Ubuntu Unity - Add the Classic Gnome Menu

Q. I'm willing to give Unity a try, however, I'd like to have some features back. One of them is the classic gnome menu. How do I get it back?

A. At the time of this writing it could be done as following:

1. Open a terminal window and run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install classicmenu-indicator

4. Press Alt+F2 and enter classicmenu-indicator as the command to run.

And there you have it:

classic_gnome_menu

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 14:38

Linux

Comments (6)

Dead thread comes to life

6 Thursday, 28 February 2013 11:40

Helpful but clueless

Sorry I didn't even notice the dates. Anyway I still hope it helps.

Use awn or cairo dock applets

5 Thursday, 28 February 2013 11:38

Helpful

Unity is nice if you know what you are looking for. It is kind of nice when you kind of know what you are looking for. It really sucks if you don't know what you are looking for or sort of don't know what you should be looking for. I describe it that way on purpose.

I like a classic menu because I can use the menu to investigate the computer to see what I have that I don't even know about. Hmm what is this... it is under internet. It must be something to do with the internet. Let me try it. Oh what is that, it is under system settings. Well I don't want to mess with my system settings right now so I won't look now, maybe later. This is how I learned what was available in linux! Unity totally kills that and the loss is huge. I wish Ubuntu would figure this out and make sure they include a menu option; it is not like a hybrid would kill them. Just include a menu button with hierarchical results like we have always had! This is a no-brainer. So sad.

Here is what I did to fix my life: I added a dock applet. You can try something called "cairo-dock" or "awn" which is "avant window navigator". Both add something (most place on the bottom) like the MacOS doc and it is a combination of a task bar and a menu. It works great and resolves my usability problems. I use unity now when it helps me and I use the dock when it helps me more than unity would. With both I have maximum productivity. I only wish the Ubuntu devs would wise up and add a few minor functions and tweaks to unity so it would make people happy again. Creating friction is so useless when it would be so easy to make it better. Sigh...

But really, I am happy with my solution so I guess for me it doesn't matter as much anymore. I just wish it was out-of -box ready that is all. At least Ubuntu is doing better than some well known major OS vendors at making software that makes sense. It could be worse!!

Good luck.

Thanks!

4 Monday, 18 July 2011 09:29

Worked - thank you!

unity

3 Wednesday, 13 July 2011 14:23

mark

Brilliant indicator addon. I think they went too far with unity to make it appeal to newbies. I can never find anything I am looking for. I am used to the menu and can find things much faster. Thanks.

Unity

2 Tuesday, 12 July 2011 06:59

Annoyed

I think overall its a bad move. UI is a tool that I am used to. Why would I want to add features that should have been there in the first place?

Unity is counter-intuitive at best. How do you open 2 of the same application on that left side menu? (eg. xterm window) It will only let you open one!!

Anyway, thanks for this. Installed the menu so I could start applications properly. Now all I need is the old task bar back.

unity

1 Saturday, 09 July 2011 21:06

JoeyJoeJoe

I guess Unity is alright. You really have to want to use it. I don't find it very intuitive.

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