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0e1f616
(Get the code!)
There are two "elephants in the room" for this bug.
The first is the poor job the Unity team is doing in explaining their position to the community, for which I opened this bug:
https:/
The second is the inconsistency and implausibility of the explanation. The "broader design goals" Mark mentions all the way up in comment 2, the original stated reason for closing this bug, have not been true since the release of Ubuntu 11.10.
What worries me more is the implausibility.
Some of the people adding their opinion to this bug are casual users. Some are power users. Some are seasoned software developers with quite a bit of experience in delivering working products with human-facing interfaces, as well as working with quality assurance. I'm one of them, and your explanation just does not gel. Yes, extra features add more testing scenarios. Yes, that requires more resources to manage. But ... come on, folk, all of this is totally manageable, even with the most elaborate and ornate testing methodologies. After all, you've managed the ability to change the width of the Launcher, right? Bugs may ensue with a movable Launcher, but they will be solved. It's not like you haven't taken risks with buggy features in the past: in fact, you took a huge risk with making Unity as a whole the default experience when there were plenty of *known* bugs. And bugs have a much better chance of getting solved if you cultivate good will with the community. Let us all remember: Pavel Golikov's patch was rejected. I was actually starting work on a similar patch at about the same time Pavel was, but obviously I have no interest in doing that now.
I'll be frank, with the risk of hitting a nerve: I think the Unity team has climbed up a tree and can't come down. They've been too quick to dismiss this bug, and overly defensive about their initial decision. After making such a defiant stand about the "won't fix", and after (some of) the community has responded with its own defiant stand, it's now impossible to back out without somehow appearing weak and undetermined.
Mark keeps stressing how important it is to make focused decisions in order for Ubuntu to lead, even if they are unpopular. But that's true only as long as the decisions are good. Another sign of successful leadership is listening to criticism, climbing down that tree, and admitting mistakes.
So, let's admit that the community's point of view might be the better one for Ubuntu right now and Ubuntu in the future. Canonical might not have the resources to fix this bug right now, but how about we remove the "won't fix" and plan a way to fix it sometime in the future? (I can't speak for Pavel, but I believe he would be happy to help!)
Better late than never.