Unity is a tad slower, but not any slower than GNOME Shell. It is similar
to my KDE. If it is significantly slower, I would check that you allowed
enough SWAP and your free memory situation. You should also check your
graphics driver which can slow things down since Unity uses compositing (as
does GNOME Shell). Unity 2D is the same but does not use Compiz. You can
try running it and if it is faster look to your graphics driver and see if
you can get a better one.

Oneiric allows you to drag and drop icons from the Dash to the Launcher and
to rearrange them. To get an application click on the Dash and type the
first few letters, thu for Thunderbird for example. That should start
bringing the icons up as choices to launch. You can launch then by clicking
or can click and hold and then drag and drop then to the Launcher. This
will give you a customized Launcher. You can later rearrange the Launcher
so your most important icons are at the top.

If you do not know the name of the application a part of it will usually
do. You can also use the Filter by clicking on More applications and a
filter will appear at the left. When you click on Graphics filter it will
present you with the graphics only applications. Click on display more to
see all of the icons.

Unity is different but very usable. There are shortcuts. You can use the
Super (Windows) key to get Dash to open. Ctrl-Alt-T brings up a terminal in
a hurry. Alt-Tab switches between running applications.

For more see:

www.ubuntugeek.com/...nity-keyboard-shortcuts.html

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KeyboardShortcuts

It may seem like a bit of a pain at first, but I am excited by the
challenge using something new. Good luck on troubleshooting your
speed issues.

How do you get to or where is HELP in 11.10?
Can I change the left launcher bar, add to or modify it?

I'm sure as time goes by there will be an ocean of questions, and gripes,
about 11.10, this is just the "tip of the iceberg",

May I suggest you have a look at www.webupd8.org and select Ubuntu
from their home page menu.

There you probably will be finding a solution of some of your problems with
Unity.

After reading a lot about how to use Unity, the "experience" and all it
benefits I wondering...

A unified platform, so far it seems like a platform that does all things
poorly, a jack of all trades. Can do nothing very well, does everything
poorly.

I can see having some commonality about all the platforms but...
Lets face it a car, motorcycle and truck all have the same basic thing,
transportation. Along that line so is an airplane and helicopter. So,
according to that thinking, why not make them so that once you can operate
one you can operate all of them. Now doesn't that sound ridiculous!

So far, from what I have seen the same applies to Unity, ridiculous! I
think it would be great if where things could be the same then they would
be but desktops, netbooks, laptops, pads and smartphones are different
beasts. Where they can have things in common make them so. Making a
"common" "experience" is "ridiculous!

Going to Unity should have been an improvement, so far for me it is not.
I'm going back to 10.10. If 12.04 is no better than 11.10 I will only be
going there by force, not choice.

Seems like Cannonical is trying to follow in Microsoft's footsteps. Make
the OS so demanding on your computer hardware that you are forced to
upgrade about every 3 or so years. Not because your computer no longer
works, well, actually it does just not on the NEW OS, and any of the older,
more stable and now not supported, OS. I'm sure Dell, H-P and others love
MS because to keep using their current software every few years you MUST
upgrade the hardware. To hell with the environment, trash your old?
computer that "could" still work fine and the environment. Is it all about
the god, money.

Regarding the need for upgrading every few years: canonical offers a 2d
desktop option that launches automatically for older systems and anyone can
get to it from the login screen. This still runs ok on my 12 yr old
desktop. Canonical may be trying to become more relevant as a business by
offering the latest and greatest for new hardware, but they seem to
continue thinking of older hardware.

The idea is not new:

Windows 7 Phone 7 & Windows 7
Windows 8 runs is to run on PCs to phones
iOS is built to emulate the experience on OS/X, phone and table experience
are the same

Why not Unity?

The problem is scalability. That is what they are hoping to tackle over the
next while and with Wayland they have hopes. Nobody says they are going to
succeed, but the concept is not bad and if it works it will have a benefit
for users as more people move to big screen TVs, tablets and smartphones.
Right now it does not seem workable because we do not have scalability
working to that degree due to the limitations imposed by X window system
and certain architectures. Consequently things look too big on small
screens and people are complaining. They are working on it and we should
see progress by this time next year. Wayland Project was attempting to
install Wayland on a tablet in November, but I have not seen the results
yet.

The advantage that Ubuntu has is that it can run on different architectures
and takes less in the way of resources than Windows. Apple is locked to
certain hardware. Microsoft is way behind in supporting different
architectures and it takes more horsepower to deliver the same performance.
Android is good, but it does not run on PCs. The field is wide open, so it
is an opportunity. Tablet and smartphone users do not care so much about
the OS, but are more concerned about performance and apps, so there is no
stigma about using Linux that you encounter with PCs.

Mouse over the bar at the top of the desktop. Depending on the window
that is open help is for the program. If all windows are reduced and the
desktop shows the help is for Ubuntu. You can use the work space
switcher to go to a desktop that is not being used and select help for
the Ubuntu help files. I must admit I like the KDE help system better as
it works better for many programs.

I have the advantage of using Unity 2D. I say advantage because my
Netbook used the Netbook variety of Ubuntu before Unity was introduced
to the rest of the computing world. My computer is slow by design;
battery life was the objective. I installed 11.10 twice. One time to try
it, the next to adopt it. Why did I install it twice? first time was to
check it for speed on my Netbook, the next time to install it with
encrypted home. Encryption slows the computer considerably but I am
portable and use the box to do my banking.

The problem with being the leader is people have to become familiar with
your ideas. This is true in all walks of life. You don't become a leader
because you are different, rather because you are different and have
great ideas. Where you go people must learn to follow or be left behind.
Thank your lucky star that a leader like Shuttleworth embraced Open
Source rather than like some other people that would take credit for
developments like stereo cameras and computer vision, rather than say
they used something that the fine people at Intel open sourced.

Look forward to a day that Open Source is the leading software, and
codecs that rule are open source like the mighty ogg and ogv formats, so
no one can charge licensing fees for those that make a machine running
Android or other OSs play popular formats that are closed.

Learn Unity and help others. Let's help spread this Open Source thing to
the end of the world. We will all be better off in the end.