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Window Controls on the Left instead of the Right in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Posted at 5:30 pm by brett on April 30th, 2010

Under categories: Ubuntu and tags: , , ,

I'm not going to get into the details on why Mark Shuttleworth insisted on moving the window controls in Ubuntu from the right (which they've been at since October 2004 and in general on Windows and Linux since 1994) to the left, but as Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx was released, the window controls are staying on left.

To adjust the controls from the left back to the right, you can change the theme away from 'Ambiance' or 'Radiance' or run the following command in the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout --type string "menu:minimize,maximize,close"

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  • Bb

    Can't ubuntu tweak change this as well?

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      It can, but then you have to install Ubuntu Tweak of course. It's a great program for what it is, but I don't ever seem to use it because I have my own scripts for that sort of thing.

  • Zac

    I prefer it on the left. I had already changed it last year... Mark Shuttleworth must of read my mind. It has resulted in more efficient mouse movement so it was a logical change. It took a short while to get used to but it was worth it and changing between PC's which has controls on the right is a no-brainer, I just don't think about it. Give it a proper try.

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      I just can't switch an entire lifetime's worth of habit by switching from the right to the left. Seems simple enough, but it's difficult. Also, to make this change for an LTS release just seems silly. How are any organizations going to take the transition from Windows to Ubuntu when simple things such as window controls move around from release to release. Doesn't sound stable to me.

  • burak

    The font is wonderful by the way, where can I find it?

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      The title font is 'Patron Alt Medium'. I was able to download it for free from MyFonts.com, which I just linked to :) Look for a post soon that deals with the design aesthetics in the default theme/desktop for Ubuntu.

  • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com Dylan McCall

    Hi Brett,

    Changing the gconf key really isn't ideal, since that change gets overridden when you change your theme again.

    For this, I made a quick theme package with Ambience-Right and Radiance-Right. They point to the existing Ambiance and Radiance controls and window borders, explicitly specifying a reversed button layout.

    As for me, I've become completely hooked on having window buttons to the left. Without those window controls to bump into at the top right there's just one big, comfortable, smooth clickable area to drag a window from :)

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      I don't understand how moving the buttons from the right to left changes anything dealing with dragging windows. You prefer to drag your windows from the right-hand corner instead of anywhere else?

  • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com Dylan McCall

    Oops, sorry, I forgot my link to the theme :)
    http://people.ubuntu.com/~dylanmccall/downloads/themes/Ambience_Radiance-Right.tar.gz
    Just download it and drag the file into Appearance Preferences's Theme section. It should handle the rest.

  • Knuckles

    To say that linux has had the window control button on the right since 1994 is silly. There were no dominant window managers back then, those that existed were usually heavily configurable and users did configure them. And the traditions they came from (Unix, Amiga, NeXT, ...) did not prefer the window buttons on the right.

    Check out http://xwinman.org to get a glimpse into 1994 in case you weren't there.

    (And of course "linux" has no window controls at all because it is a kernel. Nitpicky, but important to note in this context)

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      Really? Do you people still exist? The type that say Linux in a kernel, not an OS? I know what Linux the kernel is, but it's not the common name for anything OS that is Linux-based. Get used to it. Also, having controls on the right has been used by the dominant operating system Windows since they added a GUI and Mac had their controls on the right until Mac OS X came out. I'm talking the minimize/maximize/close buttons. Now Apple's change worked out for them but if Ubuntu started moving the controls back to the right (ever) that will be confusing and so is the fact that all other major distributions have their buttons still on the right. It's just a question of usability and consistency to me.

  • Jim

    Would love to have this font as well.
    Can You tell us were You got it from?

  • Akshat

    Recommending Alt+F2 instead of Terminal would not make noobs scream OMG!Terminal

  • http://aloriel.no-ip.org Aloriel

    Me likey. Thanks!

  • https://ubuntunz.blogspot.com Kyle Clarke

    As a relatively new Ubuntu user (started in Karmic) I can say, the one thing that annoyed me is double clicking the tool bar's menu didn't close the window. This is something I do constantly at work on my windows based machine.

    For years I have done this because I've seen it as the most efficient way to shut down a window. Right above the File etc.

    It was very welcome to have the window controls on the left for me, as it seems like a compromise to not being able to double click the menu icon.

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      If you go to System > Preferences > Windows, you can set the preferences for double-clicking the window there, but I can see that there is no 'Close' option like you said. Maybe file a bug report at launchpad.net?

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      I found an interesting post straight from the Metacity developers' blog on double clicking to close: http://blogs.gnome.org/metacity/2008/10/08/double-click-to-close/

  • Pingback: Brett Alton: Window Controls on the Left instead of the Right in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx | TuxWire

  • BJS

    braindead decision, and evne more braindead to not provide a fucking theme to switch back to the sanity of the right side. Does Shuttleworth think this is going to make him Steve Jobs? And with the annoyance of this "go home applet" that just suddenly appeared on my wife's account, I'm afraid that 10.04 is going to be the last ubuntu that I'll be bothering with (linux user since 1993).

    • http://brettalton.com brett

      Well, I hate the changes too, but with my Ubuntu Assistant script, these annoyances can be easily reverted.

  • helpee

    Thank. You. So. Much.