unity-design team mailing list archive

[Ian Santopietro <isantop@xxxxxxxxx>]

I played around with this idea myself when I was working on my own shell.
The issue is that since end users don't really tend to use multiple
desktops, they were confused as to where their apps had gone. Power users
didn't like it because it felt like the system was trying to do their work
for them.

It was also difficult at the technical level to figure out which windows
should go on a new desktop, and which shouldn't (which may or may not be a
problem here). Also, what to do when the number of new apps opened
outnumbers the number of virtual desktops available. Mind you, we had a
system for doing nine desktops, at that had to be fixed at nine, but the
same difficulty can be applied here too.

On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 03:18, Jorge Ortega <jorge.ortega111@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> I find Unity approach to multiple virtual desktops extremely half-hearted:
> it just provides the option to used them and an icon which you can't remove
> from the bar.
>
> Unity could use virtual desktop in a transparent way:
>
> 1-Don't show icon if only a desktop is being used.
> 2-*Apps. should open in a new virtual desktop each. (by default)*
> 3-When more than one app. is open then the icon to switch desktops appears
> in the bar (it has to be very prominent)
> 4-Exceptions should be made, probably for configuration tools. For
> instance, when you open pulseaudio sound preferences this window should
> appear in the active dektop. The understanding is you are just checking on
> something or carrying out a very transitory task and close the app straight
> away. A case could be made for multiple isntances of the file manger as
> well: most of the time we are transferring files between windows.
> 5-The transitions between desktops (apps. in fact) should be very smooth
> and not sight-tiring.
>
> In short:
> current behaviour: apps open in the same space and the user has to put them
> in different deskops.
> suggested behaviour: apps open in their own space and the user has to put
> put them manually in the same desktops if they want to do it.
>
> Which such a behaviour the concept of virtual desktops becomes transparent:
> people would use them without actually realizing, you don't decide to use
> the feature or not, the feature is at the core of how your computer
> works.The way to do this doesn't have to be the traditional zoom out/drag
> and drop/zoon in: drag an icon onto other icon to move apps to the same
> space/desktop and gain focus on this desktop immediately.
>
> In this context minimizing seems to loose any sense: why do you wan to
> minimize an app that is not sharing its space with anything else?
>
> The above proposal has far reaching consecuences but would go a very long
> way towards simplifying how people use their computers.
>
>
> Failing to implement the above then please, get rid of the desktop-switcher
> icon and  bring back the possibility to minimize windows from the launcher.
>
>
> Jorge
> -
>
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-- 
Ian Santopietro

"Eala Earendel enlga beorohtast
 Ofer middangeard monnum sended"

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