[ale] How do I NOT use Unity and DO use Gnome 2 in Ubuntu 11.x?

[JD]

On 11/08/2011 02:39 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Well, the subject says it.  How do I NOT use Unity and DO use Gnome 2 in 
> Ubuntu 11.x?  Michael T. has almost convinced me to hit the Update 
> button on my old Ubuntu 10.04 based on comments in the "AARG!  Manual 
> software updates, Sun Java, LibreOffice, help" thread.  Should I take 
> the plunge, and update twice to 11.04, I'll be faced with running the 
> Unity UI.  I tried it once before and its lifespan on my system was 
> about 30 minutes.  So, if I go down this road, and update and keep 11.04 
> on the system, and hate Unity yet again, how do I banish it permanently 
> and use Gnome 2 on the newer version of Ubuntu.  I don't know anything 
> about Gnome 3, but my objective is to get an up to date system, not to 
> change everything I've finally got working like I like it.  PS, I don't 
> want to have to specify the UI every time I login.  PPS, I don't have 
> the system upgraded yet, so I cannot try instructions you give yet.
> 

Why not just install Xubuntu or Lubuntu instead?  The main repositories
will be from ubuntu, but without all the gnome3/unity stuff you don't want.

There are lots of other answers. The GUI can be anything you like - a
little google-fu will teach you how to swap out any GUI or window
manager or DE for another. This isn't Windows where there's only 1
choice that everyone uses except the extremists. There are at least 20
and probably over 100 different GUI environments to choose between. Just
because you select one today, that doesn't prevent a different one for
tomorrow or swapping between 10 different ones on a whim.

For all the folks that haven't see other environments besides Gnome3,
Unity, Gnome2 or KDE there are lots of other really cool interfaces.
Back around 1996, FVWM was doing lots of the cool desktop things (not
the 3D or 2D accel stuff), but lots of things that would surprise most.
Check out some eye candy desktops here:
http://fvwm.org/screenshots/desktops/index.php?num=100

Many of those looks I remember from the 1990s.