Ubuntu

[Leo Mauler]

--- Luke -Jr <luke at dashjr.org> wrote:

> On Thursday 13 March 2008, Leo Mauler wrote:
> > *Default* KDE has:
> >
> > 1) A "Start" menu in the lower left corner, 
> > which is very similar to Windows.
> 
> Hm, I wonder why. Obviously, the left is logical 
> for left-to-right languages.  Which means that 
> even if we assume there are no other reasons for 
> top/bottom, the choice is between being similar 
> to another common OS and use the bottom, or using 
> the top just to be not Windows.  What reasons are 
> there to use the top over the bottom?

> > *Default* GNOME has:
> >
> > 1) A "Start" menu in the upper left corner,
> > completely unlike Windows.
> >
> > 2) A user application/applet bar at both the 
> > top and bottom of the screen, again completely 
> > unlike Windows.
> 
> Why? Just to be "completely unlike Windows"?

One thing I particularly enjoy about using both top
and bottom is the division between the "menu and
applets" bar, and the "desktops and running
applications" bar.  Instead of one bottom taskbar (in
Windows and KDE) which has to hold everything, a top
and bottom bar means more of what I'm doing is visible
at any one time, and no application names are being
abbreviated or erased in their buttons.  I also get to
see day of the week, date, and seconds in addition to
the time, without having to increase the width of a
single taskbar or further shrink everything else on a
single taskbar.

I don't know if KDE does what I call "application
instance stacking", where three instances of, say,
Notepad, are stacked in a single button in the
"running applications" section of the bottom bar in
Windows.  If KDE does do that behavior then I have
another reason to dislike KDE, though I'm afraid its a
bit of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't"
situation for KDE, because the alternative to
"application stacking" is to shorten the application
button size until the text is unreadable.

Obviously I could do more to make my workspace more
efficient by really customizing my window manager, but
as I haven't had a lot of free time lately, having a
top and bottom bar in default Ubuntu Linux has made me
rather enjoy using Linux (and made Windows in many
ways downright painful).  Multiple desktops might
alleviate the "crammed tight bottom bar"situation in
KDE, but it just doesn't seem as efficient as the way
GNOME does it.


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