Things to check out in (Ubuntu) Linux

The default setup of Ubuntu is still not on par with Windows or Mac OS X:

• An icon-based application switcher with previews is missing.
• The option for a Mac OS X - style global menu bar is coming in the next Ubuntu release.
• The Ubuntu Menu is clearly separated into Applications, Places, and System, but requires several clicks to get you where you want to go, and does not support search.
• The File manager does not support quick preview of most file types.

In this post, I offer solutions for these four issues. I believe each is worth trying for anyone using Ubuntu Linux. Most are possible to try under other distributions as well, though you may need to compile things from source or search for alternate binary releases to the ones I present here.