[Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

[Gordon Scott]

Hi Guys,

I'm trying Unity in an attempt to get to work sensibly with it, but at 
present it's driving me mad.


Hopefully someone can please help me deal with some of the worst 
irritations before I throw the whole thing out. I've been web searching, 
but can't yet find answer to any of this.


How can I turn off transparency on the Dash?
I hate transparency at the best of times, but the Dash
seems particularly hard to read. Much of the time it's
hard to tell what's on the Dash and what's on the window behind it.

Dash searches not really working?
One of the features I thought might be OK is the search box on the
Dash, but so often it just doesn't come up with anything useful,
sometimes even when I know it's there!
As an example, I _know_ wget is on this machine, but Dash doesn't
show it even if I type "wget". If there some feature or option I need
to get it to see stuff that exists?  wg in a terminal works OK.

How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
 In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
 with top-level headings like "Graphics", "Programming" and so on.
 Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure there 
must

 be a way .. dedicated lens or something?

How to tidy the launcher?
I've minimized the of icons on the launcher so I can see a fair
percentage of them, but I'd like to remove most of the clutter.
It's too full even before I open any applications.
That's compounded somewhat, also, by the tooltip hovers vanishing
after scanning just a couple of icons, and at present many icons 
are unfamiliar.


This next one's no so much irritant as vital

Can I set up so that I can type in a background window whilst watching
  the results in a foreground window?
I use that a a lot for testing, but can't presently see any way 
that it's possible

with Unity.

Thanks,
 Gordon.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

[Alan Pope]

On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:

How can I turn off transparency on the Dash?
 I hate transparency at the best of times, but the Dash
 seems particularly hard to read. Much of the time it's
 hard to tell what's on the Dash and what's on the window behind it.


Install Compiz Config Settings Manager. Run it. Find the Unity plugin -> 
Experimental -> Dash Blur -> None.



Dash searches not really working?
 One of the features I thought might be OK is the search box on the
 Dash, but so often it just doesn't come up with anything useful,
 sometimes even when I know it's there!
 As an example, I _know_ wget is on this machine, but Dash doesn't
 show it even if I type "wget". If there some feature or option I need
 to get it to see stuff that exists?  wg in a terminal works OK.



For commands that don't have a desktop file (i.e. command line stuff) 
use ALT+F2, not the Dash.



How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
  In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
  with top-level headings like "Graphics", "Programming" and so on.
  Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure there
must
  be a way .. dedicated lens or something?



Nope. There have been suggested designs, but nothing implemented.


How to tidy the launcher?
 I've minimized the of icons on the launcher so I can see a fair
 percentage of them, but I'd like to remove most of the clutter.
 It's too full even before I open any applications.
 That's compounded somewhat, also, by the tooltip hovers vanishing
 after scanning just a couple of icons, and at present many icons
are unfamiliar.



Right click, unlock from launcher.


Can I set up so that I can type in a background window whilst watching
   the results in a foreground window?
 I use that a a lot for testing, but can't presently see any way
that it's possible
 with Unity.



"Focus follows mouse" as it's called.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/64605/how-do-i-set-focus-follows-mouse

Cheers,
--
Alan Pope
Engineering Manager

Canonical - Product Strategy
+44 (0) 7973 620 164
alan.p...@canonical.com
http://ubuntu.com/

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

[Jack Knight]

On 27 September 2012 19:27, Gordon Scott  wrote:

> Hi Guys,
>
> I'm trying Unity in an attempt to get to work sensibly with it, but at
> present it's driving me mad.
>
> Hopefully someone can please help me deal with some of the worst
> irritations before I throw the whole thing out. I've been web searching,
> but can't yet find answer to any of this.
>
> How can I turn off transparency on the Dash?
> I hate transparency at the best of times, but the Dash
> seems particularly hard to read. Much of the time it's
> hard to tell what's on the Dash and what's on the window behind it.
>
> Dash searches not really working?
> One of the features I thought might be OK is the search box on the
> Dash, but so often it just doesn't come up with anything useful,
> sometimes even when I know it's there!
> As an example, I _know_ wget is on this machine, but Dash doesn't
> show it even if I type "wget". If there some feature or option I need
> to get it to see stuff that exists?  wg in a terminal works OK.
>
> How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
>  In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
>  with top-level headings like "Graphics", "Programming" and so on.
>  Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure there
> must
>  be a way .. dedicated lens or something?
>
> How to tidy the launcher?
> I've minimized the of icons on the launcher so I can see a fair
> percentage of them, but I'd like to remove most of the clutter.
> It's too full even before I open any applications.
> That's compounded somewhat, also, by the tooltip hovers vanishing
> after scanning just a couple of icons, and at present many icons are
> unfamiliar.
>
> This next one's no so much irritant as vital
>
> Can I set up so that I can type in a background window whilst watching
>   the results in a foreground window?
> I use that a a lot for testing, but can't presently see any way that
> it's possible
> with Unity.
>
> Thanks,
>  Gordon.
>
> --
> Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk
> Web Interface: 
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/**mailman/listinfo/hampshire
> LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk
> --**--**--
>


I'm not going to try to address each of these in turn, though I could, but
there are some great resources out there already which will tell you.

