Ubuntu 10.04 tweaks

Ubuntu 10.04 is really good. It comes very close to being 'just what I want'. But alas, so close and yet, so far. Here are a few tweaks that make it much better for me, and maybe for you too. The changes are focussed on usability more than aesthetics.
Here they are -

Theme:

I quite prefer the Radiance theme over the default Ambiance theme.

Applications:

If you use a desktop mail client, and you use only one email account, Evolution is a pretty good beast to stick to. If you have multiple accounts, then Evolution has some irritating shortcomings. At about 100 MB resident memory usage, Thunderbird is not an option I prefer. My choice: Claws mail. It's beautiful. It is available in the standard repositories. Be sure you install the plugins as well. Remember to set it as your default mail client in System->Preferences->Preferred Applications.
I also don't really like Empathy and Gwibber. Since I don't use Facebook (yeah, I'm one of the un-hip ones), Pidgin does the job for me (yes, pidgin has a twitter plugin). If you do use facebook, you should seriously reconsider getting a life.

The panel:

Since I don't use Empathy and Gwibber, I don't need the message indicator in the indicator applet. I don't see the point of the message indicator anyway. It just goes green and you have no clue about which application caused it to go green. Maybe 'going green' is the latest fashion. Here is how you get rid of it: sudo apt-get remove indicator-messages.
I also don't see much use in the indicator session applet, whatever that means. So I have removed that as well. This leaves quite a bit of space on the panel. It makes sense to fit everything into one panel on top. So, just delete the bottom panel.
Before you go ahead, I would recommend changing the height of the top panel to about 36 pixels. With the Radiance theme, that made the panel look ugly. Here is the fix.
Also, setting the background to a solid colour #F1ECDF, makes it better.

Now for the applets:
The killer one: DockbarX. This functions similar to a dock, which IMO, is a better way of doing things than the window buttons for running applications. Another advantage of dockbarx is that it provides excellent notifications (chose static notifications) for the applications that demand attention, like pidgin and claws.
Another useful applet is Topshelf. It is available the ubuntu repositories.
I have also installed the Media applet.
Also on my panel are the tomboy notes applet, the sticky notes applet (yes, I use both; both have a different role to play), and the trash, workspace switcher and 'show desktop' applets which are otherwise on the bottom panel.

Window decorations:

I find it much more usable if the close button is isolated on the right. You can set this in the gconf-editor. Select apps->metacity->general->button_layout. Changing it is quite intuitive; the semicolon separates the left side from the right.
I also find the following keyboard short-cuts for windows management more efficient and elegant:
(Note: Super is the 'Windows' key)
Toggle maximise state: Super +
Minimise: Super -
Close: Super Backspace
Shade: Super _
Run dialogue: Alt Space
Compiz scale: Super w

That's all for now folks. I shall end with a screen-shot of how it should look once you are through with the above customisations.