Unity with window-centric launcher

[Oxwivi]

The current launcher in Unity is app-centric - i.e. instead of window controls (open a new window, minimize window, etc.), it shows the windows of the application.

If the launcher was window-centric like the classic GNOME panel is, how would you imagine it to function (e.g. window previews like Windows 7 taskbar, what sort of animations referring to a window, etc.)?

[Copper Bezel]

The trouble is that it's not a hypothetical. = ) In the world of Linux docks, Unity's launcher is just weird in that it doesn't include a window list.

The only dock I know of that supports window previews is DockBarX, and I personally find them distracting and less than useful (but they're an option.) DockBarX, though, shows a window list for a given application and can include a close button and use of scrolling to minimize and maximize (or whatever binding makes sense.) That's fairly window-centric. (Some nice application-centric features, too, though, in the dock jump lists.)

Avant Window Navigator does have the weirdly window-centric option of not grouping windows of the same application, but this is impractical in a dock because (1) a dock contains more items than a taskbar and (2) without captions, separated windows are indistinguishable without hovering to show their previews or captions, anyway.

[sffvba[e0rt]

I like the fact that the launcher gives me options to use rather than showing me what I will be seeing anyway :)


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