Ubuntu 14.04: don't touch those buttons!

by
in linux on (#3K1)
Ubuntu keeps working on optimizations of its controversial UI, and they haven't all been equally liked. This one, too, is sure to cause some controversy: They've removed the ability to choose whether the buttons go on the left or right side of a window .

That's not necessarily an option that everyone cares about, but those who do, care strongly about the now-removed feature. From the AskUbuntu forum:
It seems that Canonical went the totalitarian way and ordered that users should not be allowed to change the buttons position (you can find more technical details of this change on the bottom of this post).
As for now the only way to have windows buttons on the right side in 14.04 is to switch from Unity to the Gnome Flashback session (what I personally recommend). More details on how to do that are presented below.
That is, the days of being able to make this personalization to your config, once easily handled either via the gconf-editor command line tool, or the equally comfortable command: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ":minimize,maximize,close" have drawn to a close. Hope you like Ubuntu's choices, everyone: they're the only choices you get!

Re: stayed with ubuntu and unity (Score: 4, Insightful)

by fnj@pipedot.org on 2014-05-07 17:27 (#1F8)

I remain puzzled why Canonical seems to care to fix UI elements to particular places in the first place? I am not sure what they gain from this?
The motivation is simple zealotry on the part of their UI priesthood. They know what is the Only True Way in every detail, and by god, that is all you will get. Some might theink there must be a rational motivation: that rigidity and removal of customizability reduces the code complexity and footprint. This is a false attribution. Do not underestimate the religious fervor of deside wonks with the bit in their teeth.
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