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Locally Integrated Menus Arriving in Ubuntu 14.04

posted by Dopefish on Sunday February 23 2014, @02:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the community-feedback-at-work dept.
kef writes "According to a blog post from the Unity desktop team, Ubuntu 14.04 will move the application menus back into the application windows, starting in Unity 7. Spread improvements, HighDPI support, new decorations, and the usual bug-fixes are also making it into the new LTS release. Is Unity starting to grow up?"
 
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Iskender on Sunday February 23 2014, @12:57PM

    by Iskender (470) on Sunday February 23 2014, @12:57PM (#5221)

    One thing that always surprises me is the amount of passion generated due to, in my mind, small UI changes. When Unity came out there was so much vitriol I was terrified to upgrade. When I did switch to 11.04 about a month after release, I was actually "disappointed." Okay, menu moved to the left hand side, now I search for stuff using the shell instead of hunting in menus. Honestly the former did not matter to me, and the latter was quite nice since it meant it was easier to stick to the keyboard.

    There certainly always is a bit of hate at the beginning, before anyone has a chance to get used to the changes.

    However, after that there are two camps: those who get used to the new interface, and those who don't. I gave Unity a chance, and I've seen used it for a year. But I'm switching as soon as I have the time to do it (likely in summer). It just doesn't work for me.

    It obviously works for you. It basically comes down to needs. These are my problems:
    * Something like ten general configuration options.
    * No configuration options for the dock other than autohide in the LTS. Meaning, no configuration for the main UI element.
    * You can install compiz manager for more, but it warns of conflicts, and often doesn't work. (???)
    * Instead of clicking an icon to open an application, I click another and type the name. Wasted effort.
    * Program launchers and programs compete for space: you quickly reach a point where you either have to use fewer programs, or scroll to get at the interface.
      And above all:
    * Task-switching does a disorienting dance so I don't know which window I came from. There are no descriptions for window content in the dock (unlike in a taskbar), so you have to use this.
    * No option to un-stack several windows from the same application in the dock! Meaning I sometimes open documents in another application just so I can easily click between them. In any other graphical OS I've used single-click switching of windows has been possible. Not so in Ubunty Unity.

    Basically I'm wasting clicks and typing all day long, every day. I *have* grown used to the dock being there all the time: I wasn't sure I would before. I just wish they had actually done even a decent job with it. As things stand, I've gained nothing and lost a lot. The 12.04.4 release changed the look and broke Stellarium, too (hooray "LTS").

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  • (Score: 1) by aos on Sunday February 23 2014, @01:23PM

    by aos (758) on Sunday February 23 2014, @01:23PM (#5232)

    From what I can gather then, it sounds like you use the mouse a lot more than me. From that perspective, I think I can agree that the mouse experience is degraded compared to what I recall from the Gnome 2 days.

    As I have grown older, I've avoided the mouse more and more; lifting my hands from the keyboard breaks up the workflow. I find it has also helped reduce strain in my arm because my arms are properly supported by the chair arm rests with the keyboard. When I want to switch apps, I use alt+tab rather than going to the Unity launcher, and wait a brief moment for the app group to expand if I use multiple windows/instances. When I want to open a new app, I hit the "Windows" key and type part of the name. Same thing with switching workspaces, ctrl+alt+arrows.

    I wonder if the preservation of the keyboard usability was intended or just an accident ;).