Rubbish bin (trash) launcher icon should be unlockable

[Stéphane Guillou]

At the moment, the Rubbish bin icons is locked to the launcher by default.

Some people don't need such access to the rubbish bin.

This icon should have the option "Unlock from Launcher" in its quicklist so people who don't find it useful can make some space in their launcher.

As this icon is not really an app, maybe it would be more suitable to be able to enable or disable them from System Settings -> Appearance, CCSM or gconf-editor.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: unity 6.12.0-0ubuntu0.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-22.34-generic 3.5.7.2
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-22-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
Date: Fri Jan 18 11:53:14 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-21 (88 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release i386 (20121017.2)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bashSourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Thank you for taking the time to make Ubuntu better. Since what you submitted is not really a bug, or a problem, but rather an idea to improve Ubuntu, you are invited to post your idea in Ubuntu Brainstorm at http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ where it can be discussed, voted by the community and reviewed by developers. Thanks for taking the time to share your opinion!

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

Thank you for your response, Alberto.

However, from my experience, I consider that Ubuntu Brainstorm is where great ideas end up dying, a sort of way for devs to show that the voice of the community has an impact, but really it doesn't. I have been really disappointed by my Ubuntu Brainstorm experience, and I am no longer active there.

This is why I would like to see this bug being filed as "wishlist", like many others, instead of just invalid.

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

This bug report is divided in two parts, and the first one (workspace switcher not being moveable) is already fixed: see LP: #761155. So, I'm editing this report so it only covers the latter suggestion.

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

Thank you for the edit, I just saw the workspace switcher news today.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Until we get a reply from design the status stays incomplete.

[Alex Kocharin (i-alex)]

Any update on this?

I'm trying to configure launcher so only currently running applications and a desktop switcher are displayed.

I could live with a main menu 'cause it is at least somehow useful. But trash icon is especially annoying because it is separated from all other icons, looks like it's important, but is absolutely useless (at least for me).

// using Ubuntu 13.04

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for unity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Arnaud Mortier (arno-mortier)]

Hi,

This topic has received no attention for a long time, however it seems of large interest to me. I was happy with my launcher up until an update a few weeks ago, with two major unfortunate changes:

First, the dust bin icon is locked, as described in this topic.

Second, the sensitivity area (that makes the launcher automatically scroll up or down) has been narrowed down to two tiny spots, none of which even extend to the upper or lower edges of the screen. This demands precision and patience, for no gain with respect to the previous version.

I do have about 15 icons that I use on a daily basis (one and a half times the height of the screen), and the dust bin isn't even part of them, so this new version of the launcher represents quite a waste of time to me.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

+1 to being able to unlock the rubbish bin.

I don't see the scroll issue you report, sounds like a bug rather than a
deliberate change.

Mark

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

@Arnaud,

Yes, please enter a new bug about the Launcher scroll issue so we can investigate it. I don't see the issue as well, but it doesn't mean it's not a bug.

Thanks!

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

Oh, and the reason the unlocking the rubbish icon hasn't been looked at by Unity devs is that we have been waiting for some time for input from Design. Perhaps Mark's comment is what we need:)

[John Lea (johnlea)]

@townsend; it is exactly what you need ;-)

There are two possible changes here:

1. Allow users to move the Trash to a different location in the Launcher, but users should not be able to remove (un-pin) the trash from the Launcher. This is the easiest version of the change.

2. Allow users to both move the Trash to a different location in the Launcher and also un-pin the trash from the Launcher. At the same time this change lands we would need to add the capability for users to find the trash in the dash so they could re-pin the Trash to the Launcher.

I suggest implementing option 1 for now. If anybody is interested in implementing option 2 patches that implement this functionality would be gratefully accepted ;-)

[tellapu (tellapu)]

Thanks for generating this bug report. It is a pity the importance is only low. Reading the comments on this AU post, dating back to 2011 (!) this is really a need:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/37776/how-can-i-remove-the-trash-icon-from-the-unity-launcher
I guess many more would have written the same.
The user should be allowed to move and delete the trash icon.
Thanks for any work on this in advance!

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

I just want to point out that the trash in unity is not only used for trashing files, but you can also use it to close applications, to unlock sticky apps, to unmount drives; that's why we kept it there.

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Still seem to be unable to remove this on yakkety.

Since the introduction of Unity I never found this icon useful in any way. Why should I drag something to the trash when I can also right click->close/unpin it?

Imho, this should be removed by default as its ugly, takes up space, and makes you open the Trash folder accidentally every once in a while.
Alternatively, why not hide it unless you're dragging something?

[Rob Havasy (motld)]

Ahh, this takes me back to fondly remembered days of yore...with the OS/2 shredder. Drag and drop was the new hotness and it was everywhere, even for silly things like changing system fonts - and closing programs and ejecting CD's whose icons were dropped on the shredder. It didn't make sense then and it still doesn't.

But at least the shredder was removable from the launcher. ;)