Can I uninstall Compiz if only using Gnome-Shell?
I already know that I can uninstall Unity if I'm using Gnome-Shell exclusively, but I'm also wondering if it's safe to uninstall Compiz when I'm only using Gnome-Shell, since as far as I know, Gnome-Shell doesn't use Compiz.
Solution 1:
Removing compiz also removes the packages unity & ubuntu-desktop.
Thus you will lose the ability to log into the unity or unity-2d desktops.
ubuntu-desktop is a meta package - normally you would need this to allow a successful upgrade to ubuntu+1. Therefore - just reinstall this package before you next upgrade to 12.04.
On my quick test, removing compiz did not stop me logging out and logging back into gnome-shell. You are correct - gnome-shell does not use compiz as its compositing manager, it uses mutter.
Solution 2:
It depends on how much you want to remove and change.
Yes, you can remove compiz, it will take a little work to remove unity and potentially unnecessary packages.
See the linked question on how to remove Unity.
Use the following to remove all compiz related packages:
sudo apt-get purge compiz compiz-plugins-main-default libcompizconfig0
If you do not want to do all this, you can re-install and try the gnome 3 remix
See the UGR (Ubuntu Gnome Remix)
https://launchpad.net/ubuntugnome
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UGR
UGR Home page (check the LP and wiki page if you think this link is spam) http://ugr.teampr0xy.net/
Linked Question:
- How can you remove Unity?