GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 661030
Clicking on an app button in the "Applications" view should launch a new window
Last modified: 2021-07-05 14:46:39 UTC
We already show all running applications in the dash. If a user explicitly switches to the "Applications" view, it's quite certain they want to start a new window.
I definitely agree on this. The proposed highlighting of already-running apps can still be useful to let a user know they have the app open somewhere, if they don't want to spawn a new window, and switch back to the window selector if desired.
(In reply to comment #0) > We already show all running applications in the dash. If a user explicitly > switches to the "Applications" view, it's quite certain they want to start a > new window. Not sure where you get that certainty from. It is just as likely the user has a) simply forgotten there already was an open window somewhere or b) learned how to use the app view and is now using that as his primary means of opening an app
In my opinion, there should really be a clear separation between launching new windows and moving to an existing one. One solution could be to decide that the dash and the "applications" view always launch new windows, and the window selector is used to move to an existing one. This would have the advantage of being simple and intuitive. More over, this would prevent users from being moved to a workspace totally unrelated to the workspace they're currently working on when trying to launch a new terminal/gedit/epiphany window whil another one is already opened for un unrelated task on un unrelated workspace. The only special case would be mono-window applications, like Evolution or Rythmbox, but it's their responsability to make sur that spawning thel actually results in presenting the currently running window (most of them already do that correctly, except for Evolution).
By the way, if the application is already running, the right-click item could be "show this application" instead of "open a new window".
Sorry for the noise, but I've just checked and Evolution correctly presents its main window instead of opening a new one when you launch it while it's already running. The only drawback is that you're not automatically moved to the workspace where it is running, and, alternatively, its window is not moved to the current workspace...
The patch in bug #661207 may be helpful. I use the dash to switch between windows, so I wouldn't want the dash to open a new window every time.
Jasper, as I said in bug #650030, I have nothing against using the dash to switch between windows, but I just hate it when trying to open a new app window makes me move away from my current workspace (and task). This is very counter-intuitive and counter-productive.
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