How to move minimize, maximize, close in Ubuntu 11.04

[Dowd11]

Hey all,
Being a longtime PC user that just installed my first Linux Distro, I was wondering how to move to min, max close icon to the right top corner of what im working on, similar to how Windows is setup. Im running an out of the box 11.04 Ubuntu with nothing else installed yet. Thanks for the help

P.S. Is there any good card games I can download for it? I love burning time on Blackjack and Texas Hold 'em in class and cant find any card games other then Solitaire
(Didn't think it was a legitimate post starter)

 

[Jayce]

Hit ALT + F2 and type "gconf-editor". Press enter.

Once inside, navigate to: Apps - Metacity - General. Double click on button layout.

For buttons on the left:
close,minimize,maximize:

For buttons on the right:
:maximize,minimize,close

You may have to log out and back in for the changes to take place.

 

[Jayce]

Hit ALT + F2 and type "gconf-editor". Press enter.

Once inside, navigate to: Apps - Metacity - General. Double click on button layout.

For buttons on the left:
close,minimize,maximize:

For buttons on the right:
:maximize,minimize,close

You may have to log out and back in for the changes to take place.

EDIT - I see that Windows 7's order of buttons is different from Linux, as the min/max are switched. You may want to use:

:minimize,maximize,close

You should be able to tell by the various lines above which way is which. There are no spaces, everything is separated by a comma, and the arrangement as well as the placement of the colon dictates where they are placed and in what order. So feel free to customize in any way you like. I personally am hooked on my min/max/close being on the left, so I actually alter other distros that still have it on the right to match the left. That's just my cup of tea at least. Good luck!

 

[Dowd11]

Alright that worked great, until I maximized the window I was in, after I did that it reverted with the power,battery,wifi and such icons on far right and max,min,close on left next to the Ubuntu search logo. I would like the min,max,close in the top far right of the screen so I can push the mouse to the corner with out looking and click to close the window I'm in. Any help on this?

 

[Jayce]

Alright that worked great, until I maximized the window I was in, after I did that it reverted with the power,battery,wifi and such icons on far right and max,min,close on left next to the Ubuntu search logo. I would like the min,max,close in the top far right of the screen so I can push the mouse to the corner with out looking and click to close the window I'm in. Any help on this?

Can you post a screenshot if you can duplicate this? I'm lost on how you say it "reverted" the power, battery, and wifi to the far right. Those icons were always on the far right...

 

[Dowd11]

Sorry for the confusion.
When I have the window un-maximized in the way that I can drag around the screen the min,max,close buttons are on the top right, and the power buttons are on the far top right corner.
When i maximize the min,max,close button go onto the task bar? at the top of the screen, next to the Ubuntu search button and the power WiFi icons remain in the top right corner. I'm looking for a way for min,max,close to be in top right corner.
(took screenshot but couldn't find how to post I can email them if you like.

 

[Jayce]

If you have a screenshot, just post it on imageshack.com and link me to it. You don't need an account to upload there, so it should be convenient.

I'm still having a little difficulty following you, as Ubuntu 11.04 uses a global menu system. I think that may be what's clashing, but a picture would really be worth a thousand words here.

 

[Dowd11]

ImageShack Album - 2 images

The picture with 2 windows side by side is before I maximized and and as you can see min,max,close are perfect. The second picture has one window maximized and the min,max,close have been moved to the top of the screen to the left.

 

[Jayce]

I'm not sure you'll be able to work around that with your current setup.

You see, with Ubuntu 11.04, they went with their own variant of the global menu. Some love it, some hate it. I personally don't prefer it. The global menu as of now I don't know how to edit. That's why your min/max/close buttons go to the top left because that is their home location in the global menu. If there is a way to edit that, I personally don't know it. The default interface is known as Unity, and Unity is in its infancy stage now so customization of it is extremely limited. Future releases may give you the ability to customize it the way you like, but right now I'm not sure it's possible with that *exact* setup.

If you run another desktop environment, such as Gnome 3.0 "Shell" or XFCE, you will have full capability in making the changes you want. In fact, in XFCE (which resembles Gnome 2.X where you had a panel at the top and a panel at the bottom) you can change it right within their window manager control panel.

I'm not sure what your experience is with Linux, but something you'll have to get used to is the vast amount of choice you have. No other platform has the amount of choices we Linux users do. If you don't like Ubuntu Unity, you can choose IceWM, Gnome Shell, XFCE, LXDE, KDE, OpenBox, and the list goes on and on... So while you may still be on Ubuntu, you have a totally different interface running on the fore-front depending upon which desktop environment you install. So basically, what you are trying to do *currently* (I say currently because it may change in the future) isn't possible with Ubuntu Unity, other desktop environments built on top of Ubuntu may. Personally, XFCE may be the safest route. Gnome 3.0 "Shell" is done via PPA and really changes a lot of system variables since Ubuntu 11.04 is still Gnome 2.X based. 11.10 will bring native 3.0 support so it should be a lot less painless. This is all assuming you are sticking with Ubuntu. After all, Fedora 15 has native Gnome 3.0 Shell support right now, and it works well. But Fedora isn't exactly my cup of tea.

Sorry I couldn't give you an exact answer on your question, but there are choices and alternatives if you want to venture out that way. Let me just iterate a very important step prior to doing massive system changes. Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup.

If you have any further questions, by all means.

 

[Dowd11]

Alright well that all made since is there a desktop you absolutely recommend?