Install Gnome3 / Gnome Shell on ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)/Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick)

While Gnome3 vs Unity debate is going on, you can test drive Gnome3 or Gnome Shell in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty or Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick. After being initially impressed with new features introduced by Unity, I found it less useful and to a certain extent unfriendly to high resolution monitors, if you feel on similar lines, you might want to give Gnome3 a try. It has quite a few similar features but it doesn’t seem to be written on and for a netbook PC. However if you really want to see Gnome shell in its full bloom you ought to check out the latest Fedora 15, which ships with Gnome3, it looks awesome!

Here is how you can install Gnome3 on Ubuntu:

Install Gnome3 on Ubuntu 11.04

Open the terminal and run the following in succession, you start by adding the repository for gnome3

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Install Gnome3 on Ubuntu 10.10 users

Open the terminal and run the following commands

Note:- This PPA works but it is outdated

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/gnome3-builds

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome3-session

After completing the installation log out and log back in, select GNOME Session in GDM.

Remove Gnome3 from Ubuntu

If you want to get rid of Gnome3 you can do so by running following commands in terminal

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

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