Switch between Classic and new workspace windows (how do I)?

Question

How do I switch back to Classic view from updated view? Installed with Classic view. It ran, but when updated it switched windows view. I cannot drag any apps to workspace and cannot install bars at top or bottom of workspace for apps.

I have no idea what you're trying to ask. Please fix up your question or use translate.google.com if English is not your native language. Thanks! — , Jul 23 '11 at 02:57

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 23 '11 at 03:50

1

You are probably trying to ask about the way to move away from unity , back to classic gnome desktop.

If that is what you want to ask, you should log out from your user (from the "power" button at the top right of the screen) and log back in, after choosing "classic desktop" instead of "ubuntu".

answered Jul 23 '11 at 03:50

Chriskin

3,242

Good catch. I think that you deciphered it :). – Jul 24 '11 at 00:12
Did i? Because even though i'm pretty sure that is the way to go back to the classic gnome desktop, he didn't mark the answer as solved. Meaning that he might be asking something different and i just translated the gibberish to a similar, rather popular, question.
Anyway, let's just hope it helped :D
– Chriskin Jul 24 '11 at 00:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 10 '15 at 17:50

If you just want a bottom panel like in the old versions, but still have the nice things from Unity, then you can do the following:

Open a terminal. (In Unity, press super/winkey and type "terminal").
Run
```
metacity --replace &
gnome-panel &
```
You now have the old panels back. Delete the upper one and configure the lower one to suit your needs. To delete the panel use the Alt-Super keys while mouse over the applications panel.
Configure gnome-panel to start automatically when you log in. You can do that in the Startup applications settings application by typing "gnome-session-properties".

Let me explain this: You run metacity --replace because that will temporarily deactivate Unity, including the top panel. By using & at the end of the command, you'll place it into the background so you can run other commands. You then run gnome-panel to get the old panels back, and you delete the upper panel because it'll conflict with the panel from Unity once you log back in. By adding gnome-panel to startup applications, the next time you log in, you'll have the Unity panel at the top, and the gnome-panel at the bottom. The best from both worlds, some might say, even though I won't be one of them. :)

Log out and back in. You will now have both a bottom panel like you're used to from older versions of Ubuntu, and all the new stuff, like the launcher on the left, the Dash, etc.

Switch between Classic and new workspace windows (how do I)?

2 Answers2