Shuttleworth: A global menu for Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition

Does this mean it's going to be the same way as in Mac OS? I wonder what they would do to make Qt applications give up their menus. Develop patches for the library? Or just exclude all Qt apps from this edition? Well, good luck, Mark.

I have a hard time imagining how this menu bar is going to fit in there with all the other crap. I spent a few minutes today uncluttering my panel so I could see the application icons, and I'm on a regular 12" notebook, not a netbook.

By the way, I would like to point out that the notification area (or whatever they are calling it) which alerts you to your incoming messages is pretty much not compatible with the panel's autohide feature. When the panel autohides, I think the message notification should pivot to using OSD notification instead of panel icons.

And how will this work with focus-follows-mouse? Not. I guess.

If they are worried about vertical pixels they might try to fix the default font or spacing use in gtk treeview. Try to compare screens of itunes and rhythmbox list view...

Although there are undoubtedly those who argue that this is the right thing to do because it's what the Mac does, and some of those people may actually have something resembling a proper argument in claiming that the reduced screen space has to be more efficiently used than having menu bars at the top of each window, it should be noted that back in the days when vertical resolutions were less than those of VGA, other solutions to this problem existed. RISC OS, for example, had pop-up application menus.

Of course, this doesn't stop people from bringing out their own versions of the now-extremely-worn-out Fitts' Law, even though pressing a button to open a menu right next to the pointer clearly undermines the alleged superiority of the "can't miss the top of the screen" global menu solution, especially in terms of assertions about what is "less effort" or "less thought" for the user.

Here's the one thing that strikes me as odd.

Shuttleworth seems to be intent on not supporting touch-centric devices with the UNE interface. Like its a specific not designed for usage case.

That seems really short sighted to me for an interface meant to fill the space where netbooks live. The design decision to require a key press our a mouse over to make the application menu show up in the global bar...is going to be very very bad for touch-centric devices.

Now sure...it will work if you have a keyboard and a mouse/trackpad..but it seems like a very narrow set of design decisions given that the netbook space is gaining touch screen support. We know that touch-centric netbook/smartbook small form factors with detachable/hidable keyboards small are out there or coming and are going to compete in the same space as clamshell netbooks.

The design decision to require a mouse or a keyboard really seems at odds at where the device space is headed.

Compare that design decision with Moblin or Maemo or Meego...

Maemo had a global menu bar concept...with a drop-down application menu that works just fine with the touch-centric N810 and the N900

Meego... as stated that touch-centric is on their roadmap.

I just don't get the point of making design decisions for the UNE interface which aren't compatible with touch at this point. It just seems potentially short-sighted and limiting.

-jef

I'd like to have a single menu bar for the normal desktop version as well. It just removes clutter from the screen.