Improve Unity Global Menu

Hot key support is planned for the appmenu, so that should help some of the issue. We are still evaluating global menu on desktops. Thanks for your input.

I think, this global menu could survive, but you need make apps in way, that users don't must go often to this menu (one button for settings in windicators place)

Global Menus (i.e., File Edit View etc) is NOT a good idea for a default setup on Desktop PCs. What is desirable though is the follow two things:

1.) when a window is maximized, the Titlebar merges into the panel so its contents are display in the panel. And when a window is not maximized, the user gets a traditional menu setup.

2.) applications should allow customization so that icons etc can be put (dragged whatever) on the Menubar (e.g., like Firefox presently allows). This can save enormous space. Applications like Nautilus, OpenOffice (LibreOffice) could use this functionality. Here's a screen shot of Firefox with everything I use to navigate the web all on the Menubar: http://img837.imageshack.us/f/screenshotdesktop.png/

Global Menus are good for maximized Windows on small screens like Laptops or Tablet PCs.

On my 24" Monitor with 1920x1200 or, even more worse, on my dual screen desktop, global menus are horrible. And I can't use the autofokus function for the windows. It is extremly difficult or impossible to get from the window into the global menu.

My Solution, give the users the option to set:
 [x] Global Menu on
 [ ] Global Menu off
 [ ] Global Menu only for maximized windows

Set the default for screens smaller than 1MPix (1280x800 or 1366x768) to "Global Menu on", the default for bigger screens to "Global Menu only for maximized windows"

You won't have much friends with "Global Menu on" only. This is my impression from many comments in lots of news and blog posts around unity

I'd suggest:
[ x ] Global Menu on
[ ] Global Menu off
[ ] Titlebar only for maximized windows

When using Microsoft-Windows-7, I park the Taskbar (panel) on the leftside of the screen (where the Unity launcher resides). Therefore, I have NO Taskbar or Panel taking up vertical space. When I open an application (e.g, Firefox), I have only the application's Titlebar and Menubar taking up vertical space. Like nick described, I also put all Firefox controls onto the Menubar. Unfortunately, the use of Global-Menus would prevent my multifaceted use of the Firefox Menubar. This will then make it necessary to use additional bars, resulting in less vertical space:

      Unity layout (with Global-Menus enabled) showing Firefox maximized:
             1. Global-Menu/Panel
             2. Titlebar
             3. Navigationbar

      Windows-7 layout (with Taskbar on left) showing Firefox maximized:
             1. Titlebar
             2. Menubar/Navigationbar

However, if Unity does not use Global-Menus but instead merges the Titlebar into the Top-Panel, then the vertical space offered in Windows-7 can be matched:

      Unity layout (with merged-Titlebar & No-Global-Menus) showing Firefox maximized:
             1. Titlebar/Panel
             2. Menubar/Navigationbar

Another option would be to allow users to get rid of the Top-Panel and put notification icons onto the Unity-launcher (like a Windows-7 Taskbar). But if a Top-Panel is used, without a merged-Titlebar vertical space is reduced. The Titlebar is necessary so people can identify what window they are seeing, so it can't be omitted entirely.

One of the things I love about Windows-7 is its use of button-icons which allow me to park the Taskbar on the leftside of the screen; thereby, optimizing vertical space. Although Unity's design intends to save vertical space, its use of a Top-Panel presents a problem. The use of Global-Menus does not solve this problem--in some ways it makes it worse while introducing additional problems. But merging the Titlebar into the Top-Panel when windows are maximized presents a reasonable solution.

I second nick's suggestion. For un-maximized windows whether global menu is good or bad usability depends a lot on screen size, type of application, user's habits. For maximized windows, on the other hand, it makes a lot of sense in most cases.
Having the option of activating/deactivating global menu for maximized windows only would allow everyone to choose according to his own taste.

It would be nice to have an option, but I'm afraid it's not going to happen any soon because Canonical's design team don't do compromises. That's actually the main reason why they are not able/willing to work together with upstream. That's why I've given up this fight and will use GNOME Shell. It's not perfect, but it has at least its original design. My friend uses Mac OS X and placed the dock on the left side. It all looks exactly like Unity (top panel, dock, global menu, window buttons,...). I still thinks the open source movement has higher ambitions than copying someone else's design.

