I am using gnome shell with 2 screens of 1600*1200. I think it is a very promising thing.

However, in the overview, the application dock gives me a very bad feeling. I use it to launch new apps, but if an application is already running, instead of launching it in the current workspace, it will send me to another workspace. This is anoying because in that case : 
1) that was not the action I wanted, and that makes me loose my workflow
2) I have to go back to the overview, find out in which workspace I was in, and then do the correct action this time

workaround 1 : systematically pressing the "Ctrl" key. problem : if I am just using the mouse, I need to go back to the keyboard and "find" the Ctrl key (look at screen, then keyboard, then screen)

workaround 2 : systematically right clicking + choosing "new window", which is quite slow

workaround 3 : paying attention to icons (is there a light white mark underneath ?), and doing "1" or "2" only if need be (but that is slow too).

Moreover, as I also use other DE, I am used to "click on the app", so I always need to switch to a special mode when using gnome shell.


My suggestion is to seperate the two : not same icon for two different actions. I thought of different ways :

A) put running applications first, then a bar or something, then dock applications that are not running

B) put running applications first, then a bar or something, then all the dock applications, not matter if they are already running or not

C) leave the dock on the left, that launches new apps (already running or not), and put an horizontal bar identical to the Alt+tab one on top of the overview

D) leave the dock on the left, that launches new apps (already running or not), and put icons of running apps on top of their windows (If I understood well, the idea of using icons is usefull when screens are not big enough to see the details of the windows)

Best regards