Moving the Window Control Buttons Back to the Right Side in Ubuntu 10.04

One of the most annoying new features to some people in Ubuntu 10.04 is the decision to switch the default window control button layout to be on the left side of the window. After installing it on my girlfriends laptop yesterday (I'll also mention that she is loving Ubuntu), it was the first change I had to make at her request.

How-To Geek already has an excellent guide on how to make this change here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13535/move-window-buttons-back-to-the-right-in-ubuntu-10.04/

I will give you a quick rundown on how to do it.

Use Alt+F2 to bring up the Run Application window. Type gconf-editor into the field and press Run. This will bring up the Configuration Editor window. Navigate to apps>metacity>general in the left pane. In the right pane, find the button_layout key and double click it to open a window which allows you to edit its value. Change the value to "menu:maximize,minimize,close" (minus the quotes) and click OK. The change should occur immediately.

First Three Weeks with 10.04

I've been running 10.04 as the primary OS on my Samsung NC10 netbook for three weeks and so far have had no issues.  Improvements and changes are subtle for the most part.  Every six months when I move to a newer Ubuntu I am reminded that I need to understand more about the brass tacks of the OS in order to really understand where the improvements are being made.

The boot time and shutdown times are both improved, although improvements in those categories are becoming harder to recognize since 9.10 was fast as well.  10.04 is faster but by a matter of only a few seconds.  I guess keeping up with those stats is a matter of following the increments until it is instant on both actions.  Sooner than later you'll push your power button and be up and running instantly and you'll shut down just as quickly.  Improvements in hardware (like SSD's) and software (like removing a redundant HAL) categories at the same time will speed the course to instantaneous start and shut-down.  Then we'll all have a few more seconds in our life to...?

Changes to Gnome and the GUI are noticeable as well, especially the fact that you are faced with the color purple now instead of earth tones.  With Linux based desktop operating systems though there is so much customization available that really you can only talk about differences in the default settings.   And when you like to start adjusting those immediately defaults don't last long.  Not long ago I learned how to change the splash screen so I'm going to get to work on that now with the Lynx.

Are you afraid of Linux? Try Wubi!

If you have heard a lot about Linux and think that you must be a computer scientist to use it, fear no more. Try using Wubi to install an Ubuntu partition so that you can easily have Windows and Ubuntu on one machine. Visit http://wubi-installer.org/ and follow the few simple instructions and you'll be using Linux in no time.

Let us know your experiences in the comment section below. Have fun.

Mounting NTFS Partitions in Ubuntu

Information and quoted text taken from: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions

So, you have a multiple boot setup with one partition for Windows and one for Ubuntu. Now, lets say you want to see the files from your Windows NTFS partiton in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

This will install a nifty little system tool that will allow you to enable or disable NTFS capabilities within Ubuntu. You can find it under Applications->System Tools

"If you have at least one internal NTFS partition, it will allow you to check both boxes, otherwise you can only check the box for external devices.

If your NTFS partition(s) are not yet configured, it will ask you to choose a name that will be used as the mount point (please no spaces). Then enable write support for internal and/or external devices."

It should add the newly mounted filesystem to your desktop and "Places"

Install KDE in Ubuntu/Turn Ubuntu into Kubuntu

I wanted to try out KDE after Todd told me about it. I ended up not liking it very much due to its fairly steep learning curve and widget based system but I decided to post it here in case anyone would like to try it out.

It is actually quite simple to install and you should be ready to start using it within a matter of minutes.

Open up a terminal and input:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Thats it!

After it finishes installing, log out, select your name from the log-in screen and change the session from Gnome to KDE in the session selector on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.


NOTE:
The install will change your initial splash screen to a Kubuntu one... if you want it to go back to how you had it before...

sudo update-alternatives --config usplash-artwork.so

This should prompt you to select which splash screen you wish to use.
Restart and see if you still have the Kubuntu initial splash screen.
If it is still Kubuntu:

update-initramfs -v -c -k all

This command forces the splash screen to update in the initrd image. Reboot again and you should see whatever splash screen you selected before.