Ultimate Edition Forum

Hi Guys

I am new to Linux and Ultimate Edition and most of the terminology I find confusing. What is newer than a newb? Maybe I am an embryo...

Anyway, I have Ultimate Edition 2.6 - do not know if it is 32 or 64 bit but suspect the latter - and I use the computer just for simple things: checking email, looking at the web, doing business stuff mostly. No games, video, music or suchlike.

I know a lot of people like the facier look of things and like the bouncy menus but I am used to a simpler desktop with menus that just appear and disappear as you invoke them or disable them. I go through the appearance>visual effects.on/off path and set the effects to 'off'. For the current session they stay off.

Every time I restart the computer, the bouncy exploding menus are back.

Is there a way to make Ultimate Edition or the gnome inside it remember that the effects should be off?

Thanks for any help.
Old school guy, just likes it simple.

Well, first I should mention you will have issues. 2.6 is quite dated as well, awesome but dated. There is a blue square in the top right corner. Click on it and there should be an option to switch the Window Manager from Compiz, to something else, what you want to switch to is metacity.

Another option is to go to startup in system settings, there will be an option to add a command, here you can add the command

Code: Select all

metacity --replace

Generally this will override whichever default is in place but there are better ways to go about this. However, I do not have 2.6 installed anywhere since LTS expired.

Also in the future it may be more pertinent if you apply yourself to overcome any fears you may have in addressing any particular issues you are pondering.

For example, you do not really have to resign yourself to wondering if you have a 32 or 64 bit version. The ability to overcome these obstacles is what using Linux is all about.

In just that one example you can approach in a multitude of ways, and the exact method employed is of little importance next to the knowledge gained in the attempt.

This is as simple as it gets.

Hi Guys

Great! I just lost my entire reply because of the short time out... There should be a warning to cut an paste before pressing 'submit'.

Thanks for the replies above.

I haven't particularly "resigned myself" to anything. This computer was built for me by a friend who thought that Linux would be the safest operating system for going online with.

In the mean time, I looked in the compiz thingy since it is not apparent what half the programs installed DO, and that one turned out to have exactly what I needed. A left-hand menu had "effects" in it, and I was able to turn them all off.

Initially i turned off one too many as the frames for windows disappeared and then the windows could not be moved. Turning the "windows effects" back on restored the frames without all the bouncy flamey nuisance.

NOW my only problem is that text that should be black - like this post text - is BLUE.

Going through the appearance . text path is useless. I expect there is something in comiz I haven't found yet...

As I said in my first post, the computer is a business tool for me. I need it to do what its's supposed to do without requiring that I become a programmer - I have a profession already. I am no fan of windows and MS but they did do many things correctly and that most people are used to with respect to being able to find certain info easily - like the system parameters - or by using more or less intuitive names for things. The ant-MS zeal in linux design goes a bit too far in some areas to the point of making it nearly impossible for someone without expert knowledge to use a lot of it.

For example, scrolling through the list of software in this box my friend built for me, cursoring over each program name says something about it. For compiz, it just said that this icon opens compiz. What is compiz? I had to open it to find out. I wanted to find a PDF viewer for linux so I called my friend to see if he had a recommendation. He suggested just clicking on a PDF to see if it opens, since most things are included in these packages like Ultimate Edition. It did open. Again, in the list of programs the cursored text did not say this program could open PDFs. These sorts of details seem to be lacking in the linux apps. One would imagine that since all of these apps have been written built on the legacy of decades of PC use, that some things would be retained.

It is like making gloves without thumbs even though human hands have been the same shape for 100k years.

I think the anti-MS revolution has actually succeeded. Now it is time to restore some of the sanity to the appearance and ergonomics of the new operating systems. My linux computer is fast and now that the effects are gone it is much more enjoyable to use. Now just to get rid of the blue text...

Thanks