Ubuntu – Don’t some cursor themes show up in GNOME

I have experienced this bug as well. The only way I have been able to fix this is by deleting my ~/.config folder. A better option is to simply move your .config folder into another folder

mv -f ~/.config ~/.backupconfig

in case you are unfamiliar with terminal commands:

'mv' is the move command and '-f' forces the move

This will return Unity to normal and allow you to use it again, though you will have to set up your Launcher panel again. I have yet to find a way to use both together, unfortunately, because I really like Lubuntu and Unity. I hope problems will be resolved when LXQt is finished and Unity migrates to Qt. I think the problems arise mainly from openbox, and some sort of conflicting config there.

My compliments for the desire to try out alternatives, and not stick to 'out of the box' -- that's the FOSS attitude!

Unless you have concurrent users running different desktops at the same time, the other desktop environments will not slow down the system. They are mainly sitting statically on the disk.

In fact, you are likely to find out that some lightweight desktop environments will provide a snappier user experience overall, notably on lower end machines. If you particularly like one, you could even consider replacing the ubuntu-desktop package by the desktop environment of your choice.

If you want blazingly fast (and completely austere), try running only X with a window manager. Ah, the good old days ...