launcher should allow to start several instances of an application

[Olivier R-D]

Binary package hint: unity

Since launcher handles nicely multiple window, it should also ow to start several instances of an application.
A typical application that needs several instances is the terminal. But starting a new oowriter instance is also a scenario.
A possible implementation is to use the icon menu on the launcher

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

ctrl+left click maybe?

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

 affects ayatana-design

[Adi Roiban (adiroiban)]

Unfortunately, the Unity wiki page does not share to much information about various Unity components and I am not sure which part is exactly the "Launcher"

From the point of view of this bug, i guess that the "Launcher" is the left side imitation of Mac OS X Dock.

If I click the Ubuntu logo, and then I type "terminal" in the search field .... and then I wait 30 second... I can click on the 'Terminal' icon and it will open a new terminal each time I click it. First I was thinking that this is "The launcher"

The always visible, left side launcher, looks to me much more than a launcher since it is also a task manager, trash manager and volume manager.

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Getting back to the bug report.

Since the always visible, left side toolbar is somehow following the Mac OS X Dock behavior, I was thinking that maybe applications could provide a hint whether they are single or multiple instances. A right click on the "the launcher" will show a "New instance" option in the menu.

For example having multiple instances of "Ubuntu software center" is not of much use and could only confuse the users.
I can also think of Empathy as only requiring a single instance.

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Btw. Unity is much more usable than Gnone-shell... keep up the good work :)

[Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)]

This bug is killing the usability multiple desktops. See my comments in Bug #683937, which was duped to this.

[Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)]

Here's the scenario ... I do this all the time, and I have seen lots and lots of people do this as well.

1. I'm working away on workspace 1
2. someone walks up to me and asks me a question, I need to hit the web or open a document like a text document to answer them. I don't want to disturb my context on workspace 1.
3. I switch to workspace 4, and launch a browser or other app.
In Natty, this is busted. I have to go back to the workspace 1, spawn a window, and manually move it. Aaarg.

Here's something similar I do daily ...
1. I have workspace 1 set up for email and irc to do my work. I have a terminal open for various things that I do with a terminal.
2. I decide to take a break and write a bit of code.
3. I switch to workspace 2, open a terminal, and launch my dev environment.
Again, this doesn't work. I have to go back to workspace 1, spawn a new window from the terminal, and move it to the new workspace.

I believe these are very common usage patterns for workspaces. I mean, what are workspaces for but for creating new work contexts?

This situation is handled in 3 ways today:
1. Some apps, like the browser, always launch a new window. Whether there is one on the current workspace or not.
2. Some apps, like Gedit, activate the current instance if there is one one the current workspace, but spawns a new window if there is not one on the current workspace.
3. Some apps, like evo, are always single window and alert you to change the workspace it is already running on.

I am confident that this tried and true behavior evolved for the reasons I mentioned above.

[Jamie Strandboge (jdstrand)]

This affects the usability for me in a big way as well. My scenarios:

* I use irssi with a custom gnome-terminal profile called IRC. I create a launcher to launch it, click on it and it starts (good). I click on my terminal launcher to launch a normal terminal (eg for coding), and my IRC window is raised instead of a new terminal window. In other words, I have different gnome-terminal profiles for different contexts. Granted, at least with gnome-terminal I can go to File/Open Terminal and select the profile I want, but this is annoying

* I use firefox with the profile manager and have a desktop file with:
Exec=firefox -ProfileManager -no-remote %u

In non-Unity, clicking on the desktop file would bring up Firefox's profile manager window, and I could choose between my work profile, my home profile and my bank profile. In Unity, on first launch I am presented with the Firefox profile manager (good), but if I click the launcher again my currently open firefox window is raised instead of me being presented with the profile manager. As such I must close my currently open firefox, then click the launcher, then choose the profile I want to use (firefox does not provide a method to start another profile from within itself). I do not want to mix my online banking, my personal profile and my work profile. I typically have two totally different browser contexts open at the same time-- one for monitoring of systems and one for work. The current situation prevents such functionality.

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

FYI, this is "fixed" this release 3.2.6 with "open a new window", but it was only as a debugging fix and will be reverted in trunk.
So do not close this bug. Also, the conversation is impacting bug #676886

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

The bug is fixed in Natty since middle clicking on the launcher opens new instance of the app.

[Fabien Engels (fabienengels)]

Middle click on laptop is not really convenient. Adding a submenu should be nice or a ctrl+left click.

[Olivier R-D (olivier-roulet)]

This is a very valid issue. Many laptops do not have a middle-click.
Ctrl + click seems a good solution if a menu is not desired

[Marco Biscaro (marcobiscaro2112)]

I think this bug is already solved (since is possible to open a new window middle-clicking the icon on launcher).

There is a discussion of other ways to open a new window on bug #734170.

[Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)]

It is also now very fast to open a known application from the dash, and quicklists can easily be added to desktop files. For example, Firefox now how as a quicklist to open a new window. I consider the issue to be quite well addressed. Thank you to all who worked on it.

[Yaron Sheffer (yaronf)]

Middle-clicking is impractical with netbooks, and this functionality is important enough for "simple" users that it should be provided by the base launcher, with no need to tweak desktop files or search for the app from the Dash. Docky does have it, by the way.

[Eric S. Raymond (esr-thyrsus)]

The cluster of problems with multiple terminal instances in Unity is *not* fixed, and it is severe enough that it may force me off Ubuntu (I just upgraded, or I'd have noticed the lossage sooner).

For my workflow, multiple terminals manageable as separate instances are essential. Yes, I can middle-click to start another instance, and I can minimize the first one, but if I click the launcher icon *both instances unminimize*! This is unacceptable - it's a showstopper.

I want multiple terminal icons in my launcher, one for each instance.

[Joey Dodson (ninjawailer)]

This affects me in not being able to open multiple instances of pd-extended on a netbook. The programs I'm running are very processor intensive and need to take better advantage of the multiple cpu cores. If I run them in a single instance of pure data it's unbelievably laggy, whereas if they were opened separately they should be more functional. If it is possible with a middle click, it's still not practical for me since I have no middle click.

[John Lea (johnlea)]

@ninjawailer; you can emulate the middle button by pressing both the left and right trackpad buttons together. See http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man4/synaptics.4.html