The perfect setup?

[siliconshaman]

I think we've all heard the gripes about Unity on Ubuntu. So I thought I'd share my configuration for those that want to try it out.

Ok, so here's the "recipe" for you to roll your own Unity-free Ubuntu.
1 start with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS distro.

2 install Cinnamon desktop like so, in the terminal type :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon

3 install MDM [mint] login manager instead of GDM [gnome] login manager.

again in the terminal type;

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mdm mint-mdm-themes

 

4. configure MDM login manager from Menu>Administration>Login Window. Set Cinnamon as default. [and whatever other tweaks&theme you want for your login screen].

You can go ahead and uninstall Unity, but leave gnome as cinnamon does use sections of it.. plus it's handy to have a backup. Cinnamon itself, unlike gnome, is fully customisable and works well with the new kernal. Compiz also works well with it.

Comments

[sally_maria]

I'm a Mint user, so I've been able to get Cinnamon as default, but I agree it's an excellent desktop. The best of the new tech but without throwing away the tried and tested paradigm.

Do you use Nemo, the Nautilus fork, as well?

[siliconshaman]

I discovered there was a problem with Mint, not recognising over 4Gb of DDR2 ram, hence the change. And yes, I use nemo, it's pretty ok.

[momijizukamori]

Ooh, they forked Nautilus? Do you happen to know if it was a Gnome2 Nautilus, or Gnome3? I swapped to Xubuntu so I've been using Thunar, but I miss some of the features of the old (circa 10.10, I skipped the 11.x cycle) Nautilus.

[siliconshaman]

It got forked between gnome2 & 3, so I think it's based upon gnome 2, but borrowing stuff from 3.

That said, it's basically the same as gnome 3 Nautilus in look&feel.

[momijizukamori]

Hmmm. Well, it might be worth a test install, anyway.

[siliconshaman]

That's what live discs and USB sticks are for..

[sally_maria]

The original post about the launch of Nemo is here (http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/?p=198). Basically, it's Nautilus 3.4 they are forking, but they've also been putting back a number of the features that had been removed.

How well it'd work with Xubuntu, I don't know, but I really like it.

[momijizukamori]

Xubuntu seems a little fussy about setting something other than Thunar as default, but I had Nautilus on it for a bit before I decided they'd stripped enough features I liked that it wasn't worth the hassle.