Gnome 3

[Liam Proven]

On 2 December 2011 14:32, Jeffrey Gray <chevy4x4burb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, I am not using 2D or 3D Unity.  My beef with Unity was the
> stupid bar on the left that would not move.

The Launcher is on the left for an assortment of good reasons.

[1] The design goal of Unity was to efficiently use widescreens. On
widescreens, there is much less vertical space available relative to
horizontal space. Horizontal pixels are "cheap", vertical ones are
valuable. GNOME 2 panels did not work when rearranged vertically -
believe me, I spent a lot of time and effort trying. This means it
could not go on the bottom of the screen like Mac OS X's Dock does by
default. That "real estate" is too precious.

[2] This means it has to go along one vertical edge. Which one, left or right?

Well, by default, it autohides. When you move to the right of the
screen, it appears and may overlay your window. *But* scrollbars are
on the right, so put the Launcher on the right and whenever you go for
a scrollbar, the Launcher will cover it.

I have tried this arrangement on Mac OS X, trying to make it look more
like NeXTstep, the OS that Mac OS X is based on. (I preferred the
NeXTStep look, myself.) It worked on NeXTStep because NeXTStep
scrollbars were on the *left*. Mac OS X and Ubuntu ones are on the
right, mainly because MS Windows ones are on the right and everyone's
used to it now. Thus putting the Launcher on the right does not work.

[3] So, it has to go on the left.

This means special importance was attached to the top left corner -
it's where (on 11.04) you went to open the Dash. The Launcher and the
Dash are integral partners so they anchored the Launcher where the
Dash button would be - on the left.

It *is* the best place for it, for good solid reasons, and so, I
presume, to encourage people to get used to it, they fixed it there
and stopped you moving it.

Note that the GNOME 3 "dash" bar is on the left as well, and if you
can move that, I've not yet found a way.


> What I did was install the xubuntu-desktop package so it is kinda like
> Xubuntu.  I am contimplating wiping and reloading this weekend with
> the actual xubuntu distro iso.

That's fine. I am happy to hear that you like it.

But the things that you are complaining about are the way they are for
good solid reasons, so there is no point in complaining about them.

-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
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