Comment 24 for bug 733349

Revision history for this message
Rocko (rockorequin) wrote : Re: Add 'minimize all windows' option to the quicklist of running applications

@Mark: absolutely, it is quite clear that clicking on the application icon again doesn't minimize the window. My point is that this is exactly what the original report said, and John Lea changed it to say something quite different, ie that there is no minimize option when you right-click on the icon. Why change the bug to say something different? Why not just open a new bug?

And I agree of course that the minimize button is prominent. But it's nowhere near as prominent as the application icon in unity-launcher, and more importantly you have to go searching for it, which I find inefficient from a workflow point of view. This is particularly true on a high resolution screen where the window buttons are quite small and may be at the other side of the screen from the application icon that you just clicked to activate the window. (Even a year after 10.04 came out, I still think the minimize button should not be so small and located next to the close button, as it's too easy to click the close button by accident.)

And there are even instances where there is no minimize button - eg in a maximized Synaptic with the progress window open.

I know unity was originally designed for netbooks, which have small screens, but it's a great product that I want to use on my high resolution desktop. It's just that there some things like this that make it less efficient to use on a desktop than, say, DockbarX, Avant Window Manager, or the original Gnome button taskbar.

On a slightly different topic, as an absolute design minimum, wouldn't it be better to have the application icon at least do something when you click on it if it isn't actually going to change the screen? Perhaps perform an animation? This would give some feedback to the user that he has successfully clicked on the icon, even if he finds it frustrating that it doesn't minimize the window.