windows 7 meets KDE. Mind blown.

fatriff
Well it doesn’t take much to blow your mind then cos my Mint/Ubuntu looked just like that for about 3 years with the top bar and AWN along the bottom.
What’s the point in all this? it just seems that people are just trying to undo every change Ubuntu has made and what your left with is the old look yet again.

http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2
..but hopefully, with a lot less and better tested code

fatriff
The way i’m seeing it is that the dash on both unity and shell aren’t even needed anymore now we have menus and window switchers on the panels.

http://openid-provider.appspot.com/delanayeb Bertrand
For launching applications, that’s true. I’m using the launcher in Unity for most of my programs, or the dock in the shell. For both, I use Synapse for whatever is not in launcher/dock.
But, in order to window switch, I still have to reach the dash in GS, I just don’t want to install the extension/regression to get back that inefficient Gnome2 metaphor via another panel.
So I have to say Unity suits me better in that regard, with the open windows permanently under your eyes through the arrows.

http://www.tux-crazy.com Tux Crazy
Don’t take my comment too seriously ;)

Anonymous
Whaaah oh man i was sure you figured out the solution to the P versus NP problem

http://profiles.google.com/historyb Douglas Wilson
I like the old look :)
http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
I can hardly identify customize with undo.
Subhadip Ghosh
Not everyone, not me and I know I’m not alone. I like the default look of Unity. But these are for those people who liked it the old way, so it satisfies both kind. What’s bad about it? You Unity haters never miss a chance, do you?

S Lo
?? You could do this no problem in Gnome 2 with AWN. You didn’t even need the terminal. Ubuntu with Unity is still growing up, so don’t expect anything really cool for a couple of years probably. btw, Ubuntu is better *and* cheaper than both Windows 7 and all Mac OS. KDE is also cool :) but really, it is neat that they are learning to customize Ubuntu with Unity.

Anonymous
Ubuntu is cheaper than windows or Mac Os for god’s sake it’s free :P (Just kidding and no offence intended)

http://twitter.com/marcusklaas MarcusKlaasDeVries
Yes, but that is no contradiction to what he said.

Anonymous
Haha well you’re right but when you say it’s cheaper it implies that it costs but something less than what product you are comparing it withMy some of friends thought Ubuntu costs them so I always like to correct misconception going around.Anyways I know he knows it’s free but I was just joking so chill-ax :)

Chris Langton
i dont understand or see what you mean.
If you compare to Windows, is it the launcher placement at the bottom?
If you compare to Mac, is it the grey panel and launcher placement at the bottom like windows?
If you compare to KDE.. i dont know? the color blue?
Yogotiss .
To many boners for a guy to handle…

Per Jensen
I’m tired of the launcher positioned in the left side of the screen.
Every time I want to click the back button in chromium, I manage to hit the left side of the screen with the mouse. And the launcher pops up! Argh!

http://twitter.com/Rixzard Rikard Johansson
+1
Anonymous
install ccsm, and edit hide/trigger timeout, higher, so it doesn’t reveal on false positives.

Anonymous
they should fix that bug

Anonymous
I don’t think it’s necessarily a bug, but, if you do consider it a bug, maybe file a bug report about it :)

Anonymous
is an old bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/765819

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Or configure Launcher not to hide.

Anonymous
good stuff! time for people to open gimp and whatever other assorted programs you like to use and get making some new launcher styles. I want to change the look of the whole panel, that will be my mission this arvo.
seamus williams
after spending a day tweaking Unity i have stuck to a Raidmentary them with faenza raidiance icons and lots of scopes making my life easy.
the spent today playing with gnome-shell i was really bored of all the Extensions which take a whole day to find and install and make life a little easyier to use.
I just want to be able to change the dash icon its like a 90′s moniter!!!!
Satchit Bhogle
Don’t forget, the border around the icons is also gone. How do you do that, @me4oslav:disqus ?

Georgi Karavasilev
It’s written in the article :P

Satchit Bhogle
Could you just make that a bit more clear? Does this also work with the traditional Unity plugin or just the Rotated one?

