GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 674580
panel: Add show-desktop applet to default panel layout
Last modified: 2012-06-12 16:43:24 UTC
This is a patch I made for the Ubuntu packaging and I think it should be considered for inclusion by GNOME for everyone. Ubuntu & Fedora's GNOME 2 sessions for years had the show-desktop button visible. (I guess Fedora at some point stopped doing that.) Perhaps the main argument against adding this button is that the GNOME desktop by default doesn't have desktop icons, although I suspect a large number of GNOME Fallback users have desktop icons enabled. An argument for the button is that it shouldn't require a keyboard shortcut to minimize all of your apps or look at your desktop, which I think is a generally useful action.
Created attachment 212553 [details] [review] panel: Add show-desktop applet to default panel layout Because you shouldn't need a keyboard shortcut to minimize your windows or look at the desktop.
WONTFIX'ing because the default layout of the fallback mode is currently defined with a "let's do our best to look like the shell" approach. And "show desktop" doesn't fit in there. (In reply to comment #0) > Perhaps the main argument against adding this button is that the GNOME > desktop by default doesn't have desktop icons, although I suspect a large > number of GNOME Fallback users have desktop icons enabled. I'll point out that if the users enabled the desktop icons, then they can also add the "show desktop" applet.
OK. On the other hand, once distributions roll out llvmpipe, the only ones using GNOME Fallback are those that want the old look and functionality and explicitly don't like GNOME Shell. This is already the case for Ubuntu (maybe for Fedora 17?). At that point I think it's worth looking again at what the default layout is. Personally I think that point is already here. As another example (& a different bug), I think in Ubuntu, we're going to re-enable the distributor logo for the Applications menu bar.
(In reply to comment #3) > On the other hand, once distributions roll out llvmpipe, the only ones using > GNOME Fallback are those that want the old look and functionality and > explicitly don't like GNOME Shell. This is already the case for Ubuntu (maybe > for Fedora 17?). At that point I think it's worth looking again at what the > default layout is. Personally I think that point is already here. Well, at that point, we'll need to figure out what is the future of the fallback mode. I'm only maintaining gnome-panel in the perspective of using it as a fallback for gnome-shell. I'm happy to grant maintainership access to people who want to use the panel for other cases (like a gnome2-like mode).
I've written various patches for Gnome Panel to improve its use as a viable desktop component again, as opposed to a "fallback" option. One patch recombines the context menus (Edit/Applet items) into one context menu. Another puts the separator in (as seen in Gnome 2) Another patch re-enables left-click/drag of panels to different screen edges. The default layout is very simple to implement, as seen in this screenshot: http://ompldr.org/vZTkybQ If you're interested in re-integrating these changes let me know, ikey AT solusos DOT com Most likely I won't have time to look upon this thread often.