Re: [Ayatana] Making workspaces great (branched from "Farewell to the notification area")

[Tyler Brainerd <tylerbrainerd@xxxxxxxxx>]

While I like the basic concept, there are going to be severe limits. First off, what about vertical desktops? I have a 2x 2 setup, and its worked wonders for me for keeping organized. I personally can't stand the stick em all in the line organization. Secondly, do we want to implement adding workspaces on the fly? Third, I think the basic functionality here, while certainly not bad, will be very neatly coded by Google Chrome OS and in Gnome-Shell, to the point of why bother starting from scratch.

However, "Second, am I the only one here annoyed at the fact that
there is a *huge* waste of space in the middle of the top panel? This
would be a very good and use of it."

Absolutely. I've never seen a monitor small enough that the top panel is used well. UNR has hit on something special with the maximize program (I forget the name. maxumize? max-something?) and i think a better use of the visible panel would be to perhaps have 2 or 3 visible. One for your current workspace, and then one or maybe two permanent, on every workspace, tab. These could function similarly to widget-layers for email, IM, music, or similar type things. So for a 2x2 workspace, on eace, 1,2,3, and 4, the workspace itself is the first tab, and then common to all workspaces are the second two.

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 1:27 AM, Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> It's a good point. The workspaces experience has languished, and I'd
> like for us to climb in and improve it substantially. At the moment, we
> do a half-hearted job - we ship what's there but as you say, only
> configure two workspaces. I'd be inclined to say "ship without
> workspaces" so that we are at least definitive about the position for
> the moment.
>
> I'd welcome a discussion about how we could make workspaces *great*. If
> we can do that, then we would make more of them. And your contribution
> above is a useful start: great workspaces give you easy access to some
> apps regardless of the workspace you happen to be in.

I'd love that discussion too. :)

A tabbed system like Robin mentioned sounds very nice to me for two
reasons: first, it's very familiar as tabbed browsers are nearly
ubiquitous now. Second, am I the only one here annoyed at the fact that
there is a *huge* waste of space in the middle of the top panel? This
would be a very good and use of it.

Brainstorming a little bit, I think a very nice way to visually show
workspaces this way would be extending the wallpaper to the tabs.
See the (ugly) mockup I'm attaching here, what you guys think?


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