Georgi Karavasilev
Both :P

Satchit Bhogle
Ah, thanks. It looks so much better now. btw, you can use “unity –replace” to implement changes. I don’t know what “setsid unity” does, but there’s no need to log out and log in again.
Georgi Karavasilev
“setsid unity” and “unity –replace” will both do the trick – yeah.
And the “log out and back” is alternative method, that’s all :P

Satchit Bhogle
Now I’m wondering if you can take off that 1px white Launcher edge :P

http://twitter.com/weberc2 Craig Weber
Or put the launcher on the bottom so you don’t have to move your mouse all the way across the screen all the time?
Chris Talley
Those tweaks remind me of KDE, for some reason, but a lot uglier.
http://twitter.com/Taharbiellah الطاهر بالله
change is good but ,I think the original position is butter the look in left side beautiful
http://twitter.com/hellothales Thales Oliveira
hahaha Unity sucks so badly =P

Mark Skinner
i used to think like this, then i tried mint and now i think unity sucks even more than it used to,

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Mint will never be more than a mediocre Ubuntu variant.
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
, .

Anonymous
trololololololololol…

Anonymous
problem?

Anonymous
MAYBE
Anonymous
oh you heard the magic word? :P

http://dan.cx/ Daniel15
Everybody knows that the bird is the word

Stijn Verwaaijen
It looks ridiculous imho. Off topic: why does this website eat about 1/3 of my cpu (i3)?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YFITUCEHTSICZWD7LIXNPFP62I Pffffff
Because the comments system really sucks, and there’s the icing on the cake of that heavy slider.

Jesse Brandão
If you want to nearly everyone, make the unity panel moveable, and give it the chance to change in to a dock, like the mac dock. And hopefully, let it be native. This is would grab a wider audience since people who prefer macs get that, people who prefer the windows 7 look with the bottom panel get that, and those who love default get that. It’s not that hard to implement. Let the dash be fullscreen such that it works for all 3.
Only one will never satisfy everybody, this way, you satisfy most people.
http://profiles.google.com/144.kuba Jakub Dyszkiewicz
Why ugly Oxygen icons again? :(

Georgi Karavasilev
I happen to really *love* Oxygen icons (It is a matter of personal choice which iconset one prefers :P)

Anuj Nagpal
I can’t paste those files in /usr/share/unity/4 coz it says in the folder’s properties that I’m not its owner, it’s “root”
How do I fix that ?

Georgi Karavasilev
Press Alt+F2, from there start “gksu nautilus” (no quotes, of course) and then you are free to copy/paste

Anuj Nagpal
Thanks ! I’ll just try that out :)

Anonymous
I’m glad Unity exists (although I don’t use it).

Zombifier
Pardon?

Anonymous
Unity’s a great environment, and I’m glad that the most popular Linux OS uses something high quality by default. I like Unity.
I just like GNOME 3 and KDE 4 more, for different reasons (vertical pixels never meant much to me in the first place).

Faur Ioan-Aurel
Cool man.But could you tell me the theme name?From then picture doesn’t look like Radiance so i suppose you used something else!

Georgi Karavasilev
http://nanabuluku.deviantart.com/art/Radiamentary-255615403

Andrew Parsons
*Sigh*
I miss Gnome 2 + Docky…
Those were the days…
Now everything, Gnome, Unity, Mac OS X 10.7, and Windows 8 are all trying to bring tablet style to Desktop/laptops. I don’t like it. Personal opinion, however.

https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad
Why don’t you just still run Docky if that’s what you want? Gnome 3 really isn’t that much different. Though I haven’t tried myself, I see no obvious reason why you shouldn’t be able to keep using Docky. All the same shells are still available. I’ve setup my Gnome Panel desktop to look very similar to older versions, for instance: http://ubuntuone.com/0FQKR9MBQp5lMTgtg3jRg5

https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad
Edits don’t allow images. The same as I mentioned above, but a second one as well. :)
Just in case; yes, that is Gnome 3 in Ubuntu 11.10. I only had to install http://apt.ubuntu.com/p/gnome-panel, add a few applets and change the wallpaper. Note that you have to hold alt-button down when right clicking. To add applets, an apparent bug means you have to press super+alt+right-click. Otherwise, it’s just the same as it’s always been.

Satchit Bhogle
Nice wallpaper. Link?

http://twitter.com/cyrildz cyrildz
this is from a former ubuntu version, don’t know really if it was in 7.04 or 7.10

Anonymous
I love docky. I use it with Unity. The only problem is with Unity you have to have both, not one or the either.

