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Comment by feld | Hacker News Reader

The user isn't the problem it's that fact that they all work differently. There's no unified API for launcher/startbutton, or task tray, etc etc.

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I know that KDE and Unity have adopted appindicators for system tray functionality: https://unity.ubuntu.com/projects/appindicators/

I'm not sure what you want in the way of unified startbutton API. Even within KDE itself it has Lancelot, Kickoff, and Homerun, all providing a sliding scale of classical start menu to Unity / Gnome / Windows 8 style dash. That is one domain that has demonstrably not one ultimate answer, and I'm a big fan of the KDE attitude of making multiple choices available with the default being moderate (search by default, tabs for programs / recents / power / etc).

Isn't it great?

I tried getting used to the new Ubuntu way of doing things, which I've heard is based on the Apple way of doing things. I didn't care for it.

This irks me about Unity. I have to run several gsettings commands after a new install to get rid of those dumb overlay scrollbars and to return the menu to the window that owns it. I leave the control buttons on the upper left, I kind of like them there but I can't stand overlay scrollbars and really dislike having to move the mouse all the way to the top just to work with the menu for an application which is why I do the gsettings thing. It's also what turns me off about the Mac, one menu at the top shared for the active app.

Edit: I also run some gsettings commands to turn menu icons back on. Also, you can return menus to the owning application in the Unity UI, right-click the Desktop, Change Desktop Background, select Behavior tab and it's there.

Unity worked fantastically when it was called Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and it was run on an 800x600px display, as everything is maximised like a phone because there isn't any other space.

I agree in basically every other context that it is annoying/useless, but for smallish laptop screens it's still not bad.

Which, if I recall correctly, was the initial reason for creating the Freedesktop.org project and the XDG specifications. I'd say that the success has been humble, but by FOSS standards quite well. It is rather GNOME-centric, though.

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