Tags: ubuntu

Cannonical has revealed new theme-designs for Ubuntu 10.04. The designers have been trying to get away from the "Ubuntu Brown" that featured heavily before. They are now going the opposite way with Ubuntu Lightware — see the interesting designs on the Ubuntu Wiki. One interesting aspect is that they are showing the Window Controls (Maximize, Minimze and Close) in the top left of the Window area. (Usually they in the top-right).

Comparison of the Dark and Light Themes. Credit : Cannonical

Slightly predictably this has caused some geek-rage. But it looks like this tea-cup storm may have been resolved since the buttons are back on the right.

Credit : OMGLinux / Dustin Kirkland

Personally I prefer the window controls in the top-left since it means less mouse-ing around on screen. (At work I'm lucky to blessed with more than 19 inches.) It also means that if I use my Mac laptop there isn't much difference either. And the good thing about Ubuntu (and Linux in general) is that things like this are easily changed.

To change the position of your Window Control button-y things, follow this guide from my post about Mac-fying Ubuntu :

Switch Window Controls to the Right

Start the Gconf editor with:

gconf-editor

On the left side, click app -> metaCity -> General

Now take a look at the right side. Find the one with the name "button layout", double-click on it and a new window will pop up. Enter  "close,maximize,minimize:menu" and click ok. (You can change the layout to whatever you fancy. Just make sure you have all the controls)  Then open some windows somewhere to test it, and the Control layout should have changed. No more having Cannonical's designers telling you where to your buttons will be...!

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