I originally did a few things with gnome-tweak-tool but it does seem a tiny bit broken on my build.

- Use the latest available version of Oneiric at the time (right now I believe it’s Beta 2). This will save time installing updates and will get you off on a more stable start.

- If you want it more like elementary, you’ll want to remove a lot of the Ubuntu stuff. This includes Unity, Thunderbird, Firefox, the GNOME Games. Banshee, etc.

- Remove appmenu-gtk and appmenu-gtk3 to kill the weird flashing menubars.

- There’s some behind-the-scenes configuration you’ll need to do to get it even more like elementary OS. This includes:

– Turning off all the wallpaper drawers through dconf-editor and gconf-editor (I think there are three places to turn off the GNOME and Nautilus drawers) since pantheon-wallpaper handles drawing the desktop.

– Switching the GTK theme to elementary from within dconf- and gconf-editor. You’ll have to change it in the GNOME interface (org/gnome/desktop/interface/gtk-theme), Metacity theme (/apps/metacity/general/theme)., and maybe one other place.

– Switching the fonts to Droid Sans, size 9. Again, multiple places inside dconf- and gconf-editor (org/gnome/desktop/interface/ and others).

– Switch the icon theme to elementary-mono-dark in dconf-editor (org/gnome/desktop/interface/icon-theme).

– Set your window decoration to the new elementary layout in gconf-editor (“close:maximize” in /apps/metacity/general/button_layout).

– Set the date indicator to show day, date, and time in dconf-editor (com/canonical/indicator/datetime/). I also typically hide the calendar and show locations there.

- Some things need to be installed from bzr to get the latest development versions (which sometimes include fixes or interface changes, like Slingshot). There are instructions for compiling/installing included with each of these:

– Slingshot: bzr branch lp:slingshot

– Granite: bzr branch lp:granite

– Pantheon Wallpaper: bzr branch lp:pantheon-wallpaper

That’s about it. Obviously, you could go on and on until it’s nearly identical to elementary OS. But the above gets it pretty stinkin’ close and it’s what I use as my preferred setup. There’s also a *lot* more that goes into making elementary (like actually packaging everything and building it package-by-package from a seed). And of course, the standard disclaimer…

DOING ANY OF THE ABOVE VERY WELL MAY DESTROY YOUR INSTALLATION AND MURDER A KITTEN. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU MAY NOT RECEIVE SUPPORT OR HELP IF YOU FOLLOW THE ABOVE PROCEDURES.