global-menu support for Firefox 4 in Ubuntu 11.04 available to test

By , Published January 13, 2011

Natty alpha testers keen to gain Firefox app-menu support now can, thanks to the work of Ubuntu’s Chris Coulson.

The extension enables Firefox’s app menu to be displayed in the panel as most other applications shipped with Ubuntu are able to do. The result helps bring a clean and consistent experience to the Ubuntu 11.04 desktop.

Firefox 4 with Ubuntu 11.04 AppMenu support

Install

It should be noted that the application menu extension, whilst working, is still in development.  The extension is only available for Ubuntu 11.04 testers running the latest version of Firefox in Natty.

Installation instructions are located here and, once running, bugs should be reported here.

Chris Coulson is also working on AppMenu support for Thunderbird 3.1.

Via Jorge’s Stompbox

Related posts:

  1. Firefox AppMenu support shaping up for Natty
  2. Firefox 4 Nightlies finally adds ‘menu’ button
  3. UDS-M: Ubuntu Netbook Edition global menu is going to rock; demonstration
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  • Anonymous

    YES!

    but what sucks is i was just in my 11.04 testing environment, looking for some juicy new stuff.. then i just switched back over to maverick to do some work and i see this update…. DAMNIT

    now i have to go back! haha

  • http://twitter.com/Krzych Krzysiek BieroÅ„

    I think GiMP should get better AppMenu support…. because i have lot of problems in more-than-one-window-mode : D
    Menu is displayed only then main window is focused :/

    • Anonymous

      Yeah rather than focus to add some functionallity where there is constantly none, they should concentrate on fixing the crappy incoplete ones. Sadly doing that is not really the Canonical way. :D

      • Anonymous

        And this was exactly what they were doing … they made an appmenu last cycle just to find out their flagship browser is not supported … rather a crappy “incoplete” thing don’t ya think?

        A lot of silver is better than a diamond or two in crap.

    • https://launchpad.net/~mpt mpt

      If anyone wants to help fix it, this is the relevant bug report. http://launchpad.net/bugs/646029

      • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

        On an unrelated note, when will the verification email system for UbuntuOne in Natty start working?

  • http://twitter.com/orawas orawas

    Screenies or it didn’t happen…

    • http://twitter.com/DarthScape Kyle B

      Agreed.

      • Anonymous

        it’s not hard to test it’s in a ppa and package… and it’s also not hard to imagine. it’s not like you don’t know exactly what it will look like. i’m trying it right now and it seems very stable and works great.

        • Anonymous

          it is not hard but some people DO want to work in a stable environment and also get a glimpse of the next release.

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ICV4WEXTYE5SC2POQEQMWKZOEU Matt

            No offense, but that is kinda an oxymoron…

          • http://bit.ly/nyberg Reijo Nyberg

            no u

    • Anonymous

      I almost said this then I saw your comment. :P

    • Anonymous

      There’s a screenshot now!

  • Anonymous

    So how does app menu work? Will every program have to be hacked into the menu? Doesnt sound to developer friendly if so.

    • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

      It uses DBus,so it works with GTK,QT and hepefully with Firefox XUL.
      XUL is really tricky to port to “talk” to DBus but I’m sure canonical will manage.

  • http://twitter.com/kicsyromy Romeo Calota

    Another thing that lacks consistency are apps started with administrative privileges (aka gksu or gksudo). The menu remains in the application. Does anyone know a way around this issue.

    • https://launchpad.net/~mpt mpt

      I just asked Ted Gould (master of the menus) about this. He said it is not feasible for gksu or gksudo applications ever to use the unified menu bar.

      So for any application that currently does that, there are two possible solutions:
      (1) port the application to use PolicyKit instead (that’s what happened with Update Manager)
      (2) replace the application with one that does use PolicyKit instead (e.g. replace Synaptic with Ubuntu Software Center).

  • Anonymous

    Great news, Is Chromium going to get appmenu support too?

    • Anonymous

      Unlikely, since chromium has no menus in the same sense, however, perhaps the spanner might find itself replaced with conventional menus thanks to some kind of extension which would allow it to make use of global menu.

      • Anonymous

        Since there is global menu support for Google Chrome in OSX I think it is possible to get appmenu support for Chromium. The only problem is to have someone develop an extension that does the trick.

        • Anonymous

          Interesting

  • http://twitter.com/vishnumrao Vishnu Rao

    What I don’t understand is why there are 2 close buttons, maximize button, minimize buttons?

    Secondly, why waste precious vertical screen space, by having the window title on a separate bar, instead of merging with the tools menu (i.e. the bar with the File, help etc)

    Cmon on a wide screen laptop vertical space usage should be maximized.

    • Anonymous

      It’s probably just for testing purposes. I expect them to remove window decorations for fullscreen windows.

  • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/hushnecampus Sam Illingworth

    :D Now for Open Office

  • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/hushnecampus Sam Illingworth

    I mean Libre Office!

  • Anonymous

    2 minimize button, 2 maximize button and 2 close buttons? Wow, that is really intuitive. They might come in handy in a case, where one just feels too far way :)

  • Anonymous

    2 minimize button, 2 maximize button and 2 close buttons? Wow, that is really intuitive. They might come in handy in a case, where one just feels too far way :)

    • http://twitter.com/Sephiroth_VII Sephiroth_VII

      It’s for testing purposes. If the buttons in the panel don’t work, it’s nice to be able to confirm that’s where the bug is, and not in the application.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ICV4WEXTYE5SC2POQEQMWKZOEU Matt

        Actually its just a bug that theres still a title-bar panel after maximize. I can get rid of it by un-maximizing, minimizing, un-minimizing and re-maximizing.

  • http://twitter.com/nkienblog Kien Nguyen

    Cool :))

  • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

    Finally! I’ve been wanting to try out global menu support in Firefox 3 or 4 for ages.

  • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

    Finally! I’ve been wanting to try out global menu support in Firefox 3 or 4 for ages.

  • http://twitter.com/awhitehatter awhitehttr

    Isn’t this a little tooo OSX-ish? I thought Ubuntu was more innovative and less of a copy cat. FAIL!

  • Truong Le Quang

    Where is the title of the current windows? Is it a bug or intended?

 
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