Some of the other themes in System -> Preferences -> Appearance have the buttons on the right side. For example, select "Clearlooks" as your theme and the butt

Some of the other themes in System -> Preferences -> Appearance have the buttons on the right side. For example, select "Clearlooks" as your theme and the buttons will go to the right. Ambiance, Dust, and Radiance have the buttons on the left. New Wave, Clearlooks, Dust Sand, and the high-contrast options are on the right. This was a change from earlier betas where changing the theme would not change the location of the controls (and, for me, is much appreciated even if I know how to use gconf-editor).