I installed Ubuntu 12.04 this weekend. The Unity interface is not my favorite, but I guess we are pretty much stuck with it. Anyway, I found a couple things that make using it easier. First, it took me a long time, but I found them. Here are the keyboard shortcuts for the Unity UI and the launcher.
https://help.ubuntu.com/11.10/ubuntu-help/shell-keyboard-shortcuts.html
These seem to be the most relevant shortcuts for controlling the UI.
I was also wishing I could get the menu back. Turns out you can with Classic Menu Indicator. Check out the details here: http://www.noobslab.com/2011/07/classic-menu-indicator-on-ubuntu-1104.html
I know they need to try to push the UI forward, but why do you have to take the menu away. It takes almost no screen real estate. These UI experiments, and that's what they are, should not be forced on us. Instead, it should be very easy for me to switch between the new interface and the old one. Both Windows and OS X do this, why can't Ubuntu?
