I like the focus to change when I move my mouse so that I can type in one window whilst having another window on top.

To make this happen in Ubuntu 10.04, go to System -> Preferences -> Windows and click the tickbox next to the statement, “Select windows when the mouse moves over them”.

I prefer a simple desktop environment free from whizzy graphical effects. In particular, I didn’t like the whooshing between desktops. I think of my desktops as discrete spaces and didn’t want them to appear connected in any way. In particular, I didn’t want to be able to move a window halfway off the left-hand side of the screen and then find it on the desktop to the next desktop over. How disorienting!

To disable the default

Navigate to System -> Preferences -> Appearance
Click on the ‘Visual Effects’ tab
Choose the ‘None’ option
Click ‘Close’

This freed me from all the unwanted effects.

(To disable only the desktop whooshing and not other graphical effects, perhaps it would be worth exploring ubuntu-tweak. After Ubuntu Tweak is installed, it can be accessed via Applications -> System Tools. I suspect playing around with “Compiz Settings” under the ‘Desktop’ heading could help. I may try this if I find a nice feature missing now that I’ve turned off visual effects, but for now, I’m happy.)