Is there a real reason to keep the “Unity look” in the default Ubuntu, other than just the look?
The top panel in Unity had a job to do, holding app menus, the global menu, while the gnome-shell’s top panel is just taking space, giving nothing much, especially useless on small laptop screens. Most important, gnome apps don’t carry any app menu top panel.
The Ubuntu dock, a fork of Dash to Dock, only configures the Gnome shell’s Dash, which doesn’t have much possibilities. It cannot minimise, maximise from the dock. It cannot hold a clock. It cannot hold notifications and so on.
On the other hand, the Dash to Panel had placed the gnome shell’s dash in the top panel. The D2P can be placed now in the all four sides of the screen. Everything on one panel/dock, the minimise, maximise is available and so on. If D2P is chosen for default Ubuntu, then only one external extension has to be maintained. Actually, doesn’t have to be maintained, except to change view-app-grid-symbolic.svg to an ubuntu logo icon. Then, the only other extension to maintain would be the desktop-icons. So, less trouble.
After all, most of the users would immediately install D2P, even though Ubuntu “hides” the chrome-gnome-shell, synaptic and so on, users do read the 'net.
Then, there’d be Ubuntu remixes coming out with D2P and the popular Manjaro would also replace D2D for D2P, now that D2P can be placed on the left side.
Personally, i disagree with that for several reasons :
First, having just one panel at the left side can be interesting, but it can also create a lot of new trouble as the shell compenents haven’t been made for that. It could create graphical issue when they’ll go to the split-popover look for the calendar, for instance.
It would also get a mess for people that install extensions for some more functionnality : Just by adding caffeine and some other extension, I could make the new vertical panel (that have less space than an horizontal panel) way less usable for Application switching. Remember that Ubuntu also add the appindicator extension by default.
And tbh, even if it takes 24 px more, I think that the current “dual panel” situation have the advantage of being way cleaner in that you get one panel for all the “system” stuff, and another one for all the “application management” part.
If D2P is chosen for default Ubuntu, then only one external extension has to be maintained. Actually, doesn’t have to be maintained, except to change view-app-grid-symbolic.svg to an ubuntu logo icon. Then, the only other extension to maintain would be the desktop-icons. So, less trouble
It would be as much work as Dash-to-Dock : as with Dash to Dock, the desktop team would have to fork dash-to-panel to ensure that it show only the supported settings (in order to have less stuff that could break), and that it can’t bypass QA, exactly as they do to dash-to-dock.
So with all that, I personally think that would be quite a lot of trouble to add dash-to-panel in vertical mode to Ubuntu. Not really any “gamebreaking” problems, but it would add more trouble that it would save imho;
That would not be necessary. D2P is gnome shell’s dash + the top panel. D2P allows the top panel to be placed in 4 sides now.
D2D for Ubuntu dock is just there to look like the Unity Launcher, but it can’t replace it. Either the original, or none at all.
Dash to Panel is an icon taskbar for Gnome Shell. This extension moves the dash into the gnome main panel so that the application launchers and system tray are combined into a single panel, similar to that found in KDE Plasma and Windows 7+. A separate dock is no longer needed for easy access to running and favorited applications.
then only one external extension has to be maintained.
I don’t see how dash-to-panel will provide app-indicator and desktop-icons. Regarding app-indicator you seem to be confusing having applets in the top-panel with the support for a legacy protocol that app-indicator provides. Except that dash-to-panel provides support for that protocol, which I don’t know but I believe it doesn’t, it couldn’t replace app-indicator. Not to say, desktop-icons.
Desktop icons is a different matter, for which there’s an extension. Only talking about the Unity Launcher-like left panel. And, without the top panel at all.
It’s not a different matter since I’m answering to a explicitly quoted statement that says no other extension will have to be maintained.
Plus, regarding app-indicator, I believe you’re still assuming you get a systray for free, maybe because of the confusing wording in the description of dash-to-panel “application launchers and system tray are combined” while neither systray nor app-indicator are listed as provided features of dash-to-panel. This makes me think that systray is loosely used there to refer in general to the place where applets live.
If D2P is chosen for default Ubuntu, then only one external extension has to be maintained. […] Then, the only other extension to maintain would be the desktop-icons
Ok, I don’t want to be aggressive, I’m just trying to state that the post is very assertive in that the proposed change will simplify extension maintenance a lot, which is simply not true, because it only replaces dash-to-dock with dash-to-panel. And every time I made my point @chanath ignored everything about app-indicator and about the misleading way the case for dash-to-panel was presented, so I felt the need to elaborate. Sorry for my last response about how to write anyway, I shouldn’t have counterattacked to the remark about how to read, even if ill-intentioned.
The point is to drop the “Unity look” with a left side launcher and a top panel, that doesn’t hold the app menus as in Unity. Neither the Unity Launcher nor the Unity top panel can be recreated in Ubuntu Gnome shell. The Gnome apps don’t have a top app menu, so the matter of the global menu is simply not there. Therefore, a top panel as such is not needed on the screen.
EDIT: Below is Manjaro Gnome with D2P vertical panel. It came with D2D that looked more like today’s Ubuntu default. But with D2P vertical, things get equalised.
The top bar has a purpose. Mainly for people who use mouse input more than keyboard. Top left to view the activities overview. Right next to it is drop down menu for current active application in the current work space, which has shortcuts (i.e. Firefox has ability to launch new widow or private window, or with Video player you can play, pause, etc.) The middle has time and date, also when clicked is the notification area, as well viewing weather any other timezone you have added. To the left we have icons related to wifi, bluetooth, power etc.
I don’t know if its time to change from Ubuntu Dock to D2P, but when there was problems with Ubuntu Dock the other day D2P was mentioned as a workaround. I installed it in the bottom position and has been using it since.
It provides a W10plus experience and is extremely feature rich and easy to customize.
As far as I can see it provides all the functionality compared to the two panel configuration.
@chanath it is really nice that you discovered dash to panel. And it’s a really good and polished extension. Yet Ubuntu users expressed that they prefer a panel and a dock. Dash to panel also misses notification badges and progress bars as far as I know.
Sarcasm is all right. Some people needs it, when nothing is around.
Discoveries; D2P since it appeared in the horizon few years ago. The 2 panel idea, one vertical, one on the top, since 2010 with Ubuntu netbook edition. I’ve discovered Ubuntu around 2005.
Sure, I don’t use Gnome shell for daily work. But, I “play” with it (and other distros/DEs) sometimes. Most times trying to break them – quite an old idea in the Linux world, usually called testing.
Anyway, you guys are lucky that no one these days care to “remix” Ubuntu (default) any more. If at all, only Zorin, but with its own “system” extensions, but without the shell peaking out. And, the Zorin brothers keep the extensions, the bottom panel close to their shirts.
The idea of the left launcher began with the netbook edition. (Btw, I have a copy of EasyPeasy still.) The former UBuntu’s left launcher and the present Ubuntu’s left launcher are not the same and never will be. The present one is not Ubuntu’s like the old one, but someone outside. So, maybe its time to find its own panels/docks like the old days.
If the upstream shell would offer the dash (the dock hidden in “activities”) permanently or if the overview/activities mode would be the default I think the dashtodock adoption wouldn’t have happened. But hiding all app shortcuts is not a good design for the average user (there is an upstream bug about this somewhere) though it might be the perfect setup for some power users. Imho putting everything inside the panel is not the answer because it’s too full of things to click at.
