Nice mock-up!
I think when you scroll up (I know it’s really a lot to scroll) you see a similar discussion. And the consensus was that @didrocks will ask for both, the app grid and the activities branding on guadec.
So as @c-lobrano said none of both is our decision.
I agree that users are trained to use the app grid. But the windows argument is not that strong since it’s really something different than the start menu of Windows. It’s actually pretty unique. In Windows 10 this button’s functions are split into alt+wndows and Windows.
Yes I understand your point of view, but I feel that this is quite subjective (as you said with “IMHO” :D) and we have already discussed the dark menubar variant in the past.
It makes maybe more sense in the context of vanilla GNOME; there, it really is the one main menu for everything, so it makes sense for it to be branded like the start button (on vanilla GNOME, that being the GNOME footprint), as well as giving the shell a strong identity for users. That’s where you “start” when you turn your computer on; it’s like a table where everything is laid out for you. It combines the start menu and the task view, thinking in terms of windows. It’s the GNOME way.
It also makes sense in respect to Purism’s GNOME Mobile efforts: instead of an activities label, they’re using an up arrow to signify the “home” (which for now is just the app grid, but in the future will be the full gnome dash, if i read right). A pill works better than that, imo, as not only is it a more regonizable home button, it also opens the door to future gesture control the likes of which we’re seeing in iOS, Android, Moto phones, etc., that actually came from webOS, GNOME’s direct influence. It also just works visually on both desktop and mobile devices.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t still make sense in regards to ubuntu; the gnome dash is still the most important paradigm in GNOME, and basically what the whole experience is centered around. It’s still the “main table”. Using the ubuntu logo instead of the gnome footprint would make more sense for this instance, but it still serves most of the same purpose.
Also directed at @frederik-f
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The Communitheme team is happy to announce a new stable release!
During the first week of July we:
- improved Nemo experience, as promised
- refreshed alt-tab switcher and some colors improvement
- reviewed toolbar buttons style (hover effect)
- fixed some bugs in Nautilus and Gnome Terminal (backdrop and tabs)
there are also some important works in progress, but unfortunately they did not make it for this release 
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Not in the changelog I think, but I really like the new mouse cursors!
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Sometimes I lost track of suru side of the repo 
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The new cursor and busy cursor are excellent. The triple ring spinning wheels (loading icon) in software centre and file manager are also superb.
Please don’t change them in future . These icons have a uniqueness.
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Hello everyone,
@didrocks has asked the GNOME devs/designers how they feel about the big ubuntu logo as a replacement for the app grid button. The answer is that they don’t like it because the app grid button icon should symbolize the app grid.
What they are “ok” with, is to add a tiny ubuntu icon next to activities. As @taciturasa mentioned on github, this also matches the behaviour of some keyboard layouts (system76 for example) which place an ubuntu logo as a replacement for the MS Windows button ( and that “ubuntu”/windows/“super” button is bound to the activities-view)
Now I am trying to implement a good solution which looks good no matter how “long” the word activities is translated.
I don’t want to install “x” virtual machines for “x” languages. Thus it would be great if you guys could help and show a screenshot of your desktop after using these two commands (considering you are using the snap installation):
sudo snap refresh communitheme --channel=edge/gnome-shell-communitheme-pr240
then press
Alt+F2 --> enter “r” (“rt” is not enough) to reload the GNOME shell
Thanks in advance
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I’ll test the italian version as soon as I go back home 
Awesome work!
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As I’m an English speaker you obviously don’t need a screenshot from me to tell you what you already know.
The point of me posting is to advise that if the Application Menu shell extension is enabled the the word Applications not only overwrites the word Activities but the Ubuntu logo too.
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Sorry, I can’t provide any support for those kind of extensions at the moment (and I am a big fan of gnome extensions, “can’t live” without not-title-bar).
don’t know how window decoration works, but are those 1px lines something caused by communitheme or a firefox bug? i mean the left, right and bottom lines where you can “see” the wallpaper. it happens just in firefox.
with smaller window you can also see some little dark things near upper left and right corners.
@frederik-f -f, nice! I personally think this is the right direction and am glad that the Gnome devs met Communitheme team “half way” (I understand their feelings about the App grid button, but at least we get a Circle of Friends on screen this way). I’m personally happy with the agreed approach.
These are purely my personal feelings but here’s some feedback:
-
I actually prefer the 17.10 app grid icon, which diverges less from upstream, rather than this inverted one with dark dots on a white “squircular” background;
-
The circle of friends looks a tiny bit “blurry” to me (but… I know it’s often a choice between “blurry” and “blocky” with a small image, and it it may be that my eyes get used to it);
-
There are now a lot of different spacings in the top left of my screen and it looks a teeny bit haphazard.
In terms of the last bullet, the following spaces are the ones which, IMO, should be the same size:
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Horizontal space between left screen edge and logo;
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Horizontal space between logo and “Activities”;
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Horizontal space between the little icon for the active app and the app name (this is visually similar enough to “[LOGO] Activities” that I feel consistency would be better here).
Lastly, now that the word “Activities” won’t be directly over the launcher icons (and can’t be misread as their title)… is it possible/desirable to remove the faint “seam” between the two shell elements? I am guessing no but worth asking.
Current:
Proposed:
Little tweaks: horizontal spacing is more consistent; I’ve sharpened the Circle of Friends a little; I’ve removed the “seam” (I don’t expect this last tweak to be universally popular, but hope the other two will be considered anyway ).
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I feel the same (read the PR )
Why I would prefer the upstream icon, is that that one is not that visually penetrating. (If this is a word O.o).
I really appreciate the work of @taciturasa though! Thank you very much for your SVGs. No matter if we use them or not.
The Ubuntu logo is a) still to be decided on and b) depending on the technical possiblities I am trying at the moment. As you can see from the screenshots of people which use a language where the translation of activities is shorter than “activities”, there is space left.
At the moment I use a background which has the logo attached to the left but the text of the button is attached to the right. And I have added a min width. The problem is I can either use a min width or a maxwidth. Either way the longest translation or the shortest translation will be stretching the whole thing. 
I almost feel that this won’t work. But I keep trying
Edit: I think I’ve found a solution which is not perfect but the logo should be good positioned in all circumstances except maybe super long translations of activities like “деятельность” 
(taken from https://translate.google.com/)
I hope we’ve got some russian people here? I could change my language setting but since I can’t read russian… I would be kind of stuck once I’ve changed it 
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I don’t know the structure of the shell css and I can’t test because, again, my linux install is completely blown to the nethers and back, but I’d like to know if ::before could work as a solution? Basically, place the ubuntu logo within the ::before pseudoclass and give it only the size it needs for the logo, thereby never interfering with the Activities wording.
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Sadly that does not work : /
I am okay with the current solution in the PR though. I would only need to know how it looks on veeeery long translations of activities. But I could not find any longer than the german one ;O
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