Actually, a global menubar is bad when your screen is too big, whereas a "normal" menubar (inside the window), is ALWAYS good - whether your screen is big or not. So, there is no reason to make any compromise: just remove the global menubar and everyone is perfectly happy :)

And, just for clarification, of course the global menubar is still a good idea when the window is maximized, so juste keep it in that case only.

I don't see how the menu rendered once per each window could be good for smaller screen. It doesn't seem that julian's position is a logical one; especially for applications that tend to be maximized all the time.

So basically the only time when window menu is better would be when someone has a very high Res screen (> 1920*1200), and the application being used is not conducive to be used in a full screen mode. That is an extremely small corner case; and global menu is better for the rest of the combinations of native res and apparently across the board, in terms of saving screen realestate, fitts' law, and aesthetics.

"Julien Olivier" <email address hidden> wrote:

>Actually, a global menubar is bad when your screen is too big, whereas a
>"normal" menubar (inside the window), is ALWAYS good - whether your
>screen is big or not. So, there is no reason to make any compromise:
>just remove the global menubar and everyone is perfectly happy :)
>
>--
>You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to unity.
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/682788
>
>Title:
> Global menu is not ergonomical on large screens
>
>Status in Ayatana Design:
> New
>Status in Unity:
> Opinion
>
>Bug description:
> Global menu in general (not only in Unity) is very unergonomic on
> large screens (see the attached screenshot) because if you have a
> small window somewhere near the low right corner you have to move the
> cursor all the way up to to panel to reach the menu. I understand why
> the global menu was used for the netbook edition (it saves space and
> most windows are maximized), but since Unity is intended to be for the
> desktop edition there should be an option to switch to the traditional
> position of the app menu. It would be welcomed by many desktop users.

--
Sent from my enTourage eDGe.

@Chen, having the application menu inside the application itself is always the best position for it because it's obviously the shortest distance from the application window, by definition... So, yes, having the menu rendered once per window on a smaller screen IS very good for the user. And, is you tend to have maximized windows, as I said, it's better to use the global menu. So, my solution would fit all the use cases perfectly.

Generally global menu is ok, but the user does need the option to select the method which suits best.

In particular on my large screen I often have a lot of un-maximised gedit windows open - having to move the cursur all the way to the global menu every time is very frustrating.

Julien, I appreciate your sentiment;

But that is not a generally accepted view in HCI, and does not agree with
the basic biomechanics of the human body. Shortest distance does not
normally lead to the easiest way for the user to access some GUI element.
 Especially on a small screen, the easiest to hit is the location of the
cursor (e.g. right click menu); and a close second would be one of the
corner pixels of the display, and then the edges. Narrow menus under title
bars are actually some of the most difficult scenarios to deal with, and
really should never have been adopted for small to medium resolution
screens; which only carried over in places like windows or Gnome2 for
historical reasons and familiarity.

It is generally better to use some type of menu at the screen corner/edge if
the application window is sized to larger than a certain fraction of the
linear screen resolution in the relevant dimensions (depending on corner or
edge). The exact value is debatable, but the range is pretty well under
consensus by a lot of people. This means that with exception to very few
applications with excessively small windows (IM client, e.g.), the vast
majority of applications on a medium resolution screen will benefit far more
from global menus than from small, hard to hit menus under each title bar.
 This is without even mentioning the space savings and other benefits.

For very high res screens, I do agree with you, there are scenarios where
per window rendered menu system can be better. In those situations, it
would make sense, for example, on a 2560x1600 screen to have several
application windows occupy relatively small portions of the visible screen.
 But for these small corner cases, exceptions can be made at some
configuration during installation or user account setup. In all other
cases, it makes zero sense, and are prefered sometimes by certain users
simply because of the inertia of their computing habits. And we certainly
shouldn't try to force what you are suggesting on every user who have a
small to medium res screen.

