UDS-M: Ubuntu Netbook Edition global menu is going to rock; demonstration

By Benjamin Humphrey, Published May 12, 2010

There were a couple of UDS sessions today that covered the new global menu for Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Netbook Edition. It was decided that the global menu will be tested in Maverick Netbook Edition and a PPA will be available for Lucid users to help test as well. During the first testing phase, both the menu in the panel and the menu in the window will be visible so testers can ensure they are the same – that the right information is getting parsed through to the panel.

After alpha 2 of Maverick, the window menu will disappear and only the global menu will be available. During this time work will be ongoing to fix applications that don’t work too well with the new menu.

A lot of people have thought this would only be for GNOME, and only for GTK. In a session today at 5pm local time, there was a demonstration that shows the technology working in Qt and GTK across GNOME as well as KDE.

Remember, this technology will only be present by default in Ubuntu Netbook Edition, but desktop users will be able to easily install it too.

Note that the video is still being processed.

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. UDS-M: Sound menu Changes coming In Ubuntu Maverick
  2. Ubuntu Developer Summit Maverick plenary and keynote: New Ubuntu "instant on", netbook shell, more
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  • http://twitter.com/meepdancesshit callum saunders

    i want it

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      2 weeks then there’s a PPA to start testing it with apps! :D

  • Anonymous

    it will work only whit native gtk-app or also whit application whit a gtk-like gui (like firefox or chromium).
    Because globalmenu bar work only whit the first type of app.
    –
    Sorry for my engrlish but i’m italian :p

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      AFAIK – Firefox and Chromium will work with it.

      • lumpy

        It may work with Firefox, but the issue with Chrome/Chromium is that it doesn’t have a menu with the exception of some of the option windows :-( There’s a Chromium bug on this for gnome2-globalmenu, but Chromium devs don’t seem to keen on adding such functionality.

        However, even if it would work with Firefox and other xul apps, that’d be fabulous as that’s the one thing keeping me from using a global menu already :-)

        • Anonymous

          Evan Martin from Chromium is here and we’ve already started talking about the menu. In ~2 weeks when we have a PPA for Lucid (it will be in Maverick already) we’ll be better able to get everyone banging on these apps.

        • Anonymous

          Yes, additionally, the plan is to block the ability of apps to allow hiding the menu like elementary Nautilus and Midori :/

        • Ethana2

          global menu support is the reason i dumped FF for Epiphany. I’m on Chromium now because it identifies as Ubuntu instead of Debian and doesn’t display an in-window menu bar either.. but I can’t work without my global menu, if something doesn’t work with it, I don’t use it.

        • Ethana2

          global menu support is the reason i dumped FF for Epiphany. I’m on Chromium now because it identifies as Ubuntu instead of Debian and doesn’t display an in-window menu bar either.. but I can’t work without my global menu, if something doesn’t work with it, I don’t use it.

  • Anonymous

    This seems to be a more efficient interface when compared to the existing netbook interface. I want it too!

  • http://rockbot.upperland.net Iuri Fiedoruk

    This is cool, but I do not see how this will actually “rock”. KDE2 and 3 had this feature, I never used, it is way too “mac” to me.
    Looks like Ubuntu and gnome are each and every single day turning to be a apple clone, let’s see:
    - hate to MDI (see gimp)
    - buttons on the left side of the window bar
    - purple wallpaper
    - realist icons are becoming iconographyc lately for both…

    Maybe Ubuntu+Gnome should be renamed to free-tutty-fruit?
    (this is not a critic, just wondering why is that, and why not simply honestly assume to be a OS X clone)

    • Ethana2

      If OS X had hardware support worth a darn, a lot more people would use it. We can take those potential users instead if we make our platform a better Mac than Mac, and we can.

    • Ethana2

      If OS X had hardware support worth a darn, a lot more people would use it. We can take those potential users instead if we make our platform a better Mac than Mac, and we can.

  • w1ngnutt

    Why the hell they won’t make it available for the desktop version!? It’s awesome!

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Pretty much the last sentence reads: -

      “Remember, this technology will only be present by default in Ubuntu Netbook Edition, but desktop users will be able to easily install it too.”

  • daas88

    Cool! I like that you can put the menu into a single button, I’ve always wanted to have that to save some space.

