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Launcher should be optional on secondary displays

 

Hello all. I sent a bug report that was really just a wishlist item and was directed towards this list instead. I'll link the bug report for clarity's sake.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/938242

What I'm asking for is the ability to not have the launcher on a non-primary display, and to be able to independently configure when the launcher is enabled on all non-primary displays. For example these should all be possible scenarios,

2 monitors, one launcher on primary screen
4 monitors, one launcher on primary screen, one launcher on screen 4
3 monitors, 3 launchers

I think I would argue that anyone running 4 displays is capable of understanding that if they shut the launcher off on a secondary display there user experience has changed. And of course, the default would be to have a launcher on all screens -- it would have to be changed to support this idea.

Now, given the primary reason for this change is because I dislike the edge detection when crossing monitors, I am open to other ideas about how to solve this problem. For me, shutting off launchers on non-default screens (in my case I would go back to the <unity 5.2 configuration of having only one launcher -- I really liked that) solves the problem of edge detection.

So what's so bad about edge detection? I move windows and my mouse cursor back and forth between monitors, and the edge detection for the launcher between the monitors traps my mouse in a non-intuitive and annoying way :-( I am currently running a dual monitor setup, one screen on the left, the other on the right. It's not pleasant to work on both monitors given you have to slide your mouse thru the annoying trap in the middle constantly. My fluid mouse movements are interrupted, and I am forced to over accelerate my mouse to get across the edge. I have played with the sensitivity settings, but this has little effect as the issue is still there.

Other solutions maybe to remove the edge detection when crossing between monitors, but still allow the launcher to be accessed using the super key? The edge detection could stay on all monitors where there is no monitor to the left of it (aka, nothing to cross). Note that at the moment setting the 'autohide' launcher to off still causes edge detection in switching between monitors. This make no sense, as if the launcher is visible no detection needs to occur to display it -- it's always present. I did not see an open bug for this, so I filed one here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/938788

I will add that outside of this case, I am really enjoying unity 5.x. It's so much faster and more feature packed than the oneiric version. The stability has been great as well (though this edge detection sometimes causes X crashes -- my first compiz/unity crashes since Maverick :-( ).

Thanks everyone,

Nicholas

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