To set the buttons on the left when using
metacity:

Alt + F2 then type gconf-editor

Then on the left panel click apps -
metacity - general

After that on the right pannel go to Button-Layout and
change the value to:

close,maximize, minimize:menu

You can arrange the buttons
the way you like, set them in the order you want separated by commas and the
colon separates left side from right side.

You’ll have to add Panel/panel-bg-leopa rd.png as background for
your panel using panel properties dialog (right click on an empty
part of the panel and choose “properties” in the menu).

LINK
http://gekos.n o/art1/images/storie s/panel-bg-leopard.p ng