Shuttleworth did a great job on the article, but I am disappointed that something of this GUI nature wasn't supplemented with some screenshots.
Single menu bar for Ubuntu
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
... and have the ambition of outdoing OSX in the user experience department. Is it really "outdoing OSX" if the UI is being done for a market that Apple isn't and doesn't seem to have an inclination of targeting? At least, for what the UI discussed in the initial link for this topic is about.
Sure it is - it may not be competing directly with OSX hardware-wise, but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs.
but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs.
The physical form of an 8" netbook isn't designed for the same type of use as a 15" — or even 13" — macbook pro is. Why should the UI be?
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure it is - it may not be competing directly with OSX hardware-wise, but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs.
but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs. The physical form of an 8" netbook isn't designed for the same type of use as a 15" — or even 13" — macbook pro is. Why should the UI be?
Perhaps I don't want to learn two interfaces, so it is sometimes better to choose consistency over some sort of pure ideal.
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure it is - it may not be competing directly with OSX hardware-wise, but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs.
but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs. The physical form of an 8" netbook isn't designed for the same type of use as a 15" — or even 13" — macbook pro is. Why should the UI be?
While this specific article may be focused on a UI change for the netbook, Shuttleworth's focus extends to the ubuntu UI in general. In fact, it may be wise choice to distinguish between pure desktop and netbook, time will tell.
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I personally wish they would go and buy a Mac and leave the desktop as it is.
Care to elaborate? Apple's products and Ubuntu are entirely different in how they are managed. While Apple's is an almost entirely closed ecosystem, Ubuntu's is almost entirely open. What's wrong with someone trying to innovate in the PC desktop space?
I don't consider copying a single menu bar as it is used on Macs since 1984 as an innovation. I detested the single menu bar on my Mac classic and I always thought the Windows way were preferable -- back then I was a Mac user. And I always found the arguments that Mac zealots put forwards in favour of the single menu bar, were ridiculous. And this post reminds me much to much of the justifications of back then. Those arguments were ridiculous in the 1990s and they still are in the 2010s.
If they thought the menu bar takes too much space, they whould work on minimizing it while it's not in use. But they shouldn't dislocate it from the window to which it belongs.
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#46I really admire Shuttleworth and the rest of the Ubuntu design team for being courageous about making basic changes to the desktop UI. Open source tends to produce a lot of design-by-committee or completely undesigned software, so having somebody making big decisions and experimenting is really valuable. Nobody else big is really doing this. There are plenty of alternative window managers for Linux or whatever, but f…
I personally wish they would go and buy a Mac and leave the desktop as it is.
Lack of competition will kill Apple, so even if you love OSX, you'd better don't wish that.
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Care to elaborate? Apple's products and Ubuntu are entirely different in how they are managed. While Apple's is an almost entirely closed ecosystem, Ubuntu's is almost entirely open. What's wrong with someone trying to innovate in the PC desktop space?
I don't consider copying a single menu bar as it is used on Macs since 1984 as an innovation. I detested the single menu bar on my Mac classic and I always thought the Windows way were preferable -- back then I was a Mac user. And I always found the arguments that Mac zealots put forwards in favour of the single menu bar, were ridiculous. And this post reminds me much to much of the justifications of back then. Those…
There's nothing ridiculous in Fitts' law.
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#48There are outstanding questions about the usability of a panel-hosted menu on much larger screens, where the window and the menu could be very far apart. Fitt's Law means that, in the relevant respect, the edge of the screen is always closer to your mouse than just about anything else.
Fitt's Law does not say edge elements are close to the mouse. It says edge elements are large.
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd like to ask why people think "copying apple" is a bad thing. They "copied microsoft" with how KDE looked before and now with a similar look with Gnome to OS X. Good for them. At this rate Linux will have it's very own unified UI system in place sometime in 2020 and it will be better than both. For that, I can't wait! (I never use sarcasm, just in case anyone was wondering)
I can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't say copying Apple is a bad thing. I think copying Apple is a pretty decent way to design a UI if you're not good at it yourself. It is, of course more admirable to come up with a good, original design, but I'm happy about anything that results in a good user experience.
You didn't say it, but generally when it comes up that's the implication. So I took the next leap and went on the defense trying to turn it into something awesomer. =)
Re: Single menu bar for Ubuntu
#50There are outstanding questions about the usability of a panel-hosted menu on much larger screens, where the window and the menu could be very far apart. Fitt's Law means that, in the relevant respect, the edge of the screen is always closer to your mouse than just about anything else.
Fitt's law says that the edge of screen is easier to target, that is not the same thing as being closer.
For example, if you have a very large monitor, or two monitors, you might have to move your perceptual focus far to focus on the menu bar, even though it is at the edge of the screen and easier to hit. Then you might have to move it all the way back to where you were to see what effect the command you just gave had.