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73416ba
(Get the code!)
Really appreciate your updating us on the vision.
You're mistaken about the modularity of Unity7: it's impossible right now pick and chose components. Unity7 is an either-or affair: if you want to use Launchy, you will have to deal with the Unity Launcher still being on screen, which is of course unfeasible, which in turn is why for many of us posting had to switch, with sadness, to a different, less beautiful, less "ergonomic" desktop environment (Xfce for me). The last version of Unity that supported modularity was Unity2D, for which each component was its own executable launched at startup: thus easy to turn off the Launcher and run something else instead. It was great! I even wrote a guide for how to replace the Launcher. Now, that was a Unity I could use in my everyday work.
(The component I most want to replace is the Dash, actually: I yearn for the simple functionality of Whisker Menu.)
As far as I can tell, Unity 8 is also monolithic. *Unless* you, as SABDFL, decree that there should be a checkbox (even a hidden system setting) that allows individual Unity components to be turned off. To paraphrase Mao Zedong: "Let 100 desktop configurations blossom!"
Also:
I have to disagree about hardcoding user expectations -- I'm left-handed myself (also a right-to-left native language speaker!) -- and appreciate the ability to flip these things around. I hold my phone with my left hand, and things are always a bit more difficult for me than for others. Allowing users to assign any one functionality to any one edge would be best.
I also think hardcoding developer expectations can end up shooting you in the foot -- what if some day you want to expand the Unity experience? Say, Unity running inside Oculus Rift with an entirely different UX? Would developers have to rewrite all apps for the new API? It's best to keep the API as generic *as possible* and not let developers program towards UI expectations, especially for things as ephemeral as screen locations.
I wish you a delightful, troll-free holiday season!