Gabriel Rousseau
You still can use LXDE, XFCE and KDE

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip
I’ve been saying this for AGES. People seem to think Gnome is the only desktop.

Antonio Carlos Censi
It is possible to put on right side and migrate it to a second monitor on the right side too?

Georgi Karavasilev
Nope, left and bottom (via the PPA) … for now

Joel dos Santos Almeida
O-M-G
This is amazing!!!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YFITUCEHTSICZWD7LIXNPFP62I Pffffff
You would be more amazed when you use KDE.

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Dont take for granted everybody likes/loves KDE, many of us tried it and could never get convinced by it.
I installed it, and still cant get used to it, prefer Unity and G-Shell.

http://twitter.com/icalper Ivan Calderon Perez
Reminds me a bit about plasma-netbook interface.
http://twitter.com/andybleaden Andy Bleaden
Customizable ??…What American or Ubuntu? :)
Engish is very customizable…..and now so is Unity…thanks for this.
As an aside American is not a language as many of your comments show. It is English with an accent and or dialect.
If in doubt check your installer next time. It always asks you if you speak English NOT American.
How frightful!

Georgi Karavasilev
For the the forthcoming article of mine I shall acquire a dictionary which will ensure that the words that will be used by me will be English and most definitely not american.
I express my gratitude for your advice.
Sincerely yours, George.
________________________________________________________________
http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith
I’d say American English exists, which would be similar to a dialect I suppose. Within English there are differences eg color vs colour, customize vs customise etc.

Adam Maturin
Canonical – put some of this stuff in 12.04!!!
All I really want is to put the launcher at the bottom of my screen and maybe resize the icons on the launcher and in the dash for customization of Unity personally – I’m perfectly happy with the defaults otherwise.
And can we get all these nifty customization options either in the ‘settings’ window – or, right-click on a blank space on the launcher (and/or the top panel) and have the options there – or, put them in the dash – anything but forcing a user to install something just to do some basic customization.

http://twitter.com/toxicbits toxicbits
Mr. Shuttleworth says no

Anonymous
I’ve known about radiamentary since august and the bottom launcher for a few weeks/month (Big thanks to andrew at WebUpd8 for that), but the black arrows and alternative icons are new and nice. But I don’t like the icons (are they oxygen? ive never been a fan of kde icons), and I think a different background could do it justice. I would use a background like the ones I attached and maybe ubo, awoken, or faenza/faience icons (ubo would be great with the first two wallpapers I attached, and awoken for the fourth)
http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
The problem is not what you can do, but how can you do that and what are the risks involved. KDE is thought bottom-up with “you can do whatever you want” in mind. Customization simply isn’t a priority with gnome-shell or unity. I’m amazed that I can’t even rearrange the stuff on the upper panel; I can’t put this panel on other sides of the screen, configure desktop hot corners. I can have extensions, but then at best I’ll have to install tons of them to “deconstruct” everything so I can rebuild the way I like it — on other environments such as XFCE or KDE everything is meant to be one of the possibilities, not a standard so hard to change…

Anonymous
Now in fairness gnome shell is half the age of unity and now has an official add on system! Unity not so much.

Anonymous
And, I think, a LOT more developers.

Mark Skinner
This is crap, the only way to customise Unity is through unsupported hacks, meaning its not at all customisable, the only valid one here is launcher opacity, lame dont you think……. unity is rubbish, it drove me away from ubuntu

Anonymous
don’t insult other people’s work. You’re not just insulting the product, but also all the people (hundreds, likely) who worked on it. Also, just because the hacks are unsupported doesn’t technically mean that Unity ” [is] not at all customisable”. It just means you have to do a little more work to customize it. By definition, customization doesn’t have to be supported. Same with Windows – you have to hack it (a lot) to make it a little (lot) more customizable.
Please, don’t insult products – you’re insulting their developers and the people who love them in the process. (And yes, if you were about to call me a hypocrite, you’re right ;))

http://profiles.google.com/airtonix Zenobius Jiricek
I sense the troll is strong in this one.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip
Why not just switch DE, you don’t have to use Gnome. If you install xfce4 it will feel exactly like Gnome and is fully supported.

