A very, very long time ago I personally advocated the inclusion of a certain feature into GNOME. We set up a poll at OSNews, which resulted in a very, very resounding "yes!" from the OSNews community - many of which are GNOME users. The feature in question was the global application menubar, which allowed the GNOME desktop to have a menu bar atop the screen similar to that of Mac OS X. The poll is long gone, the debate thread in the Bugzilla has died out, and no decision has yet been made. I wanted to know where this feature stands, and how much the developers have improved it, and I was in for a surprise.
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Member since:2009-02-14
Sure I can select a menu item from an inactive window. Doing so makes that window active and opens the menu in a single click.
I could see why people prefer either way. Fitt's law says the top menu bar is easier to click, but if you're not maximized I think it saves time not having to go up to the top of the screen all the time.
Member since:2006-11-19
maweaver, you obviously like having a menu bar in each window, which is fine, but I think there should absolutely be the option to either enable or disable a global menu bar based on user preferences, and I think it should be part of the standard Gnome system.
We can argue all year long about which one is better, but in the end, who cares. I like global menu bars, some don't. Thats why there needs to be an option to enable it.
This people like me who love a global menu bar can use a system the way the like, and people like you who like individual menu bars can use a system the way you like it.
I think its a win - win situation to have this option.
Member since:
2006-11-19
Why would you want to see the menu bar of an inactive application?
You can't select anything there. separate menu bars just waste screen real estate, and are a distraction. Especially if you look at the new netbooks, a global menu bar make so much more sense.
I will agree that many users are used to the Windows way of things, that a global menu bar does need to be an option, so they can select whatever they are most comfortable with.