  • Xorlathor

    I don’t like it. I don’t really see how this is such a great improvement, and it’s a copy of Mac OSX – The Ubuntu devs need to spend more time coming up with their own intuitive ideas and solutions, and stop copying Apple…

    • godhika

      This is not a Apple only thing – Amiga for example had it also. Look here http://design.canonical.com/2010/05/menu-bar/ for a thorough examination of the different design options and why they choose this one ( and why they don’t want to go that way on bigger screens). People should stop crying Mac OS X copy every time – they (the design team) carefully choose the options for a new and hopefully better UI and sometimes this means using design decisions people know from Apple but often for a different reason or in different context.

    • Anonymous

      new ideas like the status menu, messenging menu, integrated social, instant on systems, and doing it all for free.

    • Adam

      It’s only for the netbook edition and it makes sense there. It isn’t needed on desktops and it won’t be used in the desktop edition.

      • Xorlathor

        Okay that makes more sense. I guess it could be helpful for a netbook, but I hope they keep it away from the desktop edition. And I have no clue what Gnome 3′s gonna look like in Ubuntu 11…

        • Anonymous

          Dude, before commenting, read the story well don’t just watch the video. Ubuntu might have something here and there from Mac, but when everything aligns you’ll see why Ubuntu is doing what’s doing.

          Stop whining people!!!!

  • Vinaooo

    no PPA?

  • Raja

    does any one know what font is used in the for the title bar and content area in the qt applications shown in the video(KDE). Thanks

  • http://twitter.com/CalumSult CalumSult

    For a netbook that’s pretty slick.

  • Ubuntu

    Wow… the ubuntu team are really improving (in ripping off Mac OS X)

    • Animesh

      The menu that way will add vertical space for more content , its being done with a reason ,
      And if mac has done it and its the best way to add screen estate , whats wrong ,

      Mac aint producing Netbook version . its only NETBOOK specific.

    • Anonymous

      all for good, since we already perfected ripping off windows. Take whats best and incorporate it.

  • Rodrigo

    Will be available in 10.04?

  • aperson

    So, canonical is re-implementing gnome2-globalmenu. I thought the adage was that good coders code and great coders re-use? Why duplicate an existing project when canonical could throw the gnome2-globalmenu guys a bone and focus their efforts somewhere else?

    • Anonymous

      who says their not working off that code?

  • http://sinlugareneltiempo.blogspot.com/ Rubenmv

    Last Monday I read about this on a post I found on Planet KDE
    http://agateau.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/getting-menus-out-of-application-windows/

    There’s a PPA for KDE widget, but I haven’t tried it, I can’t say how it works :
    https://launchpad.net/~agateau/+archive/ppa

    Will be cool to see this working on both Gnome and KDE thanks to DBus.

  • bhm

    Wait a second. Something fishy here. There’s KDE logo in the corner. Panel “feels” a bit KDE-ish too. AFAIR KDE4 widget(whatever you call it) worked with GTK apps already(not my personal experience keep in mind). Why there’s no GTK app show too?

    Don’t get me wrong. I’m almost over-excited for this, but there’s some alarm going up in here.

    Also, For gods’ sake, fuck off already with this OS-X in this case. Best way to get some screenspace on netbooks – copy or not. On desktop it’ll be your choice. Even if not, do this distro-hop already please.

  • Anonymous

    heheh crazy geeks luv em

  • Anonymous

    The global menu is, imho, the only real superior feature offered by the Mac UI – it offers a consistent place for content that’s only relevant to what you’re doing at a particular time (you only ever want to use the menu for one window at once) without wasting valuable screen space (ever think about how much unused space the menu bar (*in each window*) wastes on your sceen?)

    If they get this working in FF/OO/Chrome, they’ll be my heroes forever.

    • Anonymous

      about 10 pixels… :D

      • Anonymous

        10px high times usually about 1000px wide–that’s literally 10,000 pixels wasted on non-informative, non-decorative space.

        Now multiply that by however many windows you currently have open.

        I know you’re joking, but seriously, the global menu (regardless of OS) elegantly eliminates that waste.

        • Anonymous

          oh, i know. i was just trying to be funny. :D

          • bhm

            Well, mister. You weren’t. Now go back to your room!

          • Anonymous

            hahahahaha.

  • http://twitter.com/dummyxl dummyxl

    I use global-menu for a while now and loving it. (14″ laptop). it is the first thing i do when I install ubuntu. p-)
    you can find a ppa on the Internet for it.

    It save space but qt apps are not working at this moment here. and I use tiny menu for firefox

    screenshot –>
    http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/sQ5Ndh4PFIA44piRWtcZrw?feat=directlink