Isabelle Mosca
Remaster it :D share the .iso
Anonymous
I like it <3
Will give this a try once launcher-in-bottom gets official.
http://profiles.google.com/historyb Douglas Wilson
That looks great. Linux is about freedom and the best freedom is to change the looks to how we like. If we can’t than what is the point because you would have no control over your own pc

https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/R4szkb7 Jo-Erlend Schinstad
You have 100% flexibility. You have the source code and the legal right to use i pretty much how you want. That’s the point.

http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith
That’s a misnomer. Do you expect everyone to be an experienced developer? what type of reasonable operating system would place that expectation on its users?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip
Its been that way for years and is why Linux is where it is today.

http://torturedutopian.myopenid.com/ T_U
Please, don’t make a generality, he’s just a troll :)
Blain Gunter
Did this screw up any one else’s setup? The rotated unity goes to start, tells me about conflicts, I ignore, then it shuts off all effects and gets rid of my titlebars, panels, the dock, I can’t even right click or focus windows, so I’m forced to do a hard shutdown and once I log back in I have to reset unity. This is really getting to be a pain in the a$s. I love the new dock and dashboard but I hate having it on the left.
Anonymous
Anddddd I broke Unity. Unity 2D for now on I guess.
http://twitter.com/BuddyThirteen Camaron Rogers
Meh. Pic2 looks like a mac took a dump on your computer. I mean I’m all for customization, but to emulate a mac like that just looks silly to me.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PRX2RB52YGLWAPXZHIQSUNYYOI Eduardo
Which «American» Language? You mean Spanish, given that it is the most spoken language all over the Continent? I think some people will not agree with you. Some people might prefer continue writing in English.
https://launchpad.net/~davidraid David Raid
I’d be stupidly happy if someone just made an option to have the Natty BFB back. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally invoking the Launcher anymore, we’d have a quick way to make it visible and we’d get that blue corner notification telling us an application wants our attention again.
http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Some other posible issues you need to take into account are discused here:
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/install-ubuntu-unity-bottom-launcher.html
Another great and well known Linux site.
http://twitter.com/jksalomonsen Jacob Salomonsen
win7/mac/kde similarities aside, this is a nice looking desktop. Wish it was more lightweight, ubuntu is not the best os for my laptop anymore..

Ernest Johansmeier
try Xubuntu. incredible!

http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith
I want to use xubuntu but I have learned to like the window buttons on the left and I wasn’t able to get the chrome window buttons on the left the last time I tried xubuntu. (while not using the title bar)

Ernest Johansmeier
looks like windows 7 to me. why would you load ubuntu to make it look like windows?

Anonymous
Why not? It not the looks that is making people use Ubuntu (if it was even less people would).

Anonymous
Awesome!
Mark Paskal
This isn’t a tweak FOR unity, it’s a replacement OF unity with another plugin all together.
I love unity as it is, but the fact that this has to happen to do something as rudimentary as moving a panel makes me wonder; does Canonical think a million independent versions of Unity floating about in varying degrees of support and function is a good idea?Awesome tweaking of the theme and icons, though, those screenshots look fantastic!
Steven Farless
They need to make the launcher able to be moved to the bottom by default. It looks so much better, and there is more room for icons without having to scroll. :/
http://twitter.com/thenamesyogi Yogeshwaran
I think Docky is the better than any other panel(unity/gnome).
I LOVE DOCKY !!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4LXTMAC7KVMD7JBKWBCCBU4HSU inner_turbulence
If you’re looking for better, cairo-dock is the king!

Zombifier
Or Avant Windows Navigator.
(Cairo dock is good too, but I prefer AWN)

Agus Salim
it’s just for oneric ocelot? ehm, i still use natty boss

Georgi Karavasilev
Oneiric only :P

Kyle Amadio
I find the bottom placed launcher more natural and easier to use. Just because Microsoft has done it does not make it invalid or wrong (its probably just slow)
http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith
I’m upgrading my systems during the christmas holidays. If I still can’t hide the top panel while using chrome, the systems are not getting unity.

