Re: [Ayatana] Is it time we killed "minimize to tray" ?

[Сергей <shnatsel@xxxxxxxxx>]

With GNOME-Shell coming, arises problem of managing small windows

which you need to always have here at hand. The greatest problem are

chat windows. Yes, replying from the notification is good, but what if

you need to copy a link from Firefox, then return to a chat window and

paste it? Switch to the overview, look for that window, choose it...

these are three simple steps, but they take time, and when you need to

repeat them all the time, it's really irritating. Chat windows used to

be one click away. Some ideas on solving this:

* Give every such app a tray icon. This doesn't eliminate or unify the

notification area, and it means that the icons should again open main

window on left click. Requires reverting changes from Lucid, but

probably will work.

* People applet? (A nice mockup:

http://sites.google.com/site/drewkerr/gimmie-corners.png)
 But, even if

you make it one-click, it would either not show who is who either

clutter the interface a lot. Chats are usually placed inside one

window in tabs, so this seems redundant. And we have calculator etc.,

so this does not solve the problem.

* Another hot corner, showing a "widget layer" with chats etc.?

Doesn't make you perform less actions, but animation is faster and

it's easier to pick the right window.

* Such windows can form another sidebar on the right, which will be

brought up on throwing cursor beyond the right edge of the screen.

Such sidebar could replace the application tray, it's more visual and

easily acessible, and can hold calculator, transmission, rhythmbox and

anything you want be at hand, but not clutter your workspace. Isn't it

the superior metaphor you are looking for?


Yours faithfully

Sergey Davidoff