Ubuntu – gnome classic transparent panel

12.04gnome-classictransparency

Nearly 2013 and it's forced me to find new os (my current – 10.04 lts).
Testing 12.04. Unfortunately, unity is overly simple. Unity Launcher is not customizable.
I can not even move launcher to bottom.
Have tried kde, gnome-shell, unity, xfce. Stop on gnome fallback.
It's not the same as gnome 2, but similar.
Only thing i want – gnome-panel with alpha transparency and transparent(!) window list.
Tried to edit gnome-panel.css in usr/share/themes/*any_theme*/gtk-3.0/apps/ but no result.
Compiz transparency is ugly.
Found perfect theme on deviantart, but for gnome shell.
It is the last straw. If i can't customize Ubuntu as i want, I'm going to Debian 🙂
Can somebody help me with it?

Sorry for my english.

P.S. Or it can be custom background image. But there is the same issue – widgets and window list still use theme backgrounds.

bug

Best Answer

I'm another one who liked what I had in 10.04 and was unhappy at the change. I just wanted my old setup back! Today, I have it almost the same by doing:

install gnome-session-fallback. Its probably better to do this on a clean install.
restart and chose gnome classic before logging in.
press alt AND the windows buttons and then right click on a panel. (Don't ask my why it has to be so dang specific, it makes no sense actually) This will open the dialog.
Now, you can re-size, make transparent, use a picture, anything pretty much.

I like my panels both on top and colored but fairly transparent. That is easier on the eyes.

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It sounds very much like you're describing Xfce. I think it's a perfect successor for Gnome 2, because in many regards, it's very similar, except it works the way it's intended to. It has panels, very similar to the panels in Gnome 2 and they even support most Gnome Panel applets and Indicators. Xfce4-panel also allows you to have different panels on different screens, which is very nice. Xfce is also a little less demanding of the computer than Gnome 2 was.

LXDE is also very nice. It's quite a bit faster than Xfce, but also a little simpler. I'd say it's something similar to the plain UI in Windows. The LXpanel does not support Gnome Panel applets, but it does support indicators, though I think you'll have to install a plugin for it.

LXDE and Xfce are both complete desktop environments, but you can install only their panels separately if you wish: they're called lxpanel and xfce4-panel, respectively, and you can run them with Unity if you wish.

Ubuntu – How to hide the mouse cursor

Try unclutter.

The purpose of this program is to hide the pointer after the mouse has not moved for a while. Using it, you can make the pointer appear only when the user touches the screen, and disappear right after it. Maybe this was not exactly what you were aiming for, but it is much easier than your alternative.

To use it, first install it:

sudo apt-get install unclutter

then run it:

unclutter -idle 0.01 -root

The number in the above command is the number of seconds before the pointer disappears (in this case, 1/100 seconds).

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