Anonymous
F11 if it means that much to you. Otherwise, use what suits you or modify Unity to do what you want it to. “Threatening” to not install Unity here are anywhere else is not going to matter to anyone. It’s free software, use it if you want or don’t use it, your choice.

http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith
here comes the elitist FOSS talk that everyone hates and inevitably turns regular users away from the community.
I wrote my comment so that if Unity developers are watching than can see why some people are not adopting their work.
You speak like people using Unity doesn’t matter, that the developers don’t care, I highly doubt that is the case. Cannonical is attempting to make Ubuntu a profitable product and if people don’t adopt unity that is bad for business. I want Ubuntu succeed so I am giving feedback.
Your solution is a half assed solution that doesn’t accomplish what I am asking for. F11 gives a different effect than hiding the panel. For example tabs and the address bar are not visible when using F11.
Your advice is on par with claiming that LibreOffice is a one-to-one replacement of MS Office. This sort of advice is dishonest, confusing and highly negatively impacts users who don’t know any better.
Remember that girl who had had to drop out of school because some shmuck at Dell said that Ubuntu was a one-to-one replacement for Windows? Yeah, that is how your type of misleading advice can hurt peoples lives. Why don’t you just tell her to develop her own ISP setup wizard.
I hope that regular users don’t cross your path because next thing you know they might waste significant portions of their lives and have difficulty reaching their goals because of your bad advice and high horse attitude.

http://twitter.com/Jebril Pedo Bear
Honestly…why don’t you just use a dock at this point?

Anonymous
Honestly, why don’t you go post on your favorite dock forum at this point?

http://profiles.google.com/ns.robert WebDevOnLinux .
Great Job ! I post a link on my blog (for the french)
Asaf Shahar
Its nice I really couldn’t get used to the right side panel. I thing the only missing feature here is the ability to group windows and switch from the unity panel.
Otherwise its a killer.
Anonymous
I tried placing launcher on the bottom. But I didn’t like it. so i did this. Anyway thanks for the tip. Didn’t know that we could change dash icons before.

Satchit Bhogle
Nice icon set. A variation of Faenza?
I think everyone will want to remove that ugly border around the icons. They should just remove it from Precise.

Anonymous
yes. launcher looks much better without that border around icons. and the icon theme is faience + faenza cupertino

Helcio Alves Barbosa Junior
Cool

dazthamaz
i dunno..
i really LOVE Unity-panel, but i don’t get along with the new launcher (especially with its top-left-corner reveal binding and that BFB lowered in the dock)..i would like to use just the panel, and maybe a fully costumizable 3rd part dock like AWN..

juzzlin
I there something preventing you from using AWN?

dazthamaz
i want to keep the unity-panel, so i’ve to keep the whole pack (launcher+panel) PLUS an awn istance..
even if the lancher is set to auto hide without reveal spots in scale and expo it comes out => awn+laucher=redundancybut if i disable unity plugin from ccsm in order to get rid of unity, the global menu still there on top..it’s just personal taste..

https://launchpad.net/~navneethc Navneeth
Make this option to change things around, especially the functional aspects, available in the default install and I’ll consider upgrading from Maverick.
juzzlin
I like it better on the left..
http://profiles.google.com/houdas.rodolphe Rodolphe Houdas
Looks better than the original one
Georgi Karavasilev
There are enough Ubuntu spinoffs already, no need for remastered Unity spinoff :P
http://www.facebook.com/hein.hanssen Hein Hanssen
Not completely my cup of tea this customization.
I would rather see some color and unity bar position options to be available in mainstream Ubuntu. Nevertheless I like Unity a lot, and the bar at the left side of the screen makes sense in combination with dash. It’s odd if you have dash bottom left, but the dash screen opens top left: too much ‘mousing around’.
Anonymous
as has already been pointed out, this type of customisation should be in Unity from the start, without any need for obscure installations from 3rd parties that may not be working in 6 months time or so.
http://twitter.com/ryanmacnish Ryan Macnish
Im currently finding it easier to write C code than to customize Unity. Unity is so lacking in customization options that completely changing the look of it is about akin to drawing a smiley face on a potato.
Anonymous
Here’s mine…
I just removed the icon borders from the launcher and put the close, min and max buttons from Ambiance on the dash.

http://twitter.com/zfangzhou zfz
I like your desktop paper, could you share it? Thanks in advance.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip
Why, because it has a dock at the bottom?

