GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 650197
RFE: Desktop overview navigable completely via keyboard
Last modified: 2011-11-06 16:23:20 UTC
In GNOME 2.x with Compiz it was common to use the desktop wall plugin to view all desktops. This is also common in other DE/WMs such as KDE & Unity. Examples: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1078/609494888_15dd55e70a.jpg http://kde.org/workspaces/plasmadesktop/screenshots/visual_effects.png http://timverry.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Ubuntu_Unity_Workspace_Switcher.png This functionality makes it easy to see all windows currently open regardless of desktop. It makes it very easy to form a "mental map" of "what is where" and makes it much simpler to see - at a glance - what is running and where it is. When combined with keyboard shortcuts (such as a shortcut to view all desktops, and then using the arrow keys and enter to navigate between and select desktops) it makes it extremely fast and easy to make full use of multiple desktops. Currently gnome-shell does not offer this functionality. This makes gnome-shell a very clunky environment for people who rely heavily on switching quickly between multiple desktops, organize tasks by desktop, and navigate their system via keyboard. Not having a desktop overview or desktop wall accessible by keyboard also makes gnome-shell inconvenient because the only way to navigate between desktops is serially with ctrl-alt-up & ctrl-alt-down rather than being able to navigate directly to the desktop the user wants to navigate to. In it's current state gnome-shell seems to force the user to only use one desktop as the multiple desktops require either hunting and pecking with the mouse or traversing them serially with no visual clue as to what is where. In gnome-shell the only way to view all desktops is a clunky 2 step process where one hits super to open the activities overview and then has to use the mouse to un-hide the desktops on the right. The desktops are small and cannot be navigated by the keyboard making them impractical and of little use. gnome-shell used to offer (during development) one of the the best implementations of a desktop overview: http://www.edhewitt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/gnomeshell.png Not having this functionality has made using gnome-shell less than pleasant and has lead me to consider other desktop environments. However, I like everything else about gnome-shell and would like to continue to use it. Please reconsider the current system and add support for a desktop overview. It would be great if instead of a tiny sub menu in the activities overview if it had its own category next to Windows and Applications in the activities overview and if there was a keyboard shortcut to take you right to that - for example super-D or something.
Is Ctrl-Esc to show windows of all workspaces like a single workspace (and therefore hide the workspace panel) too crazy?
Nguyen, I'd like to see the various windows actually organized in their workspaces rather than all shown on the screen as though they were in one workspace. One of the values of a "desktop wall" or "desktops overview" is being able to use spatial memory and to spatially visualize where windows are organized. Just displaying all of the windows from all workspaces breaks that spacial relationship.
Hi Adam. You've said: "In gnome-shell the only way to view all desktops is a clunky 2 step process where one hits super to open the activities overview and then has to use the mouse to un-hide the desktops on the right. The desktops are small and cannot be navigated by the keyboard making them impractical and of little use." As in the desktop view, it is possible to navigate through the workspaces with Ctrl+Alt+Up or Ctrl+Alt+Down shortcuts from within the Activities overview. You don't have to use to do that. By the way, you may take a look at http://afaikblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/news-from-gnome-shell-land where it is written that the behaviour of the workspace switcher has changed, so that it now stays extended (unhidden) when you are using more than one workspace." Though not as you've asked here, it may please you.
I was going to add a bug but this one seems to cover my issues as well. In order to work around the difficulties of switching between windows in the same app, I'd like to switch to overview (using the flag key). Then use arrows to select the correct app window in the current desktop, and enter, escape, or flag again to return to the desktop. Similarly once in overview, use C-M-arrow to switch to another desktop overview, select the window there, then drop back into the new desktop with the desired window chosen.
Thanks all. I believe that GNOME's new default behavior of having the desktops displayed at all times once more than one is in use addresses my issue to a degree. At the time I wrote this bug that was not the behavior. I think that having the multiple desktops view hidden ever is somewhat confusing but as long as it is always visible once multiple desktops are in use it is better. It doesn't change the fact that displaying desktops vertically is confusing and poor from a design and usability standpoint but I've opened another bug for that (660902) so this bug can be closed. Thanks all.