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Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

markshuttleworth.com

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Re: Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

#31

Post by mst »

cookiecaper wrote: post #23
spot wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they did.

Ah, I didn't see it; the only explanation I ever saw was "we said so, sorry". They probably should have tried to publicize this more. Do you have a link?

Honestly, I'd've happily taken "because we want to remind people of the Mac, not win32" as a reason. Which is what I inferred and seemed perfectly good justification for a "we said so" type decision.

Of course, in light of this I may be blowing smoke out my ass here, but I'm still in favour of it for that reason even if it wasn't Canonical's reason.

Re: Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

#32

Post by motters »

Hey Mark, it would have been a good idea if you'd mentioned this in the context of the whole "buttons on the left" debacle. At least then there would have been some justification for the UI change other than the nebulous "frees up space nicely on the right".

Maybe he just enjoyed watching the ensuing drama.

Re: Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

#33

Post by Qz »

viraptor wrote: post #30

I still don't get it. Why change the position of the controls and put indicators there? Why not use the left side for the indicators and remove the `arrow`? Maybe I'm becoming one of the tinfoil hat people, but: They change the controls position and allow the application itself to draw the windicators. Application knows nothing about the controls position or the theme really, so it's possible that ubuntu applications…

I think the ~6 icons was to demonstrate the color scheme (red/green/blue/black) described later in the article.

Re: Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

#34

Post by LeChuck »

cookiecaper wrote: post #23
spot wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they did.

Ah, I didn't see it; the only explanation I ever saw was "we said so, sorry". They probably should have tried to publicize this more. Do you have a link?

"Our intent is to encourage innovation, discussion, and design with the right of the window title bar. We have some ideas, and others are already springing up in the community."

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/light-themes/...

I think it was mentioned in other places too but I can't find it now.

Re: Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

#35

Post by ElliotH »

barnaby wrote: post #26
lincolnq wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Analogously: Ick! So they are taking a chunk off the bottom of the window for a couple icons that could just as well have lived in the title bar? Seems needlessly complicated and cluttered; just put all the icons in one place.

I like that! Put more stuff in the title bar of the app. Except, in Netbook Edition when you expand an application you no longer see its title bar.

The plan I believe for Netbook edition is to incorporate these icons into the global menu.

Re: Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

#36

Post by dman »

Ubuntu user here. I am a bit wary of this change because it breaks the visual consistency from a desktop POV. In theory this idea is great if people used the same icons and conventions. Sadly consistency is not one of linux'es strong points. I fully expect java, tk, qt, gnome, wxwidgets to each design their own window decorators which behave / appear ever so different. Perhaps it would have been better to expose some inbuilt "Windicators" via a DBus service and applications that wanted to show a windicator could set a message to the DBUS service. To be fair maybe the Ubuntu folks have a perfect design for this, but since they havent released it its hard to be optimistic. edit to add more pessimism - This will only make life more difficult for tiling window managers like ratpoison, xmonad, awesome that dont support window decorators, because many apps will go ahead and just assume the presence of a window decorator on every window.

Re: Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

#37

Post by windsurfer »

DrSprout wrote: post #7
windsurfer wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might make more sense for window controls to also be status applets, since not all windows can be minimized, maximized, or closed. For instance, if a particular window is no longer needed and only showing some completed action, the close button could turn green. If there's an error, it could turn red. If a process could take a long time, a progress bar could appear and the minimize button could turn green. If a we…

>since not all windows can be minimized, maximized, or closed. This is one of the worst usability problems on the desktop. Granted, it doesn't show up in the "default configuration" but do a little thing like change the text size and that dialog box that won't let you resize suddenly is completely broken. Though I suppose this is part of a bigger problem, that changing fonts is by design a "power user" feature.

In Gnome, all windows can be resized.
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