Comment 128 for bug 733349

2011/6/23 Sam Spilsbury <email address hidden>

> >
> > 2) You (meaning Canonical) accept the fact that people post requests in
> > which they demand changes to the system. But Canonical should then make
> > clear that they do not want any extra work from non-canonical members
> > because they are not willing to maintain patches from users. So do not
> > post any messages on planet.ubuntu or anywhere to get people to fix
> > bugs, as I deem this insolent. Canonical cannot request users to work
> > for free on those bugs they deem worthy to be worked on but completely
> > ignore those bugs in which they are not interested.
>
> Bugfixing is not the same as adding functionality or changing the
> direction of the design of the project. The design team and the
> ayatana community have worked hard to create a design vision for
> Unity, and it is clear that we want something that is consistent with
> the goals of Canonical Design and Ayatana. Thus, those who create the
> product have a voice in the direction it goes in. This is no different
> to the way it works in KDE, or GNOME or any other distribution with
> module proposals and the like.
>

Indeed. But as you can see from the community response to this design
choice, there *is* an issue here and this issue might merit reconsideration
in the design. SRoesgen summed things up succinctly: when you click on an
icon, you expect something to happen. When nothing happens, the icon feels
broken.

*What* should happen is something that the design team can and should
consider. A few people have suggested minimization - rejected - but there
are other, potentially even better, possibilities.

Why am I being so persistent here? Because several users I support have
commented on this behavior spontaneously - and I had nothing better to offer
other than "it's by design" (reply: "what?") and that Unity is still under
heavy development (reply: "ah, so they'll fix it").

Anecdotal evidence but easily reproducible. Just place someone in front an
Ubuntu laptop, let him go about his daily tasks (browsing, messaging, maybe
edit a document) and have him comment on his actions and feelings. It won't
take long, especially if he uses a low-resolution monitor (e.g. 1366x768)
which requires frequent window management.