http://www.metallic-entertainment.com Florian Märkl
The Unity Launcher at the bottom looks a bit like the task bar in Windows 7. But that’s ok, because thw Windows-Bar is just copied from the Mac OS X Dock (like so many other stuff from Microsoft)
http://twitter.com/tartinesKiller Pijaczynski Damien
Just give me a “Segmentation fault” (y)
Anonymous
It makes me wonder why having the launcher on the bottom wasn’t default or why they didn’t offer the ability to move it. It is just a dock after all. And typically, docks are on the bottom. Even on Macs, the dock is on the bottom by default, but you’re given the option to move it where you want.
My complaint with the newest GUIs in Linux today is the lack of configurable properties regarding layouts. Such as having to modify source in Nautilus just to customize a toolbar, having to modify a plugin in Compiz just to move the launcher to the bottom, etc. These should be optional settings from the start. Linux is supposed to be customizable. I never had to modify source code like I have lately just to have the setup I want until this past year.
I still like Unity better than Gnome 3, call me crazy. Yet, it still seems like an unfinished product. There are things it should do that it doesn’t yet, like for example, single click the icon of an opened app in the launcher to minimize all instances of it back to the launcher. It would also be nice if Zeitgeist was implemented into the icons in the launcher so you can launch recently opened items in that application. Windows 7 did a great job with their taskbar in this regard. That functionality is also present in OS X. It seems like it’s a standard that’s missing from Ubuntu.
It’s these little things that lead me to believe that Unity is unfinished. I think the menu in unity is fine the way it is, but much more work should be done to the launcher, to fix bugs and add functionality to it that you would expect to be there in the first place.
Emad William
Is it possible to make unity always shown? (never hides)…
and when a window is maximized, it would still leave unity taking up the left part of the screen? that would be awesome as an option

Nicholos Tyler
Yes, you can. Pop open CCSM and go into the Unity Settings and set “Hide Launcher” to ‘never’

Edgar Cervantes Olivera
i loved Unity like look currently… “Windows7″ puagh!!!
http://twitter.com/bigbearhw harry wright
man that just looks like kubuntu :p
Daniel Delgado
How did you install the icon theme? I haven’t found it.
Anonymous
I could use an option to fix this old bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/823199
http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski
Looks like my computer which runs Debian with Gnome 2 and Docky.
Anonymous
Is this for real ? Tweaking/theming used to be so simple…
http://twitter.com/spearman001 James Spearman
I would like it to look like this: postimage.org/image/gbdxp8645 Just one panel at the top with menu/dockbarx/window title/sys tray/clock/menu buttonsStill using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
{I dont use docks}

http://twitter.com/spearman001 James Spearman
Any ideas / suggestions / how-tos???

John Grimmett
If you are also running KDE, and you switch between the Unity and Plasma profiles, be aware that the Unity Rotate plugin may break your KDE Plasma desktop. Here’s what it did to mine after I installed and selected it:
1) Top panel in KDE was placed across the middle of the display;
2) AWN was set to default flat theme and couldn’t be adjusted;
3) Window decorations, including location of buttons, were set to keramik and couldn’t be adjusted
To fix the KDE side of my installation, I logged into the Unity profile, unchecked the Unite Rotated plugin in CCSM, then rebooted and logged back into my Plasma profile. Everything then returned to normal

Zombifier
Unity Rotated in KDE is bound to causing problems, since Unity is designed for its own desktop and not KDE :P

John Grimmett
I’m not trying to use the plug-in IN KDE. I installed it and ran it fine within Unity. The problem I am describing happens when switching DE profiles. The plugin is affecting KDE if it is activated within Unity’s Compiz WM.
The upshot is, if you are using both DE’s on a switch-hitter basis, activating the plugin for its intended use within Unity may break your KDE Plasma desktop.
I’d like to hear if others can replicate this bug.

Zombifier
Oh, that’s what you mean.

