gnome-terminal background transparency

When using gnome-terminal with unmodified settings (which means unmodified terminal profile, unmodified gnome theme and compiz activated), You might notice that the background of the terminal is slightly transparent. This is the case even if though "Solid background" is selected in the profile preferences. Wonder why? gconf is at it again! Want the background to be really solid?
/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/use_theme_background must be set to false:

Code:
$ gconftool-2 -t bool -s /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/use_theme_background false

That's it! You're done!

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace

This is nothing You won't find easily with Google, but for convenience it's here, too:
By default, the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combo does... nothing. In order to have it kill the X server (that's what it used to do in the good ol' times), simply use the GNOME menu and go to "System"->"Preferences"->"Keyboard"->"Layout">"Options..."->"Key sequence to kill the X server" and mark the entry.
That's it! You're done (already)!

UPDATE: There is a key in the gconf database which controls this behaviour. The preferences set this key. However, changing the value of the key for the gdm user does not enable Ctrl-Alt-Backspace during the login screen.
A workaround is to just use Alt-SysRq-K (Secure Access Key) instead of Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. The effect in GDM/GNOME is the same, as the SAK combo kills every process on the active tty.

New Ubuntu themes and button positions

Ubuntu 10.04 looks neat. That is, except for the position of the window control buttons (minimize, maximize, close). Probably they thought something like "Hey, if Apple does it this way, it must be good!" and placed the buttons on the left side of the window title bar.
This sucks if You don't have a Mac and aren't used to it.
Fortunately, there's a way to "simply" change the position. It involves (once again) GConf.

Either use gconftool or the gconf-editor to access the key:

Code:
/apps/metacity/general/button_layout

If You're using gconftool - the key is of type string.
You can set the key to order the buttons in almost any way you want. Just specify the order in which the items should appear in the window title bar:

menu - a button for the window menu (the menu You get when You right-click the title bar)
: (colon) - the window title (will be placed at the end if omitted)
minimize, maximize, close - the respective button

The default is "close,minimize,maximize:" and the default in earlier distributions was "menu:minimize,maximize,close".
In case You just want back the good old layout, here's the command line:

Code:
$ gconftool -t string -s /apps/metacity/general/button_layout "menu:minimize,maximize,close"

That's it! You're done!