GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 663370
Change keybinding for switching between workspaces
Last modified: 2013-05-29 23:20:07 UTC
With GNOME-Shell, using multiple workspaces has gotten a more important role. The taskbar used to allow you to quickly call multiple applications to the front whereas the application overview now requires you to refocus multiple times to achieve the same. You would have to switch from normal view to overview for each application you would like to call to the front. The constant switching between viewing modes can be reduced by using multiple workspaces. The change of the desktop when changing to and from overview mode is as drastic as when switching from workspaces. Both actions also apply to application handling. Because of their similar impact, function and importance, I think switching workspaces should be made more accessible as well. I'd like to propose using the System+ARROW combination to switch between workspaces. It reduces the amount of finger stretching, decreases the chance of pressing a wrong key combination (miss-pressing) and it makes an easier keybinding to remember. System+ARROW also makes more sense then the current CTRL+ALT+ARROW combination. Whereas the CTRL-ALT combination does not have a general meaning, the System key got a meaning now that it is used to call the overview, thus having the effect mentioned above.
Makes sense, but I'm not sure that would make the keybinding much easier to user/discover. The change should probably be part of a more general move toward new System+X bindings. And we need to think about generations of users accustomed to to old binding: do we need to keep the old version too? I'd say yes.
(In reply to comment #1) > do we need to keep the old version too? I'd say yes. Note that when moving keybindings to GSettings, all bindings are now stored as lists, so having multiple default bindings is not only supported, but actually trivial.
If I remember correctly, System + Arrow is the keybinding used to snap windows to the sides of the screen and maximize/minimize windows in Windows 7. There was some discussion here on Bugzilla about adopting the same keybindings for the same actions for the GNOME 3 desktop. I can't remember anybody opposing it. The implementation was posponed until keybindings were moved to GSettings, though. So we should keep this in mind, I think. Can't look for the actual bug right now, might do it later and perhaps we should mark it as related to this one.
This was the bug report I was talking about before: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=648700
In 3.8, the new defaults are <super>PgUp/PgDown. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 689969 ***