The new location of the close, minimise and maximise buttons in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx is dividing opinion. Personally, I have no problem with them. I’ve been using a Mac recently at work, and so having the control buttons on the left hand side of the window is becoming second nature.

I have been asked how to change the location back to the right. It is very simple, so here goes:

• Press ALT+F2 and type: gconf-editor
• Navigate to apps -> metacity -> general
• Right-click on the button_layout key and choose Edit Key
• Change the Value field to: :minimize,maximize,close – the leading colon is important.
• When you click OK, the buttons will leap back to the right-hand side of the window.

This has been a courtesy tip for those who fear change!

gconf-editor Screenshot

UPDATE 5th MAY, 2010: I’ve since learned from the Ubuntu forums that the above method is not the preferred way of changing the button location. If you’re not planning on installing other themes, then it will work fine, but according to Mark Shuttleworth, the right hand side of the title bar is being reserved for “Windicators” in future. So, if you want to follow the preferred method of changing the button location, then it is as follows:

This was pretty much copied verbatim from this sticky on the Ubuntu Forums.