unity-design team mailing list archive

[Nicholas Skaggs <nicholas.skaggs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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