What I will say is, stick with it for a week, a bit like learning OSX after
having had Windows inflicted on you for several years. Once you do get used
to it, you start wondering why you did things any other way.

I was initially as sceptical about Unity as I was about the Olympics, and
can happily report I was wrong about both. I now love hitting one super
key, typing (usually) the first or second letter of what I am looking for
and that being it, rather than traversing endless cascading menus. I tried
(and liked) Mate, Cinnnamon, various KDE versions and various other
efforts. After several months of experimentation in my work environment (I
have an enlightened employer who permits me to use whatever OS I like as
long as I can conform to security constraints and spot checks) I have
returned to, and am loving Ubuntu again, and now with Unity - which I
really did not think would eve be the case.

At work, I now run 3 x 23" monitors on a HP Z400 workstation with 8 cores,
16Gb Ram and a single, cheapo Sapphire radeon card. I struggled to find an
Nvidia solution which would provide the same triple display at any kind of
reasonable cost, and have now freed myself from the xinerama/compiz lockout
loop.

As it happens, after I discovered some love for Unity, popey posted this:

http://youtu.be/xA9EHaNc2VI

Which for me added the icing on the cake. Enjoy.

/jfk



-- 

Jack Knight
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

[Gordon Scott]

Hi Alan,

Well that helps a bit, thanks, though I'm still stuck on a number of these.


On 27/09/12 19:41, Alan Pope wrote:

On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:

How can I turn off transparency on the Dash?
 I hate transparency at the best of times, but the Dash
 seems particularly hard to read. Much of the time it's
 hard to tell what's on the Dash and what's on the window behind it.


Install Compiz Config Settings Manager. Run it. Find the Unity plugin 
-> Experimental -> Dash Blur -> None.


I'd found that, but unfortunately it does not turn off the transparency, 
it only turns off the blurring of the transparency. If anything that 
makes the situation worse, as then you can read one window through the 
other, which is pretty hopeless.



Dash searches not really working?
 One of the features I thought might be OK is the search box on the
 Dash, but so often it just doesn't come up with anything useful,
 sometimes even when I know it's there!
 As an example, I _know_ wget is on this machine, but Dash doesn't
 show it even if I type "wget". If there some feature or option I 
need
 to get it to see stuff that exists?  wg in a terminal works 
OK.




For commands that don't have a desktop file (i.e. command line stuff) 
use ALT+F2, not the Dash.


Oh, OK, bad example.

I thought it searched for 'function related' things. It seems to with 
'player', as it finds a number of applications that are players, e.g., 
Timidity++.


It found nothing for 'transparency', nothing for 'glass', nothing for 
'jpeg' and nothing for a number of other things for which I searched.   
What are the rules by which it works?


I guess one has to use a mix of Dash, apropos and a web search. Ho Hum.


How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
  In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
  with top-level headings like "Graphics", "Programming" and so on.
  Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure there
must
  be a way .. dedicated lens or something?



Nope. There have been suggested designs, but nothing implemented.

So I guess I write a bunch of scripts and stick them in a folder 
hierarchy somewhere? :-/



How to tidy the launcher?
 I've minimized the of icons on the launcher so I can see a fair
 percentage of them, but I'd like to remove most of the clutter.
 It's too full even before I open any applications.
 That's compounded somewhat, also, by the tooltip hovers vanishing
 after scanning just a couple of icons, and at present many icons
are unfamiliar.



Right click, unlock from launcher.


Erm, yes, or I've heard, drag to the waste bin.  That makes them 
disappear, which is indeed tidier. I'd rather hoped to manage them more 
than that, but I guess your answer to the question before also answers 
this one.



Can I set up so that I can type in a background window whilst watching
   the results in a foreground window?
 I use that a a lot for testing, but can't presently see any way
that it's possible
 with Unity.



"Focus follows mouse" as it's called.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/64605/how-do-i-set-focus-follows-mouse


OK, that's good.  It's tricky getting to the menus with a mouse, but 
alt-keys seem work, so hopefully I can get there that way for most 
stuff.  I also turned off auto_raise, which otherwise brings the window 
forward after a delay.


Hm, I wonder does that always work? I have a number of tools with no 
declared shortcuts.


Ah .. the cursor goes to the pull-down. That looks promising. I haven't 
yet properly investigated how one gets back, but at the moment that also 
looks sane. Good. I was quite concerned about that.



   Gordon.

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