Merge panel and launcher in Ubuntu

[GigabitXe]

I have installed Ubuntu 16.04 on an old(er) netbook that I had laying around, but I really like to look of Windows 10, so I have installed a Windows 10 theme, icon pack, and cursor pack. These work perfectly fine. However, I can't seem to figure out how to get a task bar/start menu that is similar to Windows 10. The themes that I downloaded showed that the task bar would appear, but it never did. So my questions are these:

1. How do I get a start menu that looks like Windows 10?
2. How do I get a task bar, or at the very least, merge the panel (the thing with all of the menu icons like sound, WiFi, etc.) with the launcher (where all my program shortcuts are)?

I have done some searching online, but I can't seem to find any solid answers. Just for clarity, I am running Ubuntu 16.04 with a Unity desktop environment. 

 

Thanks in advance.

[flowalex]

I haven't been able to get that with unity, but I got it working with the gnome desktop environment

 

Note this is fedora 25 with Gnome, I have a similar desktop setup on my Ubuntu gnome install (also I don't own a system 76 computer I just like how their wall papers look)

 

I used the dash to dock extension to move it to the bottom, and then the other icons are up-time indicator, caffeine, Harddisk LED,  Lock keys, and then the system icons.  Pressing the square at the bottom left corner opens up all of the applications and to keep items on the task bar add them to favorites, I have been moving away from unity (even though I like it) so that it is easier for me to upgrade to 18.04 when the time comes.

[GigabitXe]

15 minutes ago, flowalex said:

I haven't been able to get that with unity, but I got it working with the gnome desktop environment

 

Note this is fedora 25 with Gnome, I have a similar desktop setup on my Ubuntu gnome install (also I don't own a system 76 computer I just like how their wall papers look)

 

I used the dash to dock extension to move it to the bottom, and then the other icons are up-time indicator, caffeine, Harddisk LED,  Lock keys, and then the system icons.  Pressing the square at the bottom left corner opens up all of the applications and to keep items on the task bar add them to favorites, I have been moving away from unity (even though I like it) so that it is easier for me to upgrade to 18.04 when the time comes.

Thanks so much for the reply. I literally figured this out right before your post came in. However, instead of installing gnome, I installed cinnamon. This allowed me to do exactly what I wanted and now my Ubuntu machine looks almost identical to my Windows 10 machine (yay!  ). The only thing that I cannot get to change is the start menu. As of now I am stuck with the default Cinnamon menu save for the Windows 10 icons. Now, this is just out of curiosity, but would you recommend gnome over cinnamon for any reason?

[flowalex]

14 minutes ago, Space2867 said:

Snip

Personal Preference, I was using unity for a while on my laptops Ubuntu install, and then I tried fedora and really liked a few things gnome offered by default that I was installing, plus it means I can use wayland instead of xorg which runs better on my laptop.  I have used mint with cinnamon a few years ago as well as xubuntu, ubuntustudio, elementaryOS,kde,  Mate, Unity, and Gnome, but Unity and Gnome have been my favorite, Parthenon (ElementaryOS desktop environment) was okay, but I just liked them better, my Ubuntu installs look more similar to OSX.  I think it had more to do with mint than anything as a reason why I didn't like it.  But I just search for what I need if it is not an application that I have as a favorite

[GigabitXe]

1 hour ago, flowalex said:

Personal Preference, I was using unity for a while on my laptops Ubuntu install, and then I tried fedora and really liked a few things gnome offered by default that I was installing, plus it means I can use wayland instead of xorg which runs better on my laptop.  I have used mint with cinnamon a few years ago as well as xubuntu, ubuntustudio, elementaryOS,kde,  Mate, Unity, and Gnome, but Unity and Gnome have been my favorite, Parthenon (ElementaryOS desktop environment) was okay, but I just liked them better, my Ubuntu installs look more similar to OSX.  I think it had more to do with mint than anything as a reason why I didn't like it.  But I just search for what I need if it is not an application that I have as a favorite

You kind of sound like me. You try everything until you find something that you like.  

[flowalex]

2 hours ago, Space2867 said:

You kind of sound like me. You try everything until you find something that you like.  

That is why I love Linux, you can just keep trying until you like something, also if you have an android phone install kde connect it is amazing

[noahdvs]

KDE is another good desktop environment to try. It's much more configurable by default, unlike Gnome (not trying to start a flame war) and it's more mature than Cinnamon. Resource usage is about the same as Gnome and Unity. Probably about the same as Cinnamon as well.

 

This is what it looks like by default:

 

 

This is what mine looks like:

 

[flowalex]

3 minutes ago, noahdvs said:

KDE is another good desktop environment to try. It's much more configurable by default, unlike Gnome (not trying to start a flame war) and it's more mature than Cinnamon. Resource usage is about the same as Gnome and Unity. Probably about the same as Cinnamon as well.

 

 

I think kde is great and I use some of the software they have helped create (kdeconnect, kirta, kdenlive) but all of the themes I use are gtk based so they don't work on kde, I also wish that more desktop environments would let a user leave a message on a locked computer like mate does, tried it out and I think it is a great idea

Spoiler

 

[noahdvs]

6 minutes ago, flowalex said:

I think kde is great and I use some of the software they have helped create (kdeconnect, kirta, kdenlive) but all of the themes I use are gtk based so they don't work on kde, I also wish that more desktop environments would let a user leave a message on a locked computer like mate does, tried it out and I think it is a great idea

  Reveal hidden contents

 

If you use Arc, there's Arc-KDE, but I just like to use Breeze Dark. That message feature does sound like it would be pretty nice for someone who shares a computer. You don't have to use SDDM to use KDE though, so you could probably use that feature with KDE as your DE.

[flowalex]

3 minutes ago, noahdvs said:

If you use Arc, there's Arc-KDE, but I just like to use Breeze Dark. That message feature does sound like it would be pretty nice for someone who shares a computer though.

I actually have been moving away from arc to the Pop theme from system76 (the only difference between a system 76 computer and mine right now is the hardware) but since they only develop their themes and icons for Unity and now Gnome, but here is what is supported by that theme: GNOME, Budgie, Unity7, XFce4 Mate, LXDE  

https://github.com/system76/pop-gtk-theme

https://github.com/system76/pop-icon-theme

Spoiler

 

[noahdvs]

2 minutes ago, flowalex said:

I actually have been moving away from arc to the Pop theme from system76 (the only difference between a system 76 computer and mine right now is the hardware) but since they only develop their themes and icons for Unity and now Gnome, but here is what is supported by that theme: GNOME, Budgie, Unity7, XFce4 Mate, LXDE  

https://github.com/system76/pop-gtk-theme

https://github.com/system76/pop-icon-theme

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Not a fan of the brown and the serifs, but to each his own.

[flowalex]

Just now, noahdvs said:

Not a fan of the brown and the serifs, but to each his own.

The serifs are the font I set, I use to use the macbuntu pack to mess with people and haven't changed them because I am lazy I actually use the default Ubuntu font usually, 
 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

use ubuntu Mate. by default it won't look like windows, but if you go into the Mate tweak tool, and set the style to redmond, it will.

 

don't use kubuntu or ubuntu GNOME, those are really heavy on resources, and a netbook won't run it very well.