Main menu for Unity?

[Zetheroo]

I agree with David on this one.

[Rasa1111]

OP,
You could use AWN and stick a main menu button *almost* anywhere you want.
You could even make it so it's the only thing visible, meaning not 'connected' to a dock, if you wanted to.

I wanted the AWN cpu temp. gauge, so figured Id add a main menu also. lol

like this.. >on right>
natty final1.jpg Screenshot.jpg

[Nisitiiapi]

Could someone explain how,

1, click + Applications
2, click "search"
3, type in name (or part thereof)
4, Find what you want in the results and click

is a step forward over,

1, click the terminal icon
2 type in name and 'enter'

or

1, click "Applications"
2, 'mouse over' until you have what you want
3, click

And as far as the "Application Area" (whatever it is called) where everything is displayed and you have to search through ALL of the programs, that belongs on tablets where there are no other options.

My sentiment exactly. Even if you don't "search," it's way too inefficient. Too may steps just to find a simple application. Great for a touchscreen, not a standard desktop. And what's with the "here's some stuff you could install" under every menu category? For categories with nothing installed (like Education, in my case), it's just confusing. And, how is moving a mouse all the way across that 22" monitor from a small nautilus window in the lower right corner just to click "Bookmarks" a move forward? The universal menu is great for something maximized, but just an inefficient annoyance for everything else.

I haven't fully given up on Natty in a gnome session, but am very close to following suit and upgrading back to 10.10 -- I already had Firefox 4 installed. I found a very bad bug with the Natty and the Compiz Application Switcher on my system that makes the OS totally useless. Using "Alt+Tab" to switch to another open app doesn't bring focus properly. You can type and click away and nothing in the window changes (although you can watch the words on the title bar in Firefox change as you switch tabs and they don't move). But, when you minimize and restore the window, suddenly all your work finally appears. Is is just me or did Canonical issue an RC as a final?

I think Natty may someday be good, but not until it has options to make the application menu a simple list or add a main menu, some configuration and customization options (like turning off the suggested apps to install and favorites, and turning off universal menus for non-maximized windows), and a better way to add custom launchers (or are those lenses? I can't remember) will it be ready for my purposes.

[fwalderd]

Is it possible to add a "main menu" like entry on the launcher, or the top bar?

I am really missing the possibility to see what programs are on my machine, and not have to search for them.
I can't always remember these funky Linux program names.
(Getting old...)

I guess that something like the Gnomenu would be fine too.

Install and run gnome-panel. That's what I did to get my old menu back

Cheers, Felix

[Zetheroo]

I upgraded one of my other machines to 11.04 and it was not as smooth as the first machine. I have major issues with windows not resizing properly, going white or loosing their borders when maximized. Even the "save" dialog in Libre Office keeps going white 2 out of 4 times it opens.

Then I tried logging into gnome classic and it seems a bit better, but the right-click menus from the panel are all weirded out ... dunno how to explain it ... oh and the issue with the white windows still exists.

[pommie]

Where do you have to use the keyboard here?

When I installed filezilla, vlc, thunderbird, just to name three, their respective icons did not show up in "installed Programs", so unless the is a carpet that I haven't looked under with the mouse, typing is a "have to".
What I had to do was search for them, then grab the icon and place it in the sidebar, going to get messy when I start using it as my main os and install a lot of programs.

Mentioning the sidebar, it politely moves out of the way when pushed by a window, so what happens when I have 5 or six windows open and it has hidden itself, then I want to launch another application, I have two choices, pull the windows away from the left, negating the hide function or switch to another workspace, which is useless if I want to work with both that app and one already open on workspace 1.

And I still cannot work out how having a sidebar full of icons takes up less screen space than a drop down menu that is only there when you want it.

Cheers David, ... who is still persevering with it, but not as his main os.

[ariszlo]

When I installed filezilla, vlc, thunderbird, just to name three, their respective icons did not show up in "installed Programs"...

Perhaps, you did not click on See # more results? See Attachment 1.

Mentioning the sidebar, it politely moves out of the way when pushed by a window, so what happens when I have 5 or six windows open and it has hidden itself, then I want to launch another application, I have two choices, pull the windows away from the left, negating the hide function or switch to another workspace, which is useless if I want to work with both that app and one already open on workspace 1.

You can also click on the small Ubuntu icon in the top left corner to unhide the launcher.

And I still cannot work out how having a sidebar full of icons takes up less screen space than a drop down menu that is only there when you want it.

That is a point but you can still right-click on the grey Applications button to pop up a list of application categories. See Attachment 2.

Cheers David, ... who is still persevering with it, but not as his main os.

And I have not even installed it, yet. I am just playing with it on a live usb key.

[pommie]

Perhaps, you did not click on See # more results? See Attachment 1.

oh please, anyway they appeared after a reboot, note not a log out but a complete shutdown and restart.

You can also click on the small Ubuntu icon in the top left corner to unhide the launcher.

Yes I could, but why ? I thought the launcher improved workflow, click to show launcher, click to drop a menu, where is the improvement.

That is a point but you can still right-click on the grey Applications button to pop up a list of application categories. See Attachment 2.

/me now has a red face

And I have not even installed it, yet. I am just playing with it on a live usb key.

Don't get me wrong I am finding it smoother (maybe faster) than 10.10 and I have only had one problem where it locked up and black screened, but I cannot replicate it even though I have tried doing the same things again, so I put it down to a random act of a Gremlin
I have shrunk the launcher icons as far as they will go and put most of the apps so far installed on it, I only have two holes left, so from then on its scroll the launcher, even with my gripes I think I will be using it as my main os soon

Cheers David

[mc4man]

Personally think the gnome menus were bloated and slow, didn't use much.
While don't know yet what 11.10 has in mind in 11.04 you can set up simple launcher menus that are very accessible and fast (2 click to execution
Atm they can only be 1 level so the icon is a category, the quicklist is the menu
You can also use the same on single app icons to create multiple ways to open the app or locations ect. ect.
Screen is the new Multimedia I'm setting up on a fresh install, may add some more, may remove the default totem as I hardly ever use, may set something as a l.click on icon or may not

[Zetheroo]

How did you do that?