Hate Ubuntu’s Unity? Use Ubuntu Classic

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, only to immediately decide that I hated the new Unity windowing system. DON’T PANIC.

You can still use your wonderful Gnome-ness in Ubuntu with little hassle. When logging in, click on your user, and down in at the bottom there is a little selection box that says “Ubuntu”. Click on that box and select “Ubuntu Classic” and finish logging in.

There you go, Ubuntu without the terrible Unity Desktop! (Image courtesy of XPG4.net)

70 Comments


  1. unity reminds me of the F’up microsoft BOB. maybe if the default desktop background was a desk and a window and a bookshelf and unity put the giant icons all over the place it would be.. oh wait it would be the same crap. I didn’t know you could go back to classic but something happened to my desktop and I got lucky and I guess unity couldn’t load so I ended up with classic. thank you buggy unity code.


  2. I just upgrade to 11.10 a discovered, with true horror, that unity was the only desktop option available.
    Seriously, who the heck was the stupid person who made such a stupid decision?
    Unity is just a huge piece of crap. If I can’t move that stupid lateral bar I will NEVER used it! (Have you heard it, you, nameless stupid person???)


  3. I’ve been using nothing but Ubuntu since 2006. I’ve tried to get used to unity. But it looks horrible, it feels horrible, it takes longer to get everything done, and my PC feels totally dumbed down.

    I hate it, hate it, HATE IT!


  4. Unity is not for me. Linux represents choice. I wish I could choose to leave my default desktop alone. At least I can choose which Distro. I will miss you Ubuntu, you did a fantastic job of bringing Linux to many users. The upside is I haven’t done a distro evaluation cycle for 5 years since I switched to Ubuntu, this will be fun to see what everyone one else has been doing to their flavor.

    p.s. Yes I know I can install any window manager / desktop I want on Ubuntu. Ubuntu was good because I didnt have to. To borrow a phrase “It Just Worked”


  5. Good luck using GNOME now! Ubuntu 11.10 won’t even let you do it. The best you can expect is Unity 2D or 3D.

    What I want to know is what Microsoft/Apple flunkie is running things now at Canonical now days? I say FIRE him/her and make em eat doo-doo!

    I’m switching to Fedora or SuSE!


  6. 11.10 makes running classic nearly impossible.
    Is it using gnome 3.0? dot zero releases universally stink.
    Going to try kubuntu 11.10, but there seems to also be network issues where my network constantly drops (never did 11.10) and sometimes require a reboot just to get wired networking working. I can’t even backup up my home accounts over network in the new ubuntu or kubuntu live.

    Probably going to abandon ubuntu altogether. I haven’t been this annoyed with a distribution thinking it knew better than its users since dumping redhat because of release 8 and it’s idiotic unified lobotomized (sound familiar?) desktop environment


  7. When I first heard people complaining about Unity, I thought they were just upset at having to learn a new system.

    But when I upgraded to 11.10, I realized the complainers were right. Having to keyboard-search for my programs whenever I want to run one of them is a deal-breaker. This is indeed a UI for a mobile phone and not for a workstation. I *have* the screen space, let me use it.

    What’s worse is even the command line terminal is difficult to reach. I didn’t sign up with Linux because I’m afraid of the command line!


  8. You know what’s bad? 10.10 (and Unity in general) sucks so badly that the only workable solution is to make a clean install of a new distro (Fedora gets my current approval). However, currently I can’t afford the time to actually install the new distro, copy the backed-up files, etc etc. That is, unless I want to stay in the office until late at night, which I don’t. So I’m stuck with this f*****g piece of s**t until a later day when I actually have a bit less work and I can devote an hour or two to setting up a proper OS.


  9. I hate unity.

    I’m really disappointed at Ubuntu. I’m really thinking of going debian. I’m so frustrated.
    🙁


  10. not only am I trashing unity, I am trashing ubuntu altogether, its painfully clear the corporate world has gotten their greedy mitts on ubuntu development, most likely paying them to serve up garbage, I have been seeing the decline of ubuntu for many years now… DONE!!!

    its so bad that in 11.10 you can’t get any graphics support yet when you use unity its all fine and dandy, why is that? same drivers same everything, they have even managed to fubar gnome in 11.10, no more system/administration menus, why should I go fumbling around to find window management? especially when you have REMOVED IT!!!

    garbage, I’m going back to mandriva or debian, later


  11. I really HATED Unity on 11.04 but tried for a whole month to force myself to get used to it. Finally I switched to classic and after some hassle got it almost as I would like. I am cautious and always try a new release out for some time before finally upgrading.

