[BLUG] help with switching to Ubuntu

[Steven Black]

With regards to an "OS X" style dock, you should check out products with
a NExT-like theme. The OS X dock is based upon the NExT dock.

To change the shortcuts in the Gnome Terminal there is a "Edit->Keyboard
Shortcuts..." menu entry (within the Gnome Terminal application). This
includes shortcuts for creating new tabs and switching tabs.

I'm not familiar with configuring Thunderbird, however I looked at it
briefly. From my initial glances at it, it appears changing the shortcut
in Thunderbird would require setting an X resource or modifying the
sources.

Setting X resources was the traditional way of tweaking application keys
in X. You'll want to check other documentation on the details of this.

Check the "Keyboard Shortcuts" application in the System->Preferences
menu. It has an option called "Move between windows of an application
immediately." I think this will do what you want. If it does not, you'll
probably need to use a different window manager.

While the Metacity WM is the default Gnome WM, there are other options.
Many are still GNOME-friendly. Some of which may have more Mac-like
options.

I thought there used to be ways to change the shortcut behavior to match
more like Mac OS and less like Windows. However, now that I think of it,
I may have been thinking of BeOS.

What I would really like is uniform single/double/triple-click behavior.
I used to quite enjoy selecting-by-words in web browser URLs. BeOS had
similar behavior to Mac OS in this case. (And in many other cases.)

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Steven

On Fri, 2007-06-08 at 17:04 -0400, Joe Auty wrote:
> I'm considering switching from OS X to Ubuntu and have been trying to
> migrate my work over there this week. I have a few questions though,
> and I thought I would see if you guys can help since I know there are
> several knowledgeable users here that have helped me in the past!
> 
> I posted this to the ubuntuforums site, but I'll reproduce these
> questions here (this all applies to Gnome)...
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help!
> 
> post/question set #1:
> > I have a volume mounted via SSH, and I'm noticing that the
> > application associations I have created
> > in /usr/share/applications/defaults.list don't seem to apply.
> > 
> > Is there a way to fix this? Is there a way to get files opened from
> > network volumes to respect the associations in the defaults.list
> > file?
> 
> post/question set #2:
> 
> > Here's the deal: I use Ubuntu at work and am contemplating a switch
> > to Ubuntu on my home machine too, but I'm kind of stuck with years
> > and years of Mac experience ingrained into my skull. To make the
> > transition a little less painless, I'm wondering what sorts of
> > tweaks are possible to make Gnome behave a little more Mac like?
> > 
> > Here are some of the things I would like:
> >       * an OS X dock that doesn't require Beryl (I'm stuck with an
> >         ATI X600, so no Beryl unfortunately), a shift to a more
> >         application rather than document centric computing approach.
> >       * key bindings remapped to use the smaller Apple style
> >         keyboard, so: 
> >               * control + A to go to the beginning of a line like in
> >                 emacs, rather than the "home" key (I'd happily remap
> >                 select all to control + shift A or something),
> >                 control + E for end of line (end key)
> >               * backspace key for deleting mail in Thunderbird
> >                 rather than delete key
> >               * switch between windows within an application (apple
> >                 + tilda on the Mac)
> >               * control T for new tab in Gnome Terminal rather than
> >                 control + shift + T. A consistent key command to
> >                 switch between tabs in Firefox and the Terminal
> >                 (e.g. Control + Alt + cursor arrow rather than page
> >                 up/page down)
> > 
> > I know I should probably just get used to doing things the
> > Ubuntu/Gnome way, but if there are ways to kind of ease me in that
> > would be fantastic!
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Joe Auty
> NetMusician: web publishing software for musicians
> http://www.netmusician.org
> joe_at_netmusician.org