Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/333

by ARR • 16 years ago

69 36 16 years ago

pavlov• 16 years ago

Finally a sensible explanation for why the window title bar widgets were moved to the left in Ubuntu 10.04.

windsurfer2• 16 years ago

It might make more sense for window controls to also be status applets, since not all windows can be minimized, maximized, or closed. For instance, if a particular window is no longer needed and only showing some completed action, the close button could turn green. If there's an error, it could turn red. If a process could take a long time, a progress bar could appear and the minimize button could turn green. If a web browser could show a web page better with fullscreen, the maximize button could turn blue. This would follow the applet colour coding scheme.

One could even add some custom window commands (such as resize to content) to their applications.

axod• 16 years ago

That sounds like a recipe for every app doing it differently, and lots of confusion.

DrSprout• 16 years ago

>since not all windows can be minimized, maximized, or closed.

This is one of the worst usability problems on the desktop. Granted, it doesn't show up in the "default configuration" but do a little thing like change the text size and that dialog box that won't let you resize suddenly is completely broken.

Though I suppose this is part of a bigger problem, that changing fonts is by design a "power user" feature.

cookiecaper2• 16 years ago

Yeah, but I don't know why they couldn't have just said "We're moving the buttons to the left to acclimate users and make way for a new feature we'll be introducing sometime in the near future, but are not ready to discuss right now." It would have been a lot nicer than their "because I said so" deal, which actually cost them at least one good developer (to my recollection; there was a story about it on here not that long ago, but it would be hard to find) who felt that Canonical became calloused to community desires.

spot• 16 years ago

they did.

bensummers• 16 years ago

The end result of a full screen interface with minimal chrome for devices with small screens is great.

It's interesting how we've gone a full circle right back to full screen single tasking apps. Perhaps this is the iPhone's influence?

Maybe we'll finally get the purple button in the next Mac OS X? http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2000/02/mac-os-x-dp3.ar...

loup-vaillant2• 16 years ago

It could be the iPhone. Or just Apple's old interfaces. Or tiling window managers, whose philosophy is to maximize screen usage by default. For instance, the Netbook edition smart panel example would integrate beautifully with Xmonad.

GHFigs• 16 years ago

From the Ars link: "Conceptually, it's as bad as adding a button for the audio volume control to the title bar of every single window!"

Granted, it's different with per-application volume control, but still funny.

gcb• 16 years ago

im all for inovation. But his example was the worst.

Removing the status bar from the browser and using more space on the title?

Ive been using no title on my browser (go gtkrc) even before chrome. Because the tabs do the same work as the title (display page title) plus added funtionality. So its only natural to remove the title bar. Not add stuff there.

Also everyone uses xterm titles as a status bar.

loup-vaillant2• 16 years ago

Or, you could look at the Netbook Edition smart panel, which eliminate the need for a title bar. Unless you don't use a global status bar at all, this could do.

btmorex2• 16 years ago

I thought the example of per application volume control/mute was pretty useful.

sandGorgon• 16 years ago

I am not sure why this particular UI layout (and the infamous left-side buttons were at all necessary). There is another equally viable alternative, without all the complex re-engineering needed for "client side window decorations".

let the window controls and buttons stay as they were pre-lucid. The left side button – the window control menu – will glow/shine when the application window has updated a status. Clicking on the window control button will show a drop down that has (in addition to the “To Desktop”,”Resize”, “Maximize”, etc.) an alerts subsection. Clicking on the events in the alerts subsection will behave exactly the way windicators work in the above design.

Cons: rather than have all indicators in front of you at all times, you have to take the bother of clicking the window control button (or press alt-spacebar). Pros: My mother doesnt need to be puzzled about what the green shiny button is supposed to indicate, in the drop down, I can have text as well as an icon.

bcl• 16 years ago

Ick! So they are taking the functionality of dock/bar icon apps and reproducing it in each window title bar? Seems needlessly complicated and cluttered to me. I prefer a simple, streamlined design myself.

lincolnq• 16 years ago

Analogously:

Ick! So they are taking a chunk off the bottom of the window for a couple icons that could just as well have lived in the title bar? Seems needlessly complicated and cluttered; just put all the icons in one place.

barnaby3• 16 years ago

I like that! Put more stuff in the title bar of the app.