On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 2:31 AM, Julien Olivier <email address hidden> wrote:

> @Chen, having the application menu inside the application itself is
> always the best position for it because it's obviously the shortest
> distance from the application window, by definition... So, yes, having
> the menu rendered once per window on a smaller screen IS very good for
> the user. And, is you tend to have maximized windows, as I said, it's
> better to use the global menu. So, my solution would fit all the use
> cases perfectly.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to unity.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/682788
>
> Title:
> Global menu is not ergonomical on large screens
>
> Status in Ayatana Design:
> New
> Status in Unity:
> Opinion
>
> Bug description:
> Global menu in general (not only in Unity) is very unergonomic on
> large screens (see the attached screenshot) because if you have a
> small window somewhere near the low right corner you have to move the
> cursor all the way up to to panel to reach the menu. I understand why
> the global menu was used for the netbook editio...

"So basically the only time when window menu is better would be when someone has a very high Res screen (> 1920*1200)"
I think a menu for every window is better from 1280x1024.

"... That is an extremely small corner case..."
Does anyone at least have statistics what resolutions are used the most among Ubuntu users? Otherwise, these talks have no point. I think the global menu is not necessary and better for the most users (just my opinion based on what resolutions myself and my friends use). I would say that because of minority of netbook users, majority of desktop users is forced to use less convenient way to work with apps.

BTW there is one thing most people who discuss use of global menus omit. It's the fact that it makes unclear for users what belongs to the open app and what does not. I remember how difficult it was for my mum to differentiate between what' "inside" the app and what doesn't belong to it. It may sound strange for us, power users, but for many people, it's not easy to see borders of apps. Until now, app borders were defined by windows. Unity changes it and confuses new users even more.

@Chen,

what you said is probably right, but my guts keep telling me that the global menubar is a solution looking very hard for a problem :) I have still to find one user complaining that she had a hard time hitting the menu inside the window. However, I have already heard many users complain that they don't know where the menus are, with Unity...

Definitely need an option to disable the global menu bar for not maximized windows. It really sucks that you first have to change focus to enter a windows menu bar.

i also vote for
 [x] Global Menu on
 [ ] Global Menu off
 [ ] Global Menu only for maximized windows

:)

I also would appreciate the ability to switch off the global menu bar for non-maximised windows, particularly for my 1600x1050 desktop. I use focus follows mouse & autoraise(*), and a global menu doesn't really work for me with several open non-max'ed windows.

BTW, I like the global menu a lot on my netbook - it really makes sense there.

Just my opinion... but not all users use the desktop according to the development team's original concepts, so it might be nice to have a bit of flexibility in how Unity can be configured.

(*)Since twm on SunOS 4 and yes - I am getting grey! I like this set up & I make my Win 7 desktop work the same way. Old dogs & new tricks :)

I have two 1920x1080 displays, global menu is good on my laptop.. not so much on the desktop on/off option defaulted to on would be appreciated. atm the moment of resorted back to awn

I love global menu integration on maximized windows. However @2560x1440 resolution, not only is it a chore to move the pointer up to the menu area for non-maximized windows, but often I will mistakenly interact with the menu of a non-maximized window, intending to bring focus to & use the menu of a maximized window behind. This situation arises frequently and I find myself constantly searching for click-able white space in a non-focused application window to bring focus before interacting with their respective menu. Arghhh!

Between this usability issue, and not being able to minimize windows with the launcher (bug #733349), the unity interface sure requires a lot more time, thinking, mouse clicks, and pointer movement to complete otherwise simple tasks!

Here's hoping these two glaring efficiency issues are fully addressed with Oneiric.

Oh, since this is an "opinion" bug, my vote for configurable options:

 [ ] Global Menu on
 [ ] Global Menu off
 [x] Global Menu only for maximized windows

My opinion: Fitts' law is overrated and people are taking it as gospel while ignoring much more important factors.

Fitts' law says that it is easier to move the mouse to menus located at the top of the screen because you don't have to carefully aim in the vertical direction -- you can just ram it up there and let it hit the top of the screen. Sounds logical, right? Well, consider the following:

1. Have you ever found it difficult to click on in-window menus? Is this actually a problem? I really don't think it is.

2. How often do people actually use menus these days? The menus are the place where developers shove all the rarely-used options. The actual action takes place inside the window. It seems like we should be applying Fitts' law to something that is actually frequently used. But no one is creative enough to figure out how to take arbitrary window content and shove it to the edges of the screen. It seems like people apply Fitts' laws to menus just because they are already traditionally located at the edge of the UI.

