Unity is made to work with Compiz but not with the desktop cube because
workspaces in Unity are different. There are other problems. If you install
GNOME 3 it wrecks Unity and vice versa.

Unity and GNOME 3 will take some getting used to and neither is ready for
prime time. They have released GNOME 3 with GNOME Shell included but have
put back the date to September for final release. Canonical is determined to
have Unity out with 11.04, but it likely won't mature till 11.10.

As for GNOME 2.32 it is on a short leash. You will be able to install it in
11.04, but Shuttleworth has already said that it won't be in the 11.10
repositories. GNOME will likely phase it out as well as they want GNOME 3 to
be accepted.

The problem with both Unity and GNOME 3 is that it changes the way users
work and the workflow is not as smooth or intuitive to my way of thinking.
There is a different paradigm at work. Things are moving from virtual
desktops and spatial concepts to workspaces based on activities. Most users
do not like being forced to change and there will be some backlash. I think
that both Canonical and GNOME re prepared for some, but maybe it will be
more than they figure. Who can say?

There are choices. You could use KDE or XFCE which still are spatial. You
could switch to either Debian which because it is based on stable it will be
at least 2 years before these changes hit. You could switch to Mint but it
will not be able to forestall change unless they develop their own GNOME 3
based desktop. Finally you do not have to upgrade. Maverick has another year
and Lucid has 2 more years of support.

I have already upgraded to Natty but I use KDE and things are just getting
better. It is nice to have been through this cycle and now have a mature and
powerful desktop. I have used both Unity and GNOME 3 extensively over the
past few months. I could get used to either, but prefer KDE. Unity has much
potential aso you need to see past the problems and look to the future. It
is all part of the push t make Ubuntu more like the Mac that Windows. That
is not going to change whatever people think or do. Canonical just sees Mac
OS as driving the desktop forward and Windows playing catch up. The sooner
people buy into it the happier they will be, IMO. Otherwise they should be
shopping for a new desktop environment or distro.

Right after I posted this I found this article:
www.webupd8.org/.../...tching-back-to-classic.html

It seems that things with Unity may be worse than we suspect and there is
internal discussion going on the discuss possibilities, including giving the
old GNOME desktop as default till Oneiric Ocelot.

"Unity is made to work with Compiz but not with the desktop cube because
workspaces in Unity are different."

Roy that's why I went into the Ubuntu Classic before trying to use the cube. I
was suprised that making changes in Ubuntu Classic messed up Unity under the
default Ubuntu setting. I prefer Ubuntu Classic and my wife prefers Unity.

In my opinion using the Cube under the Ubuntu Classic session shouldn't mess up
Unity under the default Ubuntu (Unity) session. Maybe Canonical made a mistake.

Yes. That would seem to make sense, but both GNOME and Unity use the same
Compiz settings. That may change as Unity matures. Canonical may be making
mistakes. They are rushing development to meet the deadline of final
release. You can always remove ubuntu-desktop in Synaptic or apt-get and
then install GNOME. Then just go with GNOME.

I want to retain both. My wife prefers unity and I prefer the classic. Many
systems are used by multiple people in the home, where each person has different
preferences. With that in mind Ubuntu should be able to be used in classic mode
with cube etc with out messing up Unity when another person wants to use the
same computer but with the standard unity interface. Otherwise my wife and I
will have to decide who gets the interface they want. Does she give up Unity so
I can have classic or do I give up classic so she can have Unity. (",)

Perhaps this is just a beta problem that will be fixed in the final version.
Right now though the analogy that comes to mind is you had a car that you could
only set the driver seat forward or back no matter who drives the car. This
would be fine with a car always driven by the same person. However both my wife
and I drive the same car. If the seat can only be set forward my wife would be
comfortable but I'd feel like I was stuffed into a can. Ubuntu is often used by
multiple people in the same home. There might even be times that I want to
switch between Unity and classic just for my own personal use.

Ubuntu is given for free so Canonical can do to Ubuntu what they choose but I
hope they don't lose some of they're loyal user base while making these choices.

Your solution might be dual installation e.g 1 with 'Unity', the other with
'Classic' if both cannot be included in 1 installation.

Before that he might want to try two separate userspaces in home, one for
him and one for his wife. The settings are stored in home in each user's
directory. Separate users should keep them apart. It is worth a try.

Well Ubuntu Classic may be around for long enough to worry about it. It
won't be available in Ubuntu's repos according to Shuttleworth after
October, unless you are using an older version. There may be a PPA if
somebody wants to go to a lot of trouble.

However, you are right it is just beta and some people compare it more to an
alpha because it is rough around the edges. They may work some of these
problems out. I am not sure how many users will want both as you do or how
much Ubuntu cares about GNOME at this point. Things are strained to say the
least. Although Shuttleworth did release a brief congrats to GNOME on the
launch of GNOME 3, not that they will be using it.

The really good thing in all of this was that Compiz was dying before
Canonical supported it in Unity and the developers are now paid by
Canonical. So we can be thankful that it is still around at all. I will be
watching to see if this does straighten itself out. What are your plans in
the short term? Will you use Unity or Classic or forego the cube?