You can disable all online features of the dash on System Settings-->Security and Privacy. As for Unity2d it was just sudo apt-get install unity-2d but it wa

You can disable all online features of the dash on System Settings-->Security and Privacy. As for Unity2d it was just sudo apt-get install unity-2d but it was removed after 12.04 if I'm not mistaken. That is why I still use 12.04 on a couple laptops. I think the time is running out for 12.04 updates, so I will need to change to something else. There is always gnome-session-flashback, I guess. Not sure if the kids will like it/want it, as they're used to Unity and it's their laptops...