GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 753217
main menu needed
Last modified: 2018-12-04 01:11:13 UTC
Gnome needs a main menu. I just installed openSuse 13.2 with Gnome 3 and it has the same problem that Fedora 20 had, when requiring that we look at the truncated alphabetical icons of apps. Example: File Manager File Manager ... File Manager ... Those are Gnome's ellipses, not mine. Hovering the pointer does not tell me the difference. I have to open them to find out. Then I'm supposed to remember the difference maybe a month later. The Software app is a kludge, since it shows what was installed, but a very inefficient kludge. I think all other desktops provide main menus, which means that for certain functions I have to switch desktops and then relogin to get Gnome (every desktop has its problems). If most Gnome users hate menus, at least group more apps (I see only three groups now) and don't truncate their names if we hover.
It is a pretty big leap from "ellipsization does not work well for these three apps" to "need a main menu". First of all, can you say which applications you were having this problem with ? Don't their icons help telling them apart ? The guidelines for GNOME applications recomend that the Name in the desktop file should clearly identify the app within the first 15 characters, so prepending "LibreOffice" or "File Manager" to the name is not a great approach... If you think a more traditional menu would work better for you, you can try the apps-menu gnome-shell extension. It is part of GNOME classic, but can also be used on its own.
(In reply to Nick Levinson from comment #0) > Gnome needs a main menu. Bug reports should describe a problem, not *one* potential solution. :) Please describe the specific problem that you face and that you would like to see solved.
I think you can infer the problem description from whats there already: gnome-shell ellipsizes application names in the overview after ~15 characters, with no easy way to see the full name (the report mentions going to gnome-software as a cumbersome way to see the full name). Some examples of problematic app names are given in the original report and in my comment.
(In reply to Matthias Clasen from comment #3) > gnome-shell ellipsizes application names in the overview after ~15 > characters, with no easy way to see the full name We already have a bug for that, so marking this as duplicate. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 663725 ***
The problem, which was discussed elsewhere but I couldn't find that discussion lately, is that an alphabetical listing of all the programs makes choosing a program by function difficult. I found a calculator under G (Galculator) (Calculator is installed but is not in the apps). I have 261 programs. What browsers do I have? They're not together and some browsers have names that don't remind me of a browser. Many programs have names that are virtually meaningless even when viewing their icons. They're truncated after about 10-13 characters, not about 15. Of the first 48 apps, about 18 were mysterious to me. I've added some to my "favorites" but the more I add the smaller their icons get and their names are visible only by hovering, which means that if there are more than about a dozen there are too many. And I'm moderately geeky. Nongeeky users who just want to get their work done will have a harder time. The three truncated names I gave above have identical icons. They were installed by default. Part of the reason I have so many programs across eight pages and three windows of apps is that some are games, which I don't want, but I learned long ago with Linux that failure to install games can cause a failure of dependencies for nongame apps. Without a main menu, I have to guess which icons represent productivity programs I want to use. This bug report is a duplicate only for ellipsization, not for the lack of grouping of apps by major function (ellipsization being only a secondary symptom of the problem), and a main menu should be installed by default for the nongeeks among us, so I'll try to change the status for the sake of a menu, as this bug report's title indicates.
Part of the problem is that some distributions install way too many apps by default, partly because it doesn't provide an easy way to install new applications. Newer systems have similar menus, but they don't load up three pages of applications by default. Users should be able to recognize applications because they chose to install them. I admit that the current design isn't great currently for existing distributions -- part of the goal behind the new design was that we hoped that distributions would cut down on the number of default apps since they would know that shipping three pages full of applications is silly, but that unfortunately didn't happen.
(In reply to Nick Levinson from comment #5) > They're not together and some browsers > have names that don't remind me of a browser. Those applications should install .desktop files that include keywords like "browser". So you can type "browser" in the overview and those applications will be shown. Just pointing out, not saying this is a "solution".
Typing keywords retrieves some, but not all of a type, and it's not as obvious as a main menu or other organized system, but it helps. Thanks for mentioning it. I have two programs named Task Manager using identical icons and separately listed in the Software app, but they're meant for different non-Gnome desktops although they appear in Gnome. The real names don't become apparent until you open them and poke past the title bars. At least in the commercial world this would be illegal as unfair competition or intellectual property infringement, but probably in FOSS that's ignored. A main menu or some other (better) way of organizing our programs should try to resolve attempts at identical namings. I could forget what I've installed myself. That could apply to utilities that I might install just in case I lose Internet access and can't get them when I need them or because I'm doing a one-time project with browsers, decide I don't like most of them, and then reconsider them and forgot what they're called. I've never been good at memorizing lots of data but good at making sense of things and knowing where to find information, so memory jogs help.
(In reply to Nick Levinson from comment #8) ... > I have two programs named Task Manager using identical icons and separately > listed in the Software app, but they're meant for different non-Gnome > desktops although they appear in Gnome. ... Have you filed bugs with those applications, requesting that they use a unique name and application icon?
No. It's not a bad idea, but my time is short and their proponents' answer may be that neither one is meant to coexist with the other since each is meant for a different desktop and neither one is for Gnome, so, I think they'd say, Gnome is wrong. I likely wouldn't agree, but no matter. If a Gnome main menu does not solve this, the main menu would still be more useful than not having one. But if this shared-name problem can be solved, too, given that other shared-name pairs will likely keep appearing, that feature would be a bonus for users.
If I go to the top right corner of the workspace, where icons for WiFi, power, and sound/audio lead to a menu that includes what looks like a wrench-and-screwdriver icon, that icon opens All Settings > Personal > Main Menu, which allows configuring a main menu, but does not allow making that menu visible on the desktop or in a workspace. I don't understand why we can configure a menu we can't have. If that means we can have the menu, please make it obvious, such as by adding a button (perhaps Create Menu) to that dialog.
That sounds like a customization OpenSuSE has made. That menu doesn't exist on GNOME.
Another reason for needing a Main Menu is that the kludge of running the Software app to see by category what I've installed doesn't work if I don't have Internet access at the moment, like when I'm riding the subway.
We are not going to add back a gnome2-style application menu, reopening this bug isn't going to change that.
A main menu is now included in Gnome 3.30.2 with Fedora 29. I don't know if it's exactly "a gnome2-style application menu", but it works like I need. To get it, go to the Tweaks application > Extensions > Applications menu > On. Tweaks is part of the default installation of F29, at least a recent (sub)version thereof that I downloaded in the last few days.