The repositioning of window button controls in Ubuntu 10.04 has undoubtedly been one of the most ‘controversial’ decisions taken by the OS team period.
They change can seem both trivial – they are just window buttons after all – and important at the same time (e.g. “my Nan uses Ubuntu, this will confuse her”).
The flames against the change have largely been fanned from the lack of clarity surrounding the issue; people are more inclined to be rational when rationale is provided.
Ivanka Majic, head of the Ubuntu design team, offered some insights into the discussion that led to the change early last week but, again, this didn’t answer everyone’s questions. Her post highlighted to me the fact that there is no clear cut ‘this is why’ answer to be easily given.
SABDFL himself Mark Shuttleworth provided his insights into the issue earlier this evening when responded to the ‘bug’ report on this issue. Not only does he help reassure users, he drops a massive imagination-baiting clue as to the benefits left-hand controls will bring to Ubuntu 10.10…
The default position of the window controls will remain the left,
throughout beta1. We’re interested in data which could influence the
ultimate decision. There are good reasons both for the change, and
against them, and ultimately the position will be decided based on what
we want to achieve over time.Moving everything to the left opens up the space on the right nicely,
and I would like to experiment in 10.10 with some innovative options
there. It’s much easier to do that if we make this change now. I
appreciate that it’s an emotive subject, and apologise for the fact that
I haven’t been responding in detail to every comment – I’m busy moving
house this week. But the design team is well aware of the controversy,
your (polite) comments and more importantly *data* are very welcome and
will help make the best decision.When we have a celebrity bug report like this, it’s a real exercise for
our values of communication, civility, and ubuntu. Thank you to those
who have pointed to the code of conduct when things get heated. And
thanks even more to those who FELT heated but didn’t let it show
Mark
Intriguing
I for one am incredibly excited by the thought of the right-hand space being utilized for something more meaningful than the usual window-fare of a menu button that no-one uses. In i was pretty stoked to see said ‘menu button’ nuked off the Lucid window borders – now knowing there is a deeper reasoning behind it is, well, mouth wateringly cool.
Oh, Ubuntu how i love thee…
14 Comments
This change does not really affect me, the only thing I find wrong with this decision is that ubuntu users where not told about any of the changes which would happen, and had to find it out themselves from the alpha release
–Louis Taylor–
http://louistaylor.wordpress.com/
I'll just use LinuxMint…they know how to treat a user…
A drop down menu of zeitgeist's relevant files to the current activity.
I know that Suttleworth said that Ubuntu Lucid would be "as good, if not better" that OS X, but we haven't asked for ANOTHER MacOS!
Having one bar at the top and one at the bottom was enough for me!
Then, they came with a Dock. Ok, it's eye-candy, people like it, fine!
Then, they came with round buttons with nothing written on it. I started to be septic.
Then, they changed the button layout to the LEFT!!! That's too much!
Now, it's clear that Shuttleworth don't want Ubuntu to be as good as Mac OS. He wnats it to be a MacOS for PCs!!!
It it keeps going in this direction, I swich to KDE, prehaps even to another distribution!
I just hope GNOME Shell is seriously not default on 10.10… after all the work put into the current ubuntu desktop, to throw it all away for a piece of half baked experimental software makes 0 sense.
Plus I hope they go with Compiz 0.9 (it it is out by then with the way things are going)…
wait, I'm off topic… GNOME Shell on the mind. LOL…
Yeah, i tried the new button positions and I must say I'm okay with them, until I need to use them. My muscle memory just screams NO!
And honestly, if we are expecting ubuntu to take root this year, we can't make silly moves like this.
If they plan to use the right side, why not just switch gears and use the left side the same way???
And… again, in light of dangerous moves, NO GNOME Shell for 10.10 by default. It is a bad idea, VERY BAD. And after this move they don't need anymore BAD IDEAS.
This is cool. I'm not sure about changing the order of the 3 buttons, but now I'm really glad about the placement of the button group. They aren't just trying to be like OS X — instead, they're not afraid to innovate. Can't wait to see what they come up with.
Wonder why they want more screen real estate on the right side, though. Seems like you could leave the buttons where they are, right-align the title text, and put this NEW 10.10 FEATURE on the left.
Well, time for the rumours to commence!
We still don't have a good rationale for that… I'll just change my buttons to the right, and when there's something nice to put on the empty space that we'll have on the right corner, I'll accept that decision.
If they do something interesting with the right side in 10.10, I might consider using left-side buttons. Until then, I'm going to use the convenient script you posted about to put them on the right. I'm still too worried about accidentally closing the window while trying to use the menus.
left hand side window buttons is the way to go…
I do find it clears up space on the right for a more soothing visual experience rather than having a "button-full" GUI
Despite that, I have always chaged it to the left throughout my previous OS experience (windows and linux).. never tried OS X until recently…
It probably feel more natural to me I guess.
How about you guys?
I agree, it'll definitely be very interesting to see what the right-hand side is used for. It's nice not to have somewhat redundant buttons on both sides…
I really wonder what they'll use it for though. I have no idea. I'm looking forward to said innovative changes.
It's a shame not everyone appreciated the fact that Mark doesn't want Ubuntu to be a cheaper version of Windows or MacOSX, collecting the safest features of the two. With unlimited resources, it would be great to develop different routes, of course. But changing the unthinkable remains a testament on how Mark is determined to innovate, and now is always the best moment to do it.
1. Moving the buttons around, makes no additional space, merely repositions the same space you already had. Therefore the argument is only about location, not space.
2. The hordes of Windows users, yet to be converted, lose one more "familiar action". I'm converting adults. This is not trivial. Please return the buttons to where newbies expect them to be.
3. The line of sight over any image forms an arch, starting from near top left and ending at near bottom right. It pretty much bypasses and ignores the contents in top right corner. Why not put the new stuff "up front" in line of sight, i.e. top left?
Interesting. Linux needs a Mark Shuttleworth, he has vision which Linux sorely needs.
BTW: I do prefer the buttons on the left. I wouldn't mind a few changes to the colour and window title placement, but it will be refined over time.
Just glad to see that it's moving. It important that it moves.