I'm not sure what part of Ubuntu does this (compiz? gnome defaults?) but if you hold Alt and middle click near the edge of a window (within 50px maybe) you can

I'm not sure what part of Ubuntu does this (compiz? gnome defaults?) but if you hold Alt and middle click near the edge of a window (within 50px maybe) you can resize in a very nice, clean way. It's much better than trying to hit the 1px edge.