[Ayatana] Compact Menu View

[Eric Pritchett <eric@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'd like to suggest having a Compact Menu View mode enabled by default for most windows/apps.  The thinking is if a user only uses the File, Edit, View, Help, etc 5 times out of 100 and uses the icons below it 95/100 times then wouldn't it be better to hide the menu?  (please note I don't have real numbers, but I imagine it's up there for something like this to make sense)
Instead of seeing the menu why not have  a drop down menu and make things more clean and simple.  I've attached a rough mockup.  The left image is what you currently have while the image on the right you'll see a button on the top right window that when pressed will drop down the menu (file, edit, view, help, etc).  The placement of the button can be place on the left side too I just put it on the right side to see what it looks like.  Of course this view can be switched on or off by a check mark box.  Thoughts?

Eric Pritchett

Attachment: compact-menu-view-mockup.jpg
Description: JPEG image