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0 pointsankurdhama12d ago0 comments

So this is essentially Android desktop mode with Android 17 Gemini integration. Please get rid of that top panel. I just don't get why this and desktops like GNOME tries to copy macos top panel when clearly in macos it is menu bar that host app menus but that concept doesn't exists in these other desktops and yet they have a top panel. This is just bad UX.

This will follow same model as Chromebooks i.e different devices from different OEM partners and for x86 and arm. So soon someone will be able to create a generic ISO for this that you can boot on a standard x86 PC/laptop.

Samsung is also working on such devices but they will probably have Dex which is much better then the current Android desktop mode.

0 comments

maybewhenthesun12d ago

I like the top panel in gnome. You need a place for your clock and you status icons. I don't really care much if it's at the top or bottom or sides.

As an aside: From a 'clickability' perspective the app menus in the top bar are nice of course and I theoretically agree that's the best place for an app menu. But in practice I really dislike macos' 'separated' app menus when a window is not maximized.

projektfu12d ago

On MacOS it was a great example of the use of Fitts law, a vertically infinite target for your mouse pointer for commonly used tasks when you didn't memorize the keyboard command. But on a giant monitor it's too far away from your work. Macs, for the longest time, had 512x342, 640x480 or 512x384. It was already getting far away at 1152x882.

extraduder_ire12d ago

Even better, Command-? opens a search menu (usually under the "Help" button) that points you at the first matching menu option (even if there's no shortcut for it). The Unity DE tried to replicate that with their HUD feature, but it wasn't universal. It's an incredible feature and I wish everyone copied it.

ankurdhamaOP12d ago

Many apps these days have tabs at top like chrome or firefox and having a top panel (with or without menu bar) means you loose the useful of the fitts law for accessing the tabs of such apps.

projektfu12d ago

That's ok because in a lot of cases they also have a little border at the top that's not clickable. Nobody is thinking of Fitts law anymore.

1 more reply

w4rh4wk512d ago

The panel itself is not the problem, it's the lack of integration with windows. In GNOME, when you maximize a window, the title bar stacks underneath the top bar. If that window also happens to have a menubar (e.g. LibreOffice) that gets stack underneath as well.

This is just a lot of wasted space and makes the menubar harder to click, compared to having the menubar at the very top, next to the screen boundary.

Liftyee12d ago

I would like this feature to save screen space, but what happens when a window isn't maximised? The menu bar items get orphaned? Or you have differing behaviour?

w4rh4wk512d ago

IIRC Ubuntu provided this when they introduced Unity -- quite a long time ago. When the window is maximized the menubar was merged into the top panel, but when the window was not maximized it looked like a regular window with tilebar and menubar at the window's top.

Not long ago there was also a KDE extension to replicate this; however, since many GNOME apps moved away from menubars, this approach isn't that helpful anymore.

Peroni12d ago

>Please get rid of that top panel.... This is just bad UX.

How so? It displays useful info at a glance. Where's the bad UX?

xnickb12d ago

Not sure what Googlebook is, but in general: I want to be able to move my pointer to the top right corner and click to close the window.

And before you make some claim like "use keyboard", the UI includes these window elements for a reason. Top bar makes them less friendly to use: They're tiny and with top bar it's an aiming game instead of a quick way to do something with a mouse or a touchpad.

As an i3/sway user I don't greatly care about this because I already have things the way I like, but I understand the frustration of the OP.

functionmouse12d ago

and I'd like to be able to move my cursor to the top edge of the screen to click tabs without worrying about where my cursor is on the y-axis, only x. we've completely forgotten about Hot corners and hot edges...

xnickb12d ago

Yeah, this is the extension of the above. Main reason tabbed windows ditched the title bar in favor of having tabs integrated into it.

Unfortunately people who design UI or produce specs are not power users so the end products have been losing utility at an incredible pace.

My personal favorite is an input field which clears its content once it loses focus. So when inputting an address on mobile you can't switch back and forth to copy different parts of it.

ankurdhamaOP12d ago

> How so? It displays useful info at a glance. Where's the bad UX?

That info can be shown in the bottom panel, there is enough space there.

abenga12d ago

That one now should not exist (like in plain Gnome).

izacus12d ago

Existing ChromeOS can show the same information just fine in the bottom right corner without eating away all that extra space.

nailer12d ago

Read the sentence before the fragment you quoted:

> in macos it is menu bar that host app menus but that concept doesn't exists in these other desktops and yet they have a top panel

Peroni12d ago

Yeah I read it but it doesn't help me understand why it's considered bad UX, hence why I asked for clarification.

nailer12d ago

What isn't clear? Throwing your mouse to the top of screen to access your app's menus doesn't work when your app's menus aren't at the top of the screen.

FpUser12d ago

>" Dex which is much better then the current Android desktop mode"

Maybe it is better but my experience using it as desktop was absolutely atrocious. I mean it works as designed but it sucks

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

maybewhenthesun12d ago

I like the top panel in gnome. You need a place for your clock and you status icons. I don't really care much if it's at the top or bottom or sides.

projektfu12d ago

extraduder_ire12d ago

ankurdhamaOP12d ago

Many apps these days have tabs at top like chrome or firefox and having a top panel (with or without menu bar) means you loose the useful of the fitts law for accessing the tabs of such apps.

projektfu12d ago

That's ok because in a lot of cases they also have a little border at the top that's not clickable. Nobody is thinking of Fitts law anymore.

1 more reply

w4rh4wk512d ago

This is just a lot of wasted space and makes the menubar harder to click, compared to having the menubar at the very top, next to the screen boundary.

Liftyee12d ago

I would like this feature to save screen space, but what happens when a window isn't maximised? The menu bar items get orphaned? Or you have differing behaviour?

w4rh4wk512d ago

Not long ago there was also a KDE extension to replicate this; however, since many GNOME apps moved away from menubars, this approach isn't that helpful anymore.

Peroni12d ago

>Please get rid of that top panel.... This is just bad UX.

How so? It displays useful info at a glance. Where's the bad UX?

xnickb12d ago

Not sure what Googlebook is, but in general: I want to be able to move my pointer to the top right corner and click to close the window.

As an i3/sway user I don't greatly care about this because I already have things the way I like, but I understand the frustration of the OP.

functionmouse12d ago

xnickb12d ago

Yeah, this is the extension of the above. Main reason tabbed windows ditched the title bar in favor of having tabs integrated into it.

Unfortunately people who design UI or produce specs are not power users so the end products have been losing utility at an incredible pace.

My personal favorite is an input field which clears its content once it loses focus. So when inputting an address on mobile you can't switch back and forth to copy different parts of it.

ankurdhamaOP12d ago

> How so? It displays useful info at a glance. Where's the bad UX?

That info can be shown in the bottom panel, there is enough space there.

abenga12d ago

That one now should not exist (like in plain Gnome).

izacus12d ago

Existing ChromeOS can show the same information just fine in the bottom right corner without eating away all that extra space.

nailer12d ago

Read the sentence before the fragment you quoted:

> in macos it is menu bar that host app menus but that concept doesn't exists in these other desktops and yet they have a top panel

Peroni12d ago

Yeah I read it but it doesn't help me understand why it's considered bad UX, hence why I asked for clarification.

nailer12d ago

What isn't clear? Throwing your mouse to the top of screen to access your app's menus doesn't work when your app's menus aren't at the top of the screen.

FpUser12d ago

>" Dex which is much better then the current Android desktop mode"

Maybe it is better but my experience using it as desktop was absolutely atrocious. I mean it works as designed but it sucks

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse