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Comment by divtxt | Hacker News Reader

> Having the application's functionality split across two completely separate menus does not constitute a usability improvement.

That's putting it mildly. A split menu may be correct from some design point of view (e.g DRY principle) but from a usability point of view, it's recipe for frustration.

On a more general note, does no one else consider Mac-style "alt-tab switches apps" and "global menu" usability mistakes? (on grounds of being modal)

With both Unity and Gnome adopting these, I no longer have a compelling reason to switch from Mac back to Linux.

Which is a pity really, because Gnome 3 is one of the prettiest and most usable desktops I've seen: I love how the windows key gives you access to the dock, all windows, workspaces and search at the same time.

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"I no longer have a compelling reason to switch from Mac back to Linux."

Even if you assume that the only thing Linux has to offer is graphical windowing environments; there are a lot of other enviornments besides gnome/unity...

Xfce, awesome, kde, xmonad, lxde, fvwm95(joke), etc....

I know that the grievance is on the design decision, which is a point of a trend which the dev team will follow, but as for the window switching, there are several extensions you can install for that; just flip the switch on the webpage and it'll get installed and activated immediately:

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/38/windows-alt-tab/

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/97/coverflow-alt-tab/

Or use Alt-Escape.

> On a more general note, does no one else consider Mac-style "alt-tab switches apps" and "global menu" usability mistakes? (on grounds of being modal)

Au contraire, I now consider gnome usable for the first time. The fact that apps didn't really exist but as a collection of individual windows drove me crazy.

The window is the unit of focus (not apps), so I can rightly argue that switching focus should work on the unit of focus i.e. windows.

Note that I'm not arguing against having an app concept or a "switch app" action. The problem is killing the "switch window" action.

Mac OS X is Cmd+Tab to switch apps and Cmd+` to switch windows.

Cmd-` only switches windows of the current app. So, even if you see your window, you can't switch to it with Cmd-`.

gnome 3 works that way now too, it is one of my favorite changes :) (even though it gets the most hate)

I do miss cmd-`, toggle through currently focused app windows from Mac, one of the few features that I did not get in my switch to Fedora 3 years ago.

Of course, so much more was gained, the point of no return has long been reached ;-) Now the question, to Gnome 3 or not to Gnome 3?

Am I going to freak out as a gnome-do + compiz + dual monitor (laptop + external) user, or, with time, one adjusts, and, like an arranged marriage, learns to love the other?

You may want to wait a bit if you are happy with gnome 2, since there are still stability and perf issues (at least in 3.1) the really bog difference is that window switching has mostly become a modal thing, which honestly isn't as bad as you would think once you get used to it

On a more general note, does no one else consider Mac-style "alt-tab switches apps" and "global menu" usability mistakes? (on grounds of being modal)

No, modal can be good.

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