    I’m now trying 11.10 and totally and UTTERLY HATE IT, Gnome 3 is not much better but it is faster and much more intuitive than Unity but still no good for a desktop user who does real work all day long.

    I know what I want and how to configure it in most other GUI’s e.g Gnome 2, XFCE, KDE, and Openbox.

    You can install something called fallback gnome on 11.10 but this too is no good compared to Gnome 2.

    I used to love Ubuntu but now am filled with HATE and REVULSION I could switch to XUBUNTU or LUBUNTU but won’t, not after this treachery.

    I switched to Crunchbang it is Debian based and uses Openbox it boots much faster than 11.10 and runs everything much faster and is very light on resources. It is more difficult to configure than Gnome 2 was but I have the technical skill to get what I want out of it.

    I am not the only one, all the serious desktop users I know HATE Unity and regard this as a complete sell out by Canonical, they are all switching to another Distro.

    Canonical has just SHAT upon all the loyal desktop users who have supported it for many years ( in my case since 7.04 ).

    FORNICATE THEM AND THE GOD DAMN HORSE THEY RODE IN ON.


  12. I’m another unity hater.
    It’s a giant step backward for ubuntukind.
    10.10 was good. I could do everything I wanted, configuration was easy, tools and applications were easy to find and use.
    11.04 was useable- just, if you ignored unity and went to classic.
    What genius took synaptic out of the standard install?
    11.10 – I have tried it for some weeks and seriously HATE it. Searching for applications is driving me nuts.
    One of the great advantages of linux in general has been that applications were logically arranged under headings; Accessories, Games, etc., and having Preferences and Administration under System made sense. Everything was easy to find and it was easy to explain to a new user. Why change it?
    11.10 and unity have CRIPPLED ubuntu.

    I have been a ubuntu fan since 5.something but now I’m looking for alternatives, maybe Mint.


  13. I’m totally leaving Ubuntu now. Whoever was behind the Unity fuckness, has to be Satan itself.
    Whatever, time to try Linux Mint Debian Edition. I totally so wanna leave Ubuntu or any Ubuntu-based Distri.
    Unity = Yes for Tablet PCs or Cell Phones
    No for Desktop PCs or Software Developers.

    Let this fucking piece of dogshit die!


  14. I don´t like Unity. I tried it and I don´t like it. Period. Give us back Gnome…


  15. Thank God for gnome-session-fallback…


  16. Ubuntu is no more. Relegated to mobile fone startup wannabe.

    What a waste to humanity this whole charade has turned out to be.
    Thank god for Debian and Mint.

    We should have let Stallman off the leash and got him to chew Spacecat/Fatcat’s ass a long time a go. Unity my arse. Dis-unity more like


  17. I upgraded to 11.10 and spent a Sunday night trying to figure out why web browsing was slow, how to get gnome back on my system etc. Also, somtimes i know which icon i want to click on but I don’t know what its called so the search function for me is useless. Sure, i fixed the browsing problem and installed gnome, updated the graphics drivers to proprietary drivers….but I wasn’t happy. I would still get random web browsing DNS problems and started to try to fix it but I stopped myself. I asked myself, when was the last time I was really happy with Ubuntu? When was the last time I went around saying to ppl “Ubuntu is sooo good”? It was Ubuntu 10.04. So I dloaded 10.04.3 LTS and I now love my computer again. Me and my computer used to frequently make out with each other but Unity ironically tore us apart. I have down-graded my distro and am happy with the simple Windows feel. Which is, I believe, the reason Ubuntu embarked upon their quest many years ago; So Windows users like me could have an OS to do their banking and feel safer than using Windows, but keep Windows for my games 🙂 You must find your own happy Ubuntu distro and not upgrade it.


  18. Searching for applications should be a secondary route to find what you are looking for, not the primary. Allow the original gnome UI search for applications/files/etc. like Windows 7 and KDE as a secondary function, and you have a winner.


  19. BTW, switched back to 10.04 LTS and my laptop actually runs again.


  20. I hate unity.
    I hate unity.
    I hate unity.
    I hate unity.
    I hate unity.
    rest in peace ubuntu…

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