I installed Unity window manager and love it, except that it is always crashing, When I say crashing, I mean that it is unrecoverable, I can't kill anything even from TTY.
It occurs usually once a day, but twice in the last hour. Here is my question in the Ubuntu forum about the proble. I'm on 64bit Ubuntu with ATI drivers and old software. Have sufficient RAM.
Some crashes tend to be specific application related (mainly Nautilus, Rhythmbox or Firefox), but some are related to (what I think is) Unity or compiz or maybe my ATI driver.
I would like a super-stable desktop environment to use when I can't afford to have crashes. What are some alternative window managers there? Are any preloaded? I see that there are various gnome window managers. Which would be the most stable.
How do I download alternate window managers, and how do I change them to be the default?
How do I turn compiz OFF, and is that recommended?
Finally, is it fair to assume that these kind of Unity(and apps) related errors are likely to be fixed fairly soon (because 12.04 is for long term support).
What timeframe is reasonable to expect more desktop stability on 12.04?
Thanks.
Once again, I love Ubuntu 12.04/unity when it works. I just want to have a realistic expectation about when it will be more stable and whether downgrading will help.
Best Answer
There is a lot of window managers available. Below are some of them, and how to install them.
Gnome
KDE
Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the commands below.
XFCE
Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the commands below.
LXDE
or
Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the commands below.
As far as turning Compiz off. The easiest way is to use a session that does exactly what you want.
You will be in a classic GNOME session without Compiz. Subsequent logins will use this session as default.
Another way to turn off compiz with just one click you need to install an application called compiz-switch. Download compiz-switch
With compiz-switch you can turn off and turn on the compiz easily with just one click.
For a detailed list of windows managers that explains everyone, give technical detail, and then a comparisson between all of them, then Check this site out!
On a personal note, I have tried most of these managers, and I'm very happy with LXDE. I have been using it since I made the switch to Ubuntu.
Source: https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/