you_know

Ubuntu 10.04 introduces a new concept of the so-called indicators (Ubuntu wiki on application indicators). As 10.04 is out for a while now, I can draw the following conclusion: These shitty indicators are pissing me off.

Volume Control

Want to change your volume very quickly? No fucking way. Back in Ubuntu 9.10, everything was okay:

After clicking on the corresponding icon - and without having to move your mouse -, you can easily change the volume by using your mouse wheel. But Ubuntu 10.04 doesn’t allow that:

That means, you click on the icon, move your mouse the way down to the actual volume slider, click the slider and adjust the volume. I can’t see any improvements in that change, even worse, it makes adjusting the volume a more time-consuming task than it should be.

Solution

Add the following command to the gnome autostart: gnome-volume-control-applet.
To remove the new volume control, use the following command: sudo apt-get remove —purge indicator-sound (Note: I don’t think that this is a very good solution. For me, it did its job, but I don’t know what might happen in your case.).

Pidgin

Pidgin is now located in the messaging indicator. That means, for showing the Pidgin window, you need 2 clicks. New users might even think that Pidgin isn’t running, because it is hidden behind the messaging indicator. In fact, when I first started Pidgin I thought it was broken, because it didn’t show up in the system tray! Additionally, you can no longer use Pidgin’s context menu. That means: For exiting Pidgin, open the main window. For muting pidgin, open the main window. And remember, opening the main window means doing 2 clicks.

Solution

In Pidgin, open the Pidgin settings dialogue, and set “Show system tray icon” to “always”.