[BLUG] help with switching to Ubuntu

I'm considering switching from OS X to Ubuntu and have been trying to migrate my work over there this week. I have a few questions though, and I thought I would see if you guys can help since I know there are several knowledgeable users here that have helped me in the past!

I posted this to the ubuntuforums site, but I'll reproduce these questions here (this all applies to Gnome)...

Thanks in advance for your help!

post/question set #1:

I have a volume mounted via SSH, and I'm noticing that the application associations I have created in /usr/share/applications/defaults.list don't seem to apply.

Is there a way to fix this? Is there a way to get files opened from network volumes to respect the associations in the defaults.list file?

post/question set #2:

Here's the deal: I use Ubuntu at work and am contemplating a switch to Ubuntu on my home machine too, but I'm kind of stuck with years and years of Mac experience ingrained into my skull. To make the transition a little less painless, I'm wondering what sorts of tweaks are possible to make Gnome behave a little more Mac like?

Here are some of the things I would like:

• an OS X dock that doesn't require Beryl (I'm stuck with an ATI X600, so no Beryl unfortunately), a shift to a more application rather than document centric computing approach.
• key bindings remapped to use the smaller Apple style keyboard, so:
  • control + A to go to the beginning of a line like in emacs, rather than the "home" key (I'd happily remap select all to control + shift A or something), control + E for end of line (end key)
  • backspace key for deleting mail in Thunderbird rather than delete key
  • switch between windows within an application (apple + tilda on the Mac)
  • control T for new tab in Gnome Terminal rather than control + shift + T. A consistent key command to switch between tabs in Firefox and the Terminal (e.g. Control + Alt + cursor arrow rather than page up/page down)

I know I should probably just get used to doing things the Ubuntu/Gnome way, but if there are ways to kind of ease me in that would be fantastic!

--  Joe Auty NetMusician: web publishing software for musicians http://www.netmusician.org joe@netmusician.org