unity-design team mailing list archive

[Ed Lin <edlin280@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Phong Cao <phngcv@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> What I am talking about here is SWITCHING and MANAGING applications, not
> OPENING applications. In Shell I just need ONE CLICK to manage ALL OF MY 9
> WINDOWS.

The panel is for switching, opening _and_ managing "Applications".
It is not for managing windows because Unity is application-centric.
But G3 is application-centric as well. It got the same kind of
launcher/dock. And like the mother of all app-centric OSs, Mac OS (X)
they now all use expose/scale to manage windows in addition to
alt-tabbing.
Windows 7 is coming from a strictly window-centric taskbar but has
incorporated some dock like behavior, however not without neglecting
the *window* management too much - you can still manage every one of
your windows from the taskbar. Hence it "manages" to do without a
proper expose feature.

As promised I just posted "Ideas for Unity 2.0 (no global menu, no
panel, improved info area...)"
Have a look at section 2 and the mail it references to.

Please tell me what you think of G3 expose vs the taskbar in G2 in
terms of managing open windows.

> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Evan Huus <eapache@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Phong Cao <phngcv@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > About Unity & Gnome Shell... none of them is better than the other. It
>> > depends on the users.
>> > I am the kind of user that never open less than 5 windows at a time.
>> >
>> > As I explained above:
>> > 1. Try to open 3 maximized windows of Chrome, 3 maximized windows of
>> > LibreOffice, 2 Terminal windows and 1 Nautilus window.
>> > 2. Now switch between the windows of different applications. You can
>> > easily
>> > see that:
>> > - In Gnome Shell: I hover the mouse to the top-left, which takes almost
>> > 1
>> > second. Then all 9 windows are shown on the screen for me to choose
>> > from.
>> > This makes things simple and easier.
>> > - In Unity:
>> > + The best way to switch between applications in Unity is using the
>> > keyboard.
>> > + Other than that, I will have to hover the mouse to the left and then
>> > "guess" "Where is my Chrome/Terminal/LibreOffice icon?" to click on.
>> > + This causes lots of confusion and time consuming since everytime I
>> > want to
>> > switch between DIFFERENT applications I have to "guess" the icon
>> > position
>> > again.
>> > + This should not be a problem if you keep the left panel always
>> > visible.
>> > However, Gnome Shell does not sacrifice any horizontal screen space and
>> > still achieve the result I need.
>>
>> There is perhaps a design flaw in Unity that this feature is not more
>> discoverable, but if you move your mouse to the top-left corner then
>> the launcher appears on top so you don't have to guess. This makes the
>> process almost identical to that of Gnome Shell:
>>
>> 1) Move mouse to top left
>> 2) Pick application/window
>>
>> regardless of whether you're using Unity or shell.
>>
>> > Lastly, please do not use the age of Unity as an excuse. I am tired of
>> > people saying that "Because Unity is just ... months old and Gnome Shell
>> > has
>> > been.... decades old so Gnome Shell is better".
>> > Gnome Shell will always be older than Unity and Unity will always use
>> > this
>> > statement as an excuse for its weaknesses. Unity will hardly improve if
>> > its
>> > developers use age to say it is better or worse than Shell.
>> > Weaknesses do not come from age. They come from the design philosophy of
>> > the
>> > developers.
>> > If the philosophy is wrong from the start and left unchanged, Unity will
>> > hardly gets any better regardless of its age.
>> >
>> > On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 8:58 AM, Shane Fagan
>> > <shanepatrickfagan@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 12:50 AM, Phong Cao <phngcv@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> >> > I am too have been for a long time a Ubuntu's fan. However, I am not
>> >> > trying
>> >> > to be negative but... I would say that Unity's design is way far
>> >> > behind
>> >> > GNOME Shell in Fedora 15. I recommend anybody in this email list try
>> >> > out
>> >> > Fedora 15 & GNOME Shell and learn from their simplicity. (Just my
>> >> > thought,
>> >> > no offense). After couple days get along with Fedora 15 & GNOME Shell
>> >> > I
>> >> > feel
>> >> > that GNOME Shell is more newbie-friendly and productive than Unity. I
>> >> > think
>> >> > Ubuntu should reconsider going back to GNOME...
>> >>
>> >> Ok im not being negative or anything but both emails you put in on
>> >> this thread haven't explained why you think shell is better.
>> >> Also it has to be said that Unity (compiz) isn't around very long
>> >> compared to Shell since it was made for 3 years and all and
>> >> Unity compiz anyway is only 6 months of work ish. The reason why im
>> >> mentioning that is there are still many many changes
>> >> and iterations to come for Unity in which it will get better. What you
>> >> can bank on though is Unity is faster and more stable.
>> >>
>> >> The cool things about Shell are the really nice looking animations on
>> >> things there is a lot of nice finishes on everything and
>> >> that stuff comes with time. In terms of Unity and why it is better is
>> >> the simplicity you can do a lot more with the search in the
>> >> dash than you can with Shell and the sky is the limit on lenses and
>> >> all that nice stuff.
>> >>
>> >> --fagan
>> >
>> >
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