Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
I, like many fellow ex-Ubuntu fans, moved over to Linux Mint to get as far away from the Unity desktop as possible. Although I was initially impressed with Mint, my concern has been that there are just too many desktop variations. Seeing that Mint is based on Ubuntu anyway, I decided to take another look at this distro with the release of 12.04 LTS. However, I had no intention of settling on Unity, so quickly researched ways in which to install Gnome 3 and tweak it to look and work like the much loved Gnome 2. I won't take any credit for the workarounds I found and managed to cobble together to achieve my goal. Seeing that it worked for me, I just wanted to share it with everyone else. So, here goes:
After installing Ubuntu 12.04, boot your computer and install Gnome 3. Copy and paste the following lines for the latest release from the Gnome team into a terminal (type Ctrl-Alt T to open a terminal window):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell
Reboot your computer, and when you are prompted with your login screen, click on the little Ubuntu icon next to your login name and choose Gnome Classic.
Moving The Windows Buttons (maximize, minimize and close) back to the right: Open up a terminal again and copy in the following:
gconftool -s /apps/metacity/general/button_layout -t string menu:minimize,maximize,close
You may want to also consider installing the Gnome Tweak Tool which will give you greater control over your shell extensions and several other Gnome settings. You can install this tool directly from the Ubuntu Software Repository, or by copy-pasting the following line into a terminal:
sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
You can now find this tweak tool by searching for “Advanced Settings” in your applications or in System Tools menu.
If you want to change themes, get rid of the overlay scrollbars, and make many more tweaks, you can download and install this handy tool as well: http://ubuntu-tweak.com. Once installed, you can find Ubuntu Tweak under the Ubuntu System Settings menu.
Finally, and this is only my personal preference, you can remove the top panel by pressing alt + right-click and selecting “Remove Panel”. You can then add the main/start menu, notification area, indicator applet, etc, to the bottom panel by pressing alt + right-click and selecting “Add to Panel”. I am very happy with the end result, and, so far, it seems to be very stable.