17.10 Enable Workspaces??

[Kurt_Alan]

Workspaces have long been an Ubuntu staple. In Unity they could be clicked on in Behavior and would appear in the dock.

17.10? It's a mission to figure out workspaces. I installed Gnome Tweak Tool and configured a number of static workspaces.

But they are not in the dock. I have no idea where they are or how to access them.

Please advise.

[monkeybrain20122]

You have to use the activity corner to expose the workspaces by pointing to the upper left corner. But the activity corner is disabled by default for some reasons so you have to activate it from gnome-tweak-tool (go to Top Bar > and turn on Activities Overview Hot Corner)

[Kurt_Alan]

You have to use the activity corner to expose the workspaces by pointing to the upper left corner. But the activity corner is disabled by default for some reasons so you have to activate it from gnome-tweak-tool (go to Top Bar > and turn on Activities Overview Hot Corner)

Thank you. I turned on Hot Corners but no matter how I hover my cursor in the upper left of my screen, they are nowhere to be found.
A few other items that I've toggled on or off from the tweak tool have also failed: This tool is hit or miss for me.

I dug down into the gnome-extension grab-bag after typing "workspaces" in Activity. I found a workspace app which stays on my taskbar with a drop-down menu giving me spaces of 1 through 4. An open space puts an orange dot below that app on the doc.

But no menu. Kind of a crappy work-around. It seems that the Gnome devs kicked Workspaces to the curb. For that matter, they were hidden in Unity. Ah, give me the goold old days when workspaces were the default and a no-brainer.

First time using gnome-extensions. A lot of junk and a pain. Maybe I'll see the light down the road.

[Kurt_Alan]

OP: The app is called Workspace Indicator. I forgot the name:

But no About, no documentation, does not appear in Show Applications even though it is installed, does not show as installed when I browse for it.
Not impressed.

[monkeybrain20122]

Thank you. I turned on Hot Corners but no matter how I hover my cursor in the upper left of my screen, they are nowhere to be found.

Works here. Hover cursor over hot corner. See screenshot.



OP: The app is called Workspace Indicator. I forgot the name:

But no About, no documentation, does not appear in Show Applications even though it is installed, does not show as installed when I browse for it.
Not impressed.

You can still install unity on 17.10 and it works without a glitch. "sudo apt install unity-session xserver-xorg-input-synaptics" If more people use it then there is a better chance that it will be maintained and kept around for the next LTS.

[Kurt_Alan]

I think that Unity is obselescent. It's all about IPO and not UX. Shuttleworth is looking at Canonical's long term viability. It would be great if Unity could be maintained as an offical flavor but I'm not putting my hopes there because I don't want to be disappointed. I still can't figure out workspaces by the hot corner. Maybe because I'm low vision? I will use the gnome extension.

I logged into the default Unity option. Dropbox is broken but not in Gnome. Dealbreaker for me. If I wanted stable Unity I would just go back to the last Unity LTS. Everything else is wishful thinking.

Regarding the gnome extension for Workspaces, called Workspace Indicator, I found out two things. First from Gnome Tweaks there is a setting to indicate number of spaces as well as toggling the indicator on or off. Also, I discovered that under All Installed, gnome extensions are listed after all apps.

[monkeybrain20122]

I think that Unity is obselescent. It's all about IPO and not UX. Shuttleworth is looking at Canonical's long term viability. It would be great if Unity could be maintained as an offical flavor but I'm not putting my hopes there because I don't want to be disappointed. I still can't figure out workspaces by the hot corner. Maybe because I'm low vision? I will use the gnome extension.

I logged into the default Unity option. Dropbox is broken but not in Gnome. Dealbreaker for me. If I wanted stable Unity I would just go back to the last Unity LTS. Everything else is wishful thinking.

Regarding the gnome extension for Workspaces, called Workspace Indicator, I found out two things. First from Gnome Tweaks there is a setting to indicate number of spaces as well as toggling the indicator on or off. Also, I discovered that under All Installed, gnome extensions are listed after all apps.


Dropbox works in unity session here. I think your issue has to do with it not showing menu, there is an easy work around. https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Installation-and-desktop-app/Dropbox-menu-disappeared-on-Ubuntu-16-10/td-p/169381

On the other hand it doesn't even show up in gnome shell (might have to do with some extensions I installed)

While unity is not an official flavour in 18.04 a group of canonical dev has kindly agreed to maintain it and there will be some rigorous testing once the development cycle is under way. https://community.ubuntu.com/t/testing-unity-session-in-18-04/987/13 The beauty of open source is that nothing really dies as long as there is a community willing to support it. As far as I can see wayland is not ready for prime time and xorg will be around for quite some time, as long as xorg is not obsolete neither will unity be, it is simply a better DE than gnome in terms of user experience and polish IMO. If the Mate people can keep the "obsolete" gnome 2 around for such a long time and eventually turn Ubuntu Mate into an official flavour I think the chance for unity (or its offsprings) is much better.

[Kurt_Alan]

I dual boot Ubuntu MATE. I thought MATE was an official flavor. Budgie is an official flavor but MATE is not?? I love the granularity and polish of MATE. Config. of panels is very precise and there are many options. Compare that to Unity or Gnome 3 panels: zero config.

But I learned to love Unity for its minimalism and non-inteference with my work. In Dash, I could type "ca" and I'd have my calculator immediately. Gnome 3 lays out all apps which is better for noobs. How can you pick want you want if you don't know what you have? I am going to live with the new DE. It it quite Unity like with a few advantages and a few disadvantages but no deal-breakers as yet. I'm keeping a list of problems or glitches which I will submit to the forum when I have more, to determine if any may be submitted as bugs.

[deadflowr]

I thought MATE was an official flavor. Budgie is an official flavor but MATE is not??
I think you misread what monkeybrain20122 wrote:
which was

If the Mate people can keep the "obsolete" gnome 2 around for such a long time and eventually turn Ubuntu Mate into an official flavour I think the chance for unity (or its offsprings) is much better.
I take that as a if mate can become a flavor, then their is hope for unity too.

Nothing in it suggests Ubuntu Mate is not a flavor.
And ftr, it is an official flavor, just to be clear.

[Dennis N]

How can you pick want you want if you don't know what you have?
You can install an Applications Menu if you want. There are several installable as gnome extensions. On Ubuntu 17.10, I installed Applications Menu, and it replaces the Activities Button (with link to Activities at bottom of menu; or use hot corner or Super Key instead to reach Activities). One extra package needs installing with Ubuntu - see the extension web page and must enable hot corner. With the menu, you get the traditional category-based arrangement.