John Grimmett
Here’s a bug report:
If you are also using KDE and switch between your KDE and Unity profiles, be aware that this plugin may break your KDE desktop if activated in Unity CCSM. Here’s what it did to mine:
1) On login, It placed my panel widget across the middle of the screen, rather than at the top, where I always have it. The panel could be moved back to its usual position.
2) It placed my desktop icons below that panel, which is to say, all on the bottom half of the screen. They remained there even after I moved the panel back to the top
3) It set my AWN to a default solid white background that could not be adjusted.
4) It disabled corner and edge-based workspace switching in KDE.
5) It changed all window decorations to Keramik. It would not accept adjustments.
Problems persisted after reboot.
To fix, I logged back into my Unity profile and unchecked the Unity Rotated plugin in CCSM. I then rebooted and logged into my KDE Plasma profile, and everything in KDE had returned to normal.
Zombifier
“Whilst that may have been the case in its early incarnations, it’s not entirely true of 11.10.”
Yes, but it’s still true. Canonical needs to put more effort in letting the users play around (besides ccsm)

Mladen Mijatov
Playing with CCSM is like playing twister in mine field. Anything you touch can crash compiz and some things don’t even work. :D

Dr. Qmal
Compiz animations do not work properly if you use this. IMO Unity should implement this option BY DEFAULT long time ago. Still, any way to fix Compiz animations?
http://twitter.com/spearman001 James Spearman
Sometime ago I’ve tried XFCE in Ubuntu 11.10 but the Gnome panel plug-in wouldn’t work – wasn’t in Software Centre/Package Manager.
Sticking with Ubuntu 10.04 until the Gnome Mate fork is properly available…

Zombifier
That plugin is not supported anymore, its dependencies are as old as the dinosaurs. Pretty sad.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DUSLU6ALVFE5FWK6DRZ4RNWKXY Naruto Man
hay i don’t have this directory /usr/share/unity/4-rotated
Anonymous
Does anyone else experience freezing when trying to enable the new Unity Compiz plugin? I would love to try this out, but I can’t due to the freezing. I have to hard reboot to get Ubuntu functional again.
Derrick Ruthless
To piggyback off of the Xubuntu recommendation…here is my Xubuntu 11.10 desktop with Bisigi Themes installed. It’s fast, easier to use and makes more sense than either Gnome Shell or Unity. It’s an actual desktop. :)

Zombifier
Wow, is that really XFCE?

Derrick Ruthless
Yep. Xubuntu 11.10 is awesome. All I did was install Faenza icons and Bisigi themes. Easy peasy. Check it out….Xubuntu is wildly underrated.

floopy1962
poeple…! KDE is 100 times beter then any other ghaphical system :D
Ravindu Gunathilake
I”m right handed guy for god sake just tel me how to flip desktop horizontally.My mouse in right side, It’s irritating I always have to move my hand to left side why the hell they don’t care ergonomics…..
Matthew Gardiner
There are certain postulates. Nothing is rounder than a sphere. There is gravity, and it works. 1+1=2.
Another is: nothing is more efficient than panels with cascading menus organized into categories, with the ability to add keyboard shortcuts for anything, and icon shortcuts and additional dock launchers to the desktop or panel.
Unity is coming together nicely, but it is still more work to do things, as is G3. My solution is installing Xubuntu, and adding the Lubuntu-desktop package to have the option of many desktops.
Anonymous
So how to turn off auto hide on the global menu (app menu)?
I want to know where to move the mouse to (left/right) before it touches the app menu.
Aitor Salgado
Unity is rubbish so far.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip
Works in precise, just change ‘precise’ for ‘oneiric’ in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/paullo612-unityshell-rotated-precise.list
anindo saha
unity looks awesome but its low on usability…plain and simple…just count the clicks you need to do simple things…but there isnt need to change much…reduce distance the pointer goes between two consecutive clicks…i m switching to xfce… To Unity makers “just because you make new things, don’t forget what worked before”
Satchit Bhogle
The latest update to Unity breaks some of these tweaks, but there’s no reason why repeating the steps shouldn’t work. I’ll just have a stab at it.
manuel marín
my only issue is that the app buttons are too far away, I liked before with awn on the top and everything was so close, I didn’t need to go down to switch app and then up to switch firefox tab or use the menu…
anyway unity is great, the dash is awesome, it just needs more options for customization, I hope it’ll come in the next versions
http://profiles.google.com/gregzeng Greg Zeng
Easier still. My netbooks can’t handle Compiz. So al my PCs have Lubuntu, with either AWN or Cairo. Far more flexible & powerful.
Brendan William
Can you repost the link for the Oxygen Icons for the Unity Dash, I’m getting tired of the ubuntu icon.

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