3. Context. Context context context. The way to pack a lot of functionality into a user interface without confusing the user is to make sure that each function is located contextually, so that the user can zero in on the thing they want to do while ignoring whole swaths of the UI that they know are unrelated to their task. By located the menu at the top of the screen, you are ripping it out of the logical context in which it applies. This is *confusing*. Now it looks like that window has no menus, and lots of functionality seems to be missing. Why on Earth would I expect a program's functionality to be surfaced way off in a separate bar which otherwise appears to be part of the desktop environment?

IMO, maintaining context is priority #1 for any UI, vastly outweighing Fitts' law. Frankly, Fitts' law is a funny quirk of the display surface that should be ignored, because trying to satisfy it almost always conflicts directly with maintaining context.

All that said, I think that merging the menu into the top bar is a fine idea when the window is maximized. You are not losing any context there, because the entire screen is being devoted to one application. This also happens to provide the perfect balance between small-screen and big-screen issues, because on small screens people tend to maximize apps, whereas on big screens they don't.

Anecdotally, I used OSX as a primary desktop for several years, and one of my main reasons for ditching it was the global menu, which I could never get used to. Whenever I had to do anything menu-intensive it became a huge pain (literally, in my wrist), and I often found myself accidentally manipulating the menus for the wrong application because I didn't realize which window currently had focus (it's not so obvious on a large screen). I do hope this becomes an option in the future; until then I'll have to stick with gnome 2.

Kenton Varda, you don't have to stick with gnome 2 in order to not use global menu. Just remove "indicator-appmenu" package. I've done that and Unity is usable for me.

I can see no objection to have global menus only for maximized windows. It solves the problem proposed by Sesivany's screenshot. At least, it should be configurable.

I think that merging the application menu with titlebar and "panel" works great for maximized windows. It saves space and removes clutter.

But for me at least, global menu is highly detrimental when working with non-maximized windows. The worst thing is not even the long travel of the mouse pointer, but the need to move the eyes to a completely different part of the screen. It costs me loss of focus. When the menu is inside the window, the contents stays within peripheral view while I operate the menu, and I believe that it helps to return attention to the object much faster.

Please consider returning the app menu inside the windows when they are not maximized, or at least have such behavior as an option.

I love the global menu. It's perfect for my 1366*768 laptops screen. But when using multiple unmaximize windows the classic menu bar is better than global menu

Having global menu enabled only for maximized windows, IMHO solves the problem reasonably enough.

I have tried Unity on both small screens and a moderately large screen and I have not seen any advantage in the global menu except when the current window in maximised. When working with multiple windows I find there is a cognitive load associated with my eyes having to scan over the other non-active windows to get to the top right. Having the menu options in close proximity to the app I'm working with allows me to keep focused (like Eugene Crosser). I also really like focus-follows-mouse (although I don't use auto-raise) and that doesn't work at all with the global menu if your mouse has to pass over a different app on the way to the menu bar.

A related thing that I can't believe nobody has mentioned is that the global menu options are not even visible at all until your mouse is hovering over the top bar (is it just me, is there something wrong with my setup that causes this to happen?). This seems like a real barrier to usability - how are people supposed to know there are menu options if they can't see them?

@Kenton: Fitts Law also doesn't apply to configurations where users set their Desktop borders as active regions for doing "something", the most trivial thing would be to use them to switch virtual desktop.

@Grant: The only way to see the menu atm is to move the mouse cursor to the top panel or press and hold alt key. And while you press alt the next step would be to press f or whatever other key is marked with an underscore.
No problem for me - using a 30" screen with 2560x1600...

We have OS X at work, and I can't tell you how often people get confused by the global menu bar. Users accidentally change focus to a different window, and end up using menus for the wrong program. Separating what the user sees as his or her "application" (i.e. the application window) from the menus confuses users, and for very little benefit. When the file menu is included in the window with the rest of the application, such mistakes are nearly impossible to make.

