Unity

Bug #668415
Comment #256

Comment 256 for bug 668415

Revision history for this message

kfsone (kfsone) wrote on 2011-12-21:

#256

@mark

It's also worth noting that some of the facts described at some point within this ticket have actually been addressed by yourselves: As of the current 11.10, I am able to get the launcher bar at the left-edge of the left-most screen, rather than in the middle of my combined display, by using the monitor control panel [caveat: I have made no effort to distinguish this from using the left edge of the secondary display vs the left edge of the left-most monitor, or how it would cope with vertically-stacked monitors].

However you had previously stated 3 reasons for wanting a fixed-location launcher bar:

1. Productizable consistency/supportability (move the mouse to the launcher bar on the left of the screen);
2. Elimination of an option.
3. Aesthetic of conformity with the location of the Unity/Ubuntu button,

1 and 2 combine somewhat, and you used notebooks / tablets as a 3rd-party consumer case for offering a fix-format display, with hardware-button alignment.

#1 would be at odds with any vendor who wants to use a different display form factor: my HTC Trophy, for example, the bar would take 1/3rd of the display if presented vertically vs 1/6th of the display presented horizontally.

#1 is also out of touch with vendor needs. If you want to ship to RTL countries, they last thing you need is the most fundamental component of your UI being so blatantly LTR-centric. Duh.

#2 is at odds with the addition of the auto-hide option, which is often suggested as a compromise to the relocation option ("just turn on auto-hide").

#3 no-longer applies, and only applies in perfect cases: if you have a non-conformant display configuration, the status bar along the top of the screen may not even be present on the same display or to the same extents as the launcher bar.

It strikes me that the problem here is that many of us - perhaps we're old farts too set in our ways, perhaps we're grognards or power users - but many of us like our desktops to be desktopy, while Canonical is aiming to unify the Desktop and Netbook spins, to the ends of making Ubuntu as a whole more accessible. But wouldn't you be better served by a simpler shift: Migrating "Ubuntu" to "Ubuntu Advanced Desktop" and "Ubuntu Netbook" into the default "Ubuntu" spin?

@mark

However you had previously stated 3 reasons for wanting a fixed-location launcher bar:

1 and 2 combine somewhat, and you used notebooks / tablets as a 3rd-party consumer case for offering a fix-format display, with hardware-button alignment.

#1 is also out of touch with vendor needs. If you want to ship to RTL countries, they last thing you need is the most fundamental component of your UI being so blatantly LTR-centric. Duh.

#2 is at odds with the addition of the auto-hide option, which is often suggested as a compromise to the relocation option ("just turn on auto-hide").

It strikes me that the problem here is that many of us - perhaps we're old farts too set in our ways, perhaps we're grognards or power users - but many of us like our desktops to be desktopy, while Canonical is aiming to unify the Desktop and Netbook  spins, to the ends of making Ubuntu as a whole more accessible. But wouldn't you be better served by a simpler shift: Migrating "Ubuntu" to "Ubuntu Advanced Desktop" and "Ubuntu Netbook" into the default "Ubuntu" spin?