One of the things that has long set Linux apart from Mac OS X and Windows is in how easily it can be customized. Simply grab a text editor, the configuration file, and start editing.
Of course, this isn't necessarily the simplest way to configure something, and is certainly not the most user friendly. However, some of the GUI applications (such as the Compiz Settings Manager), aren't necessarily all that easy either!
Unfortunately, as Ubuntu has released the Unity interface, it has proven to be a bit more locked-down than previous verions of the GNOME interface, much to some users' displeasure. It isn't that it can't be tweaked at all, just that its development is at such an early stage that there aren't a lot of aspects of it that can be configured on a per-user basis. That doesn't mean there aren't any options, just that they are well-hidden, and at the moment the built-in configuration tools don't offer much in the way of options.
Thankfully, this is Linux, and there are currently three very nice options for Ubuntu users wanting to tweak their Unity interface. They are called MyUnity, Ubuntu Tweak, and Unsettings.
MyUnity is the only one of the three tools that is available from the Ubuntu, so we'll look at it first. It can be installed by typing sudo apt-get install myunity into the Terminal.
MyUnity provides a slick, tabbed interface for configuring more than just Unity. It offers options for the color, size, behavior and transparency of the launcher, plus the ability to edit the quicklists of numerous programs.
It also offers the ability to tweak the Dash, the Panel and configure certain Desktop settings. It also offers the same font configuration abilities found in tools like GNOME Tweak, plus a more complete way to tweak your themes than is found in the standard Appearance control panel.
It isn't, however, as complete as some other tools. With MyUnity, you have the choice of theme and icon theme, where other tools give you the option to mix GTK and window themes as well.
Ubuntu Tweak isn't part of the standard Ubuntu repositories, but can easily installed by grabbing the .deb file from the Ubuntu Tweak home page.
Once installed, you'll find another tabbed interface, although (in this user's opinion), one that's slightly less aesthetically pleasing, although no less useful. It also offers a control panel view of all your Tweaking options, found in the Tweaks tab.
Ubuntu Tweaks offers a much wider range of settings compared to MyUnity. With it you can configure window manager settings (placement of buttons on the toolbar), as well as some general Compiz tweaks (wobbly windows, anyone?). You can also do "normal" tweaking like changing the size of the Unity launcher icons, adjusting the Dash blur, and more.
Overall, Ubuntu Tweak feels like a mix between MyUnity, the standard CompizConfig-Settings Manager, and the GNOME System Settings tool. It's powerful enough, while still trying to stay user friendly to a certain degree.
Finally we have Unsettings, the newest of the bunch. It currently is sitting at version 0.04 (it's very new!), but is still quite functional. There is a personal package archive (which can be activated by typing sudo apt-add-repository ppa:diesch/testing into your Terminal, then updating your software lists with sudo apt-get update and then finally sudo apt-get install unsettings to install), or since the latest version isn't yet in the PPA, you can grab the .deb file to install it manually from this page.
Unlike MyUnity, which is very pleasing to the eye, and even Ubuntu Tweak, Unsettings is very utilitarian. And that's not a negative; it just has a very barebones look to it.
As you can see, Unsettings pretty much offers only Unity settings (the Launcher tabs, plus the Dash and Panel tabs), plus aspects of the Interface you see while using Unity, such as the theme, fonts and Desktop (which icons are shown and hidden).
It offers full theme support (you can select different GTK and Windows themes, plus icons and cursors), as well as configure your virtual workspaces. One feature not found in the other two tools is the ability to completely turn off the overlay scrollbars (the tab-like scrollbars that only appear when you hover over the edge of the window.
Unlike the other two tools, Unsettings doesn't make your changes until you tell it to apply them, and of course some changes (such as the overlay scrollbars), are only applied when you restart or logout. The one feature that seems most forward-thinking is the ability to save your changes to a profile, as well as to revert to completely default settings. Unfortunately, these options don't seem to work as expected at the moment (it's a new program, after all), so best not to rely on those features for now.
What's great about these three options is how versatile they are, and the fact that while they offer some of the same features, they aren't simply three identical programs with different names. If you want something a bit more powerful, Ubuntu Tweak offers a ton of options, while Unsettings focuses mainly on Unity, while MyUnity offers a nice mix. While one of the lesser-used settings may sway you in deciding which to use, you can't really go wrong with any of them.
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