As a user of OS X and Ubuntu, I'm most disappointed by this decision. It's my least favorite part of OS X (nothing else even comes close), and I would be a much happier Ubuntu user if I'm given an easy option for turning it off in future versions.

the problem it's not the position, the problem is menubars itself. Aplications like calculator doesn't need menubars. And aplications like gimp ( it oviously needs) normaly works on maximized ( or very short distance) modes.

This is clearly a confirmed usability issue. Fact. Not opinion.

I really like the global menu idea, but for maximized windows only. The main argument used for it is to save vertical space, but when the window is not maximized it has the downside of demanding too much mouse traveling, and when several non-maximized windows are open and one has to constantly move among them there is a lot of confusion.

The main problem is for software like Gimp for example. By default, it has three windows and lots of menu options, and there is heavy use of menus and changes of window focus. Yes, a single window view will eventually come, but several people like the multiple windows and will keep using it. Besides, this is just one example out of several other cases and softwares with constant window changes and heavy use of menu.

The best solution would be the option to control global menu behavior like suggested:
[ ] Global Menu on
[ ] Global Menu off
[x] Global Menu only for maximized windows

menus by default on small windows (unmaximized) still makes the app ugly or adds visual clutter.

so there were some mockups that tried to solve this (hide the menu to avoid clutter, but let you toggle it to be used in the unmaximized window):

mockup1; windicator (minute 4:32; i would probably use a cog icon like chrome):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O6v9miJKGI

mockup2; attached to window bar:
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/unity-mockup-menu-integrated-in-window.html

any of the two would probably work, and make the global menu in ubuntu, 1 step ahead of mac + the space saving, less visual clutter and usability of the traditional one.

I made some mockups back in April which match what many people in this thread have suggested - Global Menu only in maximised windows. They are very similar to mockup 2 in the previous comment by manny . The difference in mine is that the whole window is the same colour as the title bar, and all empty space in the window (ideally the space which is the same colour) can be used to drag the window around.
I have also mocked up a few options for when the menu bar is longer than the space available in the title bar.

These changes would give us the usefulness of the 'Global' menu - space saving - but also keep the usability and ergonomicness of having the menu bar close to the window.

Here are my mockups - feel free to comment and criticise so I can make better ones: http://anaershadowynomaly.deviantart.com/gallery/29691776

@farran

love them.

of course am pretty sure they would want the menus hidden by default.

would be nice to also see some type of windicator to toggle "always on" visibility on an app you may use frequently like gimp.

but if they just add the menu to the non maximized app in the window border would be more than enough for now

if the solutions found in the mockups are implemented, ubuntu could also use a smaller and better looking wing type panel:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/692921

I'm confused.

This bug can only be solved in future versions of Unity. Since current is
Unity 7 and the design hasn't been changed, our first hopes go to Unity 8,
where Compiz won't be used at all. So unless Unity 7 introduces the desired
behavior in 13.10, which seems unlikely (since nobody has even mentioned it
so far) what exactly does all this "Compiz fix at a later release" means at
all???

2013/7/22 papukaija <email address hidden>

> It means that the work/fix has been postponed to a later release of
> Compiz.
>

Some news on this feature? It is my last major feature I want to see in Unity. Any plan to have it in 14.04 with Unity 8, it should be great ?

Unity 8 will not land before 14.10, at the earliest. Since they are not going to add new features to Unity in 14.04, do not expect to see this for years around.

I don't know the current status of this bug, but I made a patch to fix part of the issue.

The patch adds a GSettings option (com.canonical.Unity.Panel.menubar-always-visible) that allows making the global menubar always visible.

This patch was done with the unity in 13.10 repos right now, but it will probably work with trunk as well.

The attachment "This patch adds a GSettings option to enable having the global menubar always visible (com.canonical.Unity.Panel.menubar-always-visible)." seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

The patch provided by Ryan Koesters works when applied to Unity in 13.10.

I've build Unity and then I had a new GSettings option. When I checked that menubar-always-visible the global menu became visible all the time for all programs.

This should be available in 14.04 LTS for the people that don't like the default hiding of global menu. Of course it would be even better if this could be toggled from Appearance settings instead of dconf-editor.

