Menu/indicator panel in vertical-monitor arrangement not intuitive

[Luke Scharf]

When running a vertically stacked monitor configuration (laptop screen on the bottom, external monitor above laptop), having a menu/indicator bar on the top of each screen isn't intuitive to me, since having a menu bar in the middle of my workspace splits up what I consider to be a continuous vertical workspace.

I run my MacBook Pro (Mac OS X 10.6) in a similar configuration, but Mac OS X puts the dock at the bottom of the bottom screen, and the Mac OS X menu bar at the top of the top screen, when I select the external/top monitor as the location of the menu bar. In Mac OS X, you only get one menu bar per computers, but its location is configurable, and I've found experimentally that I greatly prefer having the menu bar on the top of my stack-of-screens.

I'm guessing that having one menu-bar per monitor works great for monitors arranged in a horizontal manner, but putting one menu bar at the top each stack of vertical monitors makes sense to me.

I realize that there's a lot of my personal preferences coming through on this... But I would like the issue to be considered by the Unity UI-design team.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: unity 3.8.16-0ubuntu1~natty1
Uname: Linux 2.6.39-02063904-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,gnomecompat,snap,vpswitch,grid,place,imgpng,regex,resize,session,move,mousepoll,unitymtgrabhandles,wall,animation,expo,workarounds,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,ring,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Thu Sep 1 09:46:58 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 virtualbox-ose, 4.0.4, 2.6.39-02063904-generic, x86_64: installed
 virtualbox-ose, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-11-generic, x86_64: installed
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:0005]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
InstallationMedia_: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
InstallationMedia__: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
MachineType: TOSHIBA PORTEGE R835
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39-02063904-generic root=UUID=d046bba5-6bff-42e7-ae6e-afcab4507acb ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 08/06/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: Version 3.00
dmi.board.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.board.name: Portable PC
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: Version A0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: Version 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrVersion3.00:bd08/06/2011:svnTOSHIBA:pnPORTEGER835:pvrPT324U-008003:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPortablePC:rvrVersionA0:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrVersion1.0:
dmi.product.name: PORTEGE R835
dmi.product.version: PT324U-008003
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110606-0ubuntu1~natty2
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu13
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Is that bug 774056 that you are facing?

[Luke Scharf (lukescharf)]

Yes, bug 774056 is describing the same issue. And more succinctly, too.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

thanks, duplicating.