Make Ubuntu fit nicer on a netbook screen
Every time I install Ubuntu on a netbook, there are a couple small changes I make to maximise my screen real-estate. (Note I don’t use Unity desktop, which you can find in Ubuntu Natty 11.04, and Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.10; I like Classic better)
Firstly, I don’t use the built-in chat (at the top-right) or Evolution email at all. I use TweetDeck and Google Apps. So they’re taking up room I don’t need. Simply open up the Terminal and run:
sudo apt-get remove evolution-indicator indicator-messages indicator-me
(Thanks go out to Ubuntu Genius for their post which told me how to do that bit)
You’ll need to restart your window manager for those to take effect – you can either reboot, or (again from the Terminal) run:
killall gnome-panel
Huzzah! Now you’ve got heaps more room on the upper panel! Now, right-click on the big main menu (where it says ‘Applications’ / ‘Places’ / ‘System’), and remove that from your panel. Then right-click again, and add the panel called “Main Menu”. It’s the same thing, but only takes up a few pixels; the rest is all in a drop-down. Neat! I also judiciously remove any quicklinks that are there by default. For example, I get rid of the blue question-mark ‘help’ button.
Now, I remove the bottom panel altogether. Finally, I add the “Window List” to the upper panel, and move it tightly into place beside the new, smaller, Applications menu.
All done, and it fits on my netbook screen much more nicely!
James Pluck
July 29, 2011 @ 8:59 am
Nice, concise article, Eric! While this is about reducing wasted space for a netbook, it’s also useful for those of us for whom screen-real-estate is paramount!
Cheers 🙂
Eric
July 29, 2011 @ 12:05 pm
Thanks James, great point! I hadn’t thought of it from a designer or developer point of view. 🙂
Joel Duckworth
November 4, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
One thing to point out that might help some netbook users also is that if a window doesn’t fit in the screen, you can hold down ALT and drag with the mouse anywhere in the windows and access the areas that are too big for the screen. Without knowing this it can be really annoying sometimes, but with it, you can do everything on the netbook you could also do on a bigger screen 🙂
Nice article thanks!
Eric
November 7, 2011 @ 9:45 am
Ahh of course, excellent tip, Joel! I’ve been using that for a while but completely forgot to mention it. 🙂
Thanks for contributing!