GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 676832
Give each full screen window its own special workspace
Last modified: 2021-07-05 14:46:45 UTC
In OS X when you put the window as full screen (not maximized!), it creates a new special workspace and the panel in top becomes auto-hidden (when you hover the mouse it appears), also, and more important, any popup windows or any app that you load when inside this workspace, it moves you out to the origin workspace and opens these windows there, so only the full-screen window stays in the full-screen workspace and no other window appears at front or back of the full-screen window. Follows a video explanation (unfortunately does not show all features): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGVHjVH-NAc
We've certainly wondered about this in the past, but I can't quite remember the specifics of what was discussed. CC'ing a few other designer types.
I use and love GNOME Shell but also use OS X and think this feature is great and would work well with GNOME Shell dynamic workspaces. I don't think it necessary to hide the top bar. Just auto-create a new workspace for the newly full screen window. If you think about it, anybody who sets a app/window full screen on top of other windows is implicitly wanting another workspace. This should at least be an simple extension for an experienced GNOME dev?!
I would favor making fullscreen explicit (user driven) action that puts the application in a separate workspace. Many applications use fullscreen to essentially get rid of window decorations. That's not what fullscreen should be about. It's about toning down the lights and putting you in a theatre seat. No light, no controls/chrome*. There are details to work out such as how the application is supposed to treat secondary displays. This might be a duplicate of bug #705177 * on demand.
Think of it as getting the people who talk on the phone during the movie out of the theatre, to go with your analogy. With all due respect, but depending on your screen resolution, size and aspect ratio, the top bar uses up to 5% of the height of the display for what is essentially a glorified clock, as the shell comes out when you merely hover over the left corner with the mouse, the overlay on the right could do the same and the menu has its own button in the window. It's fine for a collection of small windows, but not so much for a maximized window where it is a severe waste of screen estate.
For anybody who comes along looking for this function, there is an extension that provides it (nearly). See https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1181/maximize-to-workspace/
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