@Mateusz Stachowski: I am currently working on a patch to do that for unity-control-center.

Will this patch "resist" updates?

2013/12/4 Ryan Koesters <email address hidden>

> @Mateusz Stachowski: I am currently working on a patch to do that for
> unity-control-center.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/682788
>
> Title:
> Improve Unity Global Menu
>
> Status in Ayatana Design:
> Fix Committed
> Status in Compiz:
> Triaged
> Status in Unity:
> Confirmed
> Status in “compiz” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in “metacity” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in Baltix GNU/Linux:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> ===+++ _____________________ ! ALL USERS ! _____________________ +++===
> ===+++ READ THIS BEFORE MAKING A COMMENT OR MODIFICATION +++===
>
> IMPORTANT 1: Please don't post any "me too message"; use the "Does
> this bug affect you?" feature you can find a bit above this bug
> description on Launchpad.
>
> IMPORTANT 2: Do not post anything if you haven't read all comments to
> verify that your point hasn't been made. If you feel tempted to stop
> reading because there are too many messages, that is a strong
> indicator that you shouldn't add even more comments. Developers have a
> tough time to find anything if you post redundant stuff. So please
> abstain from doing that.
>
> =========
> Global menu in general (not only in Unity) is very unergonomic on large
> screens (see the attached screenshot) because if you have a small window
> somewhere near the low right corner you have to move the cursor all the way
> up to to panel to reach the menu. I understand why the global menu was used
> for the netbook edition (it saves space and most windows are maximized),
> but since Unity is intended to be for the desktop edition there should be
> an option to switch to the traditional position of the app menu. It would
> be welcomed by many desktop users. Please try to find a solution for it
> that works.
>
> A commonly suggested solution is:
> [ ] Global Menu on
> [ ] Global Menu off
> [ ] Global Menu only for maximized windows
> The default is usually suggested as either the first (on) or last (on
> only for maximized windows).
>
> -------------------------------------
> Desired change:
>
> Implement the 'Enhanced Menu' project for 12.10. This project will
> address the issue described in this bug and also issues described in
> the duplicates of this bus. Note this is the 'official' bug that
> tracks the implementation of this project.
>
> The following options will be added to 'System Settings/Appearance':
>
> -------
> Menus
> Location: Global/Local
> Visibility: Hidden/Always displayed
> -------
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/682788/+subscriptions
>

@Aleve Sicofante: Can you explain what you mean by resist updates?

I attached the patch for the newly forked unity-control-center that adds the option to enable or disable "com.canonical.Unity.Panel.menubar-always-visible".

2013/12/4 Ryan Koesters <email address hidden>

> @Aleve Sicofante: Can you explain what you mean by resist updates?
>
>
I mean, will we have to apply the patch after each update? Sometimes
updates overwrite patched versions of Unity. I'm asking if this patch
suffers from the same or is it independent from ordinary system updates?

Thanks Ryan, if you could also implement a toggle to use global menu with maximized applications only, that would be great!

BTW: does the patch in its current form ever display window's title for maximalized windows?

@Aleve Sicofante: As far as I can tell, you will have to apply the patch every time.

@TomasHnyk: The patch doesn't show the title for maximized windows.

@Ryan Koesters: I've build today Unity and unity-control-center with your patches on Ubuntu 14.04 both worked without problems. I had to manually specify the files to patch unity-control-center because I probably used wrong -p option:

patch -p1 <

To install the packages I had to remove gnome-control-center-unity because it was in conflict with this new unity-control-center. This is screenshot of u-c-c with always show the global menu bar option.

http://ubuntuone.com/1JH80LwIm4Su2OM6gkYK5i

I had troubles with building the current Unity for 14.04 but not because of your patches so I used the daily build from Unity daily stack preparation PPA.

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-unity/+archive/daily-build

Your patch applied successfully but there were some offsets. Packages for Unity build without problems. When I installed new unity and libunity-core packages I had the menubar-always-visible option in dconf Editor.

http://ubuntuone.com/52zSHb6qp1Sd4zMj4XCefh

Some here seem to have a conceptual misunderstanding about human interface design. Technology and design improvements should increasingly conform the computer to the human, not the other way around. Confoundingly, not all humans work the same way. Regardless of which side of the debate you take, the hubris in the lack of configuration (formerly a highlight of Open Source) is inescapable. And, frankly, unreasonable.

