I don’t know what it is about me an Linux, but we must be mortal enemies.
A while back I installed Ubuntu 10.10 and sure enough it worked! Yeah. I had compiz and wiggly windows and everything. It found all my hardware.
So I naturally went back to Windows where I do my work and months passed till today. I decided to jump back into Ubuntu. When I did it reminded me that a new version was out and I should upgrade. So I did.
After the upgrade to 11.whatever I noticed I lost all my wiggly windows. Ubuntu took a working system and downgraded it. Pooh.
So I added back in compiz and activated the 3D cube. I turned on some other things as well. Then I accidentally dragged a printer icon onto the desktop. I did not want it so I dragged it to the trashcan. But then printer would not go in the trashcan and I got black ugly redraw issues. It looked like the dock in Ubuntu 11.0 crashed.
So I restarted and sure enough, my entire desktop is gone. All I have is a background image and a right-click menu. What is it with Ubuntu and me? I feel like Homer Simpson and nuclear meltdowns. It seems like it only takes about 10 minutes for me to render the OS completely unusable. I just don’t get it:eek:
So I manage to do a file search from the New Folder window and I found firefox and was able to do a search. It seems I am not alone. Compiz can render your desktop completely non-working.
One suggestion was to run this command and restart.
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset apps/compiz
I did run the command and no error was reported. No success either. The terminal just ate the command. So I restarted. No luck I still have a desktop with no way to control it.
There are so many similar stories. I don’t understand the update policies of Ubuntu, the half year cycle seems to be some kind of sales trick. What can ordinary users do? Choose Windows? Personally I use only the LTS versions of Ubuntu. LTS (Long Term Support) has a major update only every 2½ years, so you live safely quite a bit longer.
It seems the Ubuntu developers don’t listen to users at all.
Hmm… reminds me of a guy I knew who installed Win95. First thing he did was dragged “My Computer” into the recycle bin and trashed his system. No idea why…
Ubuntu studio works fine for me, (and at my current work I’m using CentOS, so I’m completely MS free!)
Sorry I can’t help, but suggest that maybe you try studio or linux mint.
… and don’t bother with the wobbly windows.
(or do what MichaelW suggests; that’ll be quicker and will probably work just as well)
I’m not a fan of the new Unity desktop in Ubuntu either.
I agree that your easiest option is to change to Ubuntu Classic on startup.
Compiz effects also seem to give me problems with certain apps so I never use them.