One of the first thing I *really* liked when I first tried
Windows 7, was the taskbar. This launcher-switcher hybrid that allowed me to simply click on the unique Firefox (or whichever) application icon to pop it, without having to think "ok, if it's already launched, I should click on the taskbar, but if not, I'll have to click on the launcher". I didn't really realized how stupid it was to have, on the same bar, a lot of duplicate icons (because what is set as launcher/shortcuts is often also what is running most of the time). Both icons did have the same role: bring the application to the front. It shouldn't matter whether it was already launched or not. I think the way it's done in Windows 7 is just fantastic*. Add to that: the jump lists, the recent and bookmarked documents, the previews... Well, it's just perfect IMO. If you absolutely don't know what I'm talking about (and my messed up description probably didn't help), just
take a look at this.
That being said, even if the Windows 7 taskbar is the most perfectest perfect taskbar, that was not enough for me to simply ditch
Ubuntu. Instead, I tried to find something that would work a bit like that taskbar. I experimented with a lot af different switcher GNOME applets, but none really did it... Until I found
DockbarX. Since that day, I'm blessed with app selection goodness and intuitive UI. Life is great.
You can also get a piece of that heaven, by
following the instructions here (download link, PPA, extra themes and all). Then, simply replace your standard application launcher/selector/taskbar applet by the DockbarX, and you're ready to go.
Now, I just need to find a good
Snap-like thing.
This just didn't do it. I may also just
wait for Compiz 0.10... Please wave in the comments if you know a good solution for this.
* By the way, I don't know if Microsoft were the first to come with the idea, or if it came for Apple, or from somewhere else. And quite frankly,
I don't care.
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5 comments:
Connect snap to clicks on the screen edges instead of moving the mouse to the corners of the screen. That makes it easy and fast to use. Also, that script is quite easy to edit, you can make it snap unevenly if you want to. If you have a big screen it makes much more sense to for example snap windows to the left to a width of 1024 pixels and windows snapped to the right should take up the rest of the screen (your screen width - 1024 px). Much nicer than the even snap of windows 7 IMHO.
The compiz "grid" plugin has been around forever, and it does the Windows 7 "snap" thing plus more. And it uses easy keyboard shortcuts, which are way more convenient than mouse dragging. Look it up :)
Yeah, I know about the grid plugin. I admit it's quite nice when using the keyboard (e.g. when I'm programming or writing), but if/when I'm mainly working with the mouse (e.g. moving files around, doing graphic design, etc.), I'd prefer to not have to leave the mouse to go to the keyboard, then get back to the mouse. Call it laziness if you will, but for me, that's simply another name for efficiency. ;)
Hey there -- just wondering if there's something we can use for GNOME that's equivalent to the 4 corner window snapping in KDE. It works just like Aero Snap in the sense that if you snap it to the middle of the left or right edge, it automatically vertically maximizes it and resizes the width to half the viewable area...but in KDE there's the same feature PLUS if you drag the window to either of the 4 corners of your desktop, it snaps it to that corner at the size of a quarter of your total viewable desktop area.
Any help would be appreciated.
@RmenR: I didn't even know there was something like that in KDE. All in all (I don't want to start a flame war here), even though I prefer GNOME, I realize there are some nice features in KDE that I'd like to use too. It's kinda sad to see the efforts of so many talented people spread across (sometimes needlessly) competing projects... That being said, there's no such feature in GNOME that I'm aware of.
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