So here we are, two years of argument later and no significant progress. All to save what? 24 pixels of vertical space? Ludicrous.

2013/12/8 David Wolfe <email address hidden>

> All to save what? 24 pixels of vertical space? Ludicrous.

Actually the global menu per se is not the issue here. Almost every
commenter likes it; just not the way it behaves _exclusively_ (not "by
default", since there are barely any options). So I would rephrase to say
"All to save what? A few hours of a developer introducing the already
designed options and just a maybe bigger but better code to maintain?"
THAT's the "benevolent dictator"'s responsibility and only his (just read
his despising words along the whole thread). His disdain for proper
reasoning and logic is simply appalling and frankly depressing.

Here's hope that some of the brilliant minds at Canonical (definitely not
his), will take on the responsibility of making Unity 8 a better Unity by
including AT LEAST the chance of add-ons that allow third parties to tweak
it. Creating non-extensible software in 2014 sounds unbelievably
prehistoric, so -again- I expect that we have AT THE VERY LEAST, an
extensible-by-design Unity. At that point, we can stop worrying about
Shuttleworth's reasoning skills and simply build persistent add-ons instead
of patches that will be overwritten every other week.

14.04 users can now, if desired, disable global menus on a per app basis in dconf. Should work for most common apps excluding nautilus, firefox/thunderbird & any qt4 apps like vlc, smplayer, ect.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Marco, the branch you linked appears to be two years old and was rejected, so how does that make this Fix Committed?

Is not it this: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/02/locally-integrated-menus-ubuntu-14-04?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=locally-integrated-menus-ubuntu-14-04&utm_reader=feedly

Nice, but the menus keep vanishing. This doesn't really solve one of the
most controversial issues. There must be a way to have the menus
permanently visible. Many (myself included) would rather have the window
title vanishing, making it visible when hovering over windows buttons or
the empty area to the right of the menu, for instance.

Otherwise, very nice indeed.

2014-02-20 23:33 GMT+01:00 TomasHnyk <email address hidden>:

> Is not it this: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/02/locally-integrated-
> menus-ubuntu-14-04?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=locally-
> integrated-menus-ubuntu-14-04&utm_reader=feedly
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/682788
>
> Title:
> Improve Unity Global Menu
>
> Status in Ayatana Design:
> Fix Committed
> Status in Compiz:
> Invalid
> Status in Unity:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in “unity-control-center” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in Baltix GNU/Linux:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> ===+++ _____________________ ! ALL USERS ! _____________________ +++===
> ===+++ READ THIS BEFORE MAKING A COMMENT OR MODIFICATION +++===
>
> IMPORTANT 1: Please don't post any "me too message"; use the "Does
> this bug affect you?" feature you can find a bit above this bug
> description on Launchpad.
>
> IMPORTANT 2: Do not post anything if you haven't read all comments to
> verify that your point hasn't been made. If you feel tempted to stop
> reading because there are too many messages, that is a strong
> indicator that you shouldn't add even more comments. Developers have a
> tough time to find anything if you post redundant stuff. So please
> abstain from doing that.
>
> =========
> Global menu in general (not only in Unity) is very unergonomic on large
> screens (see the attached screenshot) because if you have a small window
> somewhere near the low right corner you have to move the cursor all the way
> up to to panel to reach the menu. I understand why the global menu was used
> for the netbook edition (it saves space and most windows are maximized),
> but since Unity is intended to be for the desktop edition there should be
> an option to switch to the traditional position of the app menu. It would
> be welcomed by many desktop users. Please try to find a solution for it
> that works.
>
> A commonly suggested solution is:
> [ ] Global Menu on
> [ ] Global Menu off
> [ ] Global Menu only for maximized windows
> The default is usually suggested as either the first (on) or last (on
> only for maximized windows).
>
> -------------------------------------
> Desired change:
>
> Implement the 'Enhanced Menu' project for 12.10. This project will
> address the issue described in this bug and also issues described in
> the duplicates of this bus. Note this is the 'official' bug that
> tracks the implementation of this project.
>
> The following options will be added to 'System Settings/Appearance':
>
> -------
> Menus
> Location: Global/Local
> Visibility: Hidden/Always displayed
> -------
>
> ...

May I suggest we take a look at the description of the bug? At the end it says:

The following options will be added to 'System Settings/Appearance':

-------
Menus
Location: Global/Local
Visibility: Hidden/Always displayed
-------

Location has been masterfully solved by Trevilño. The second one is just a switch/checkbox away. C'mon we're almost there!!!

Hi!

Will the "Visibility: Hidden/Always displayed" option be added to the "System Settings/Appearance", in Ubuntu 14.04? Or is it too late? Would something like the screenshot in the attachment be possible for unmaximized windows? Thanks.

I proposed exactly that to Marcon Trevisan and he asked me to look for John Lea on IRC. I confess I haven't had the time (I've never used IRC before and haven't even learned how to).

Here's my proposal: http://blog.3v1n0.net/informatica/linux/ubuntu-introducing-locally-integrated-menus-to-unity-7/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#comment-1270843203

(there's a pretty interesting talk in the comments at that Marco's post)

While it probably is too late to put the title on the screen top bar and the menu permanently visible on the window title bar, Marco said he would put some gconf/dconf setting to make the menu permanently visible.

Fix Released in Unity Unity 7.2.0.

2014-04-03 3:55 GMT+02:00 Stephen M. Webb <email address hidden>:

> Fix Released in Unity Unity 7.2.0.
>
> ** Changed in: unity
> Status: Fix Committed => Fix Released
>
>
This is simply not true. Only half of the problem has been solved. The
visibility issue has been ignored by the design team so far. I don't know
if Marco has included the gconf/dconf key to partially palliate the problem
but that IS NOT a solution to the visibility part of this bug, only a
quick'n'dirty patch.

Please don't mark as fixed a bug that's only half fixed.

I can't find any dconf (gsettings) setting to make the menu permanently visible in Ubuntu 14.04 (Unity 7.2.0+14.04.20140416) :(

Marco Trevisan, it seems you forgot to add dconf setting to make the menu permanently visible, right?

Aleve Sicofante (sicofante) wrote on 2014-04-02:
> Here's my proposal: http://blog.3v1n0.net/informatica/linux/ubuntu-introducing-locally-integrated-menus-to-unity-7/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#comment-1270843203
> (there's a pretty interesting talk in the comments at that Marco's post)
> While it probably is too late to put the title on the screen top bar and the menu permanently visible on the
> window title bar, Marco said he would put some gconf/dconf setting to make the menu permanently visible.

I also can't find any dconf (gsettings) setting to make the menu permanently visible in Ubuntu 14.04. How to do that?

2014-07-10 21:59 GMT+02:00 Stephen M. Webb <email address hidden>:

> ** Changed in: compiz
> Milestone: 0.9.11.0 => None
>

Does this mean this will never be fixed? We're still waiting for the option
to keep the menus permanently visible...

I have a few Ubuntu installations (a lawyers office in particular) where
users are complaining about not finding the menus. Will I have to
completely uninstall the global menu?

> Does this mean this will never be fixed?

No, the milestone target for the upstream Compiz project was removed because this task does not affect the upstream Compiz project, it's purely a Unity thing.

May I ask what fix was released, Marco, and what's exactly the nature of the fix? Has it been fixed for the current Ubuntu version (14.04.1) or is it fixed for an upcoming one? If it's the latter, which one: 14.10 or/and 14.04.2?

@Aleve:

This bug was actually fixed by the Locally Integrated Menus release, but as for the option to make the menus always visible is something that we're going to fix ASAP.

By the way, since I think that it's a different bug, then I prefer to close this and moving to another clean bug for the visibility thing (and feel free to open it, if there isn't another).

Marco: that would be this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/955193 - right? It is a duplicate of this one but has some design to it.

Four years have passed and we still have no permanent menus and most of the issues posed by this bug remain acknowledged but unsolved. I can't quite get what the process is, but it just isn't working.

Are these issues being looked at in Unity 8 at least?