You can run GNOME panel on Ubuntu which is GNOME 3, but made to look like
GNOME 2. Or you can install Cinnamon which adds GNOME 2 but renames
everything so that you do not have conflicts between GNOME 2 and 3.
Personally I hated GNOME 2 and say good riddance, but that is just my
opinion.

Unity deserves time to get used to it. You can really customise it in
12.04. For starters you can remove the global menu and overlay scrollbars
that annoy most users. Then you can add to it or change icons size etc.
Myunity is essential for doing that. You can change themes, too. You cannot
remove the Launcher, but you can change its size and functionality,
including getting it to hide. Dash is more powerful and there are many new
lenses and scopes to add.

It is different, but more powerful than GNOME Shell or GNOME Classic. It
still lacks the power of KDE which is why I have not switched. I also hate
Nautilus and the way they have removed menus and made it useless. Dolphin
is ten times better. I could say the same for many GNOME applications. The
idea of dumbing things down does not work for me. That is why I disliked
GNOME 2. It was dumbed down to the point that it left me screaming for more
and trying a patchwork of applications to get things that just came with
KDE. I think that Unity with its lenses and scopes and GNOME Shell
extensions are helpful, but not a substitute for a powerful desktop to
begin with. To each his own.

To disable auto login go to the settings, user accounts and move the slider
for auto login from ON to OFF.

Alternative method: You can also edit this file: sudo gedit
/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and remove your username from the line:
autologin-user=USERNAME. Press Ctrl+Q and save.

I think Mate is a fork of Gnome 2, and Cinnamon is a fork of Gnome 3. Cinnamon
works the way I do, so that's what I'm using.

Thank you - that's really great, except that I cannot find where I put
the listing of terminal commands
for installing and setting up Cinnamon (its on my Linux Mint 12
partition) - can you enlighten me?

Open a terminal and enter the command: passwd george

You can copy from partition to partition using the nautilus file manager. Other
partitions show up on the left as "nnn GB filesystem."

You are right. I should have checked this more carefully. Thanks for
the correction.

It should read something like this:

Mate (rhymes with latte) is GNOME 2 and it re-names everything to
prevent conflicts with GNOME 3 counterparts, so you can have both
installed. Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME 3 made to look like GNOME
Classic (Mint version, not Ubuntu version with top and bottom panel
and Applications, Places and System). Mate is still rough, but
Cinnamon is maturing nicely. You need to be a Mint fan to like either
(panel at bottom with a slab menu and Mint theming). Either way you do
not get the old GNOME 2.x look and feel. You get old Mint look and
feel which was not standard GNOME.

The advantage that Cinnamon has over Mate, IMO, is that it is built on
GNOME 3 and that means that its apps will be upgraded while Mate's GTK
2 apps will die on the vine. They are not being maintained and will
grow stale, if they are not already so.

Thank you for that; its quite interesting. However, what i really
need is to
find out just exactly what I have to do in order to get Cinnamon both
installed
on my computer, but also working.
The Unity interface is so drastically different, and for me, so
utterly non-intuitive
that I can spend literally hours at it and not be able to get anything,
constructive
or otherwise, done.
I am a Secretarial Officer in several branch units of the Odd
Fellow fraternal Order,
and I use my computer for keeping my records. I am spending most of
today copying
all my files from the Documents Folder of my 'old' 11.10 Oneiric
partition to my Linux Mint
partition, which I can use until or when I can get a usable desktop
working on the 12.04
Precise partition --- with only Ubuntu unity 3d or 2d as choices, it is
virtually useless to me.
With the several partitions that I have - all running some Linux
Distro, I likely should have
set up a single /home directory for them all to utilize - but I am not
sure how I'd go about
that, either. So, in that case perhaps I will just to be covered, I will
duplicate the same /home
in each partition.
I sure hope that someone knows the procedure for installing and
setting up Cinnamon on
12.04 and would be willing to share the 'secret'. I would be very glad
to be so enlightened.
As always, thanks for any and all helpful words & suggestions.

www.unixmen.com/.../

Ask and you shall receive. ;)

Thank you; as I now have a usable & attractive desktop environment on my
desktop, I'd say that this problem of mine has been solved.
Thank you to everyone who tried to be of help.