Except, in Netbook Edition when you expand an application you no longer see its title bar.

btmorex2• 16 years ago

I don't understand your criticism. How is per application volume control in the title bar anything like "dock/bar icon apps"?

budu3• 16 years ago

Mark Shuttleworth uses Balsamiq Mockups. That's a great endorsement for Balsamiq.

naner• 16 years ago

Interesting but looks cluttered.

bitwize• 16 years ago

Wait, what?

You want to clutter up the window title bar with more garbage?

This is why Mac OS X is the only viable desktop Unix. Apple knows how to distinguish between the simple, elegant, and useful and the eye candy which distracts and interferes with attention.

igorgue• 16 years ago

This basically works just like the OSX bar... I'd dare to say even better.

barnaby3• 16 years ago

Why do I have the creeping suspicion that you haven't ever even used Ubuntu, and are just using this as a platform for your Mac fanboyism?

I LOVE Mac, but let me tell you, with this latest release, I LOVE Ubuntu more!

unfair2• 16 years ago

The Ubuntu changes make me cringe - I like how windows are now, and this sort of change makes me hesitant to upgrade.

I like using Ubuntu, but several times when I've upgraded it trashed my system, or features didn't work right on an upgraded system while they did on a fresh install.

Those are the issues I think they need to work on - making it flawless for the masses to use. A bad upgrade experience for a normal user and they'll go running back to Mac/Windows. On top of that changing things like this will make it harder for normal users to find the buttons they're used to.

I'm not anti-progress, but it seems like you should make significant changes after you have a large market share.

w1ntermute• 16 years ago

I'm not anti-progress, but it seems like you should make significant changes after you have a large market share.

They're already the Linux distro with the greatest desktop market share. What more do you want them to wait for?

unfair2• 16 years ago

Something higher than single digit percentages. Firefox, for instance.

barnaby3• 16 years ago

Iterating on your product, like Canonical are doing with Ubuntu, makes a system that's BETTER than anything that ever came before. I couldn't wait to upgrade to 10.04 because so much new goodness.

It's like they're a lean startup, and this kind of stuff builds buzz that keeps them in the news. I suspect that their newsworthiness can only help in increasing marketshare.

viraptor• 16 years ago

I still don't get it. Why change the position of the controls and put indicators there? Why not use the left side for the indicators and remove the `arrow`?

Maybe I'm becoming one of the tinfoil hat people, but: They change the controls position and allow the application itself to draw the windicators. Application knows nothing about the controls position or the theme really, so it's possible that ubuntu applications will simply draw on the right. Suddenly people have to patch the applications to use them on another distribution and use themes that match what ubuntu apps try to do... Did I miss something?

All of this seems weird again when they presented screenshots with ~6 icons in the notification area as a "bad" example and now they put the same amount of icons per application (where applications can use their own icon styles).

Qz• 16 years ago

I think the ~6 icons was to demonstrate the color scheme (red/green/blue/black) described later in the article.

motters• 16 years ago

Hey Mark, it would have been a good idea if you'd mentioned this in the context of the whole "buttons on the left" debacle. At least then there would have been some justification for the UI change other than the nebulous "frees up space nicely on the right".

Maybe he just enjoyed watching the ensuing drama.

dman• 16 years ago

Ubuntu user here. I am a bit wary of this change because it breaks the visual consistency from a desktop POV. In theory this idea is great if people used the same icons and conventions. Sadly consistency is not one of linux'es strong points. I fully expect java, tk, qt, gnome, wxwidgets to each design their own window decorators which behave / appear ever so different. Perhaps it would have been better to expose some inbuilt "Windicators" via a DBus service and applications that wanted to show a windicator could set a message to the DBUS service. To be fair maybe the Ubuntu folks have a perfect design for this, but since they havent released it its hard to be optimistic. edit to add more pessimism - This will only make life more difficult for tiling window managers like ratpoison, xmonad, awesome that dont support window decorators, because many apps will go ahead and just assume the presence of a window decorator on every window.

Window indicators for Ubuntu ("windicators")

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