Integrated Menu

It seems rather clumsy (IMO) to have three seperate menus when they could all be easily lumped into one 'system' menu, which itself could be the Ubuntu logo in the upper left corner of the screen. This seems more logical to me and it frees up valuable space removing the words "Application", "Places" and "System" from the top panel, allowing one to then occupy that freed space with all the items on the bottom panel, thus eliminating another bit of (IMO) clumsiness in the desktop interface.

I'd propose achieving this by doing the following:

1. Clicking on the Ubuntu logo brings up the system menu, which has a left and right list.
2. The left list is made up of the entire contents of the current "Places" menu, without the 'Search for files' and 'Recent files' options.
3. The right list is topped by 'Applications' (which then contains the entire contents of the current "Applications" menu), 'Search for files' and 'Recent files', followed by the entire contents of the current "System" menu.
4. Rename 'Preferences' to 'User Preferences' and 'Administration' to 'System Administration' to make clear the difference between the two sub-menus. Perhaps just adding "user" to the one would be enough?

The reason I suggest moving 'Search for files' and 'Recent files' to the right list is to balance out the two lists with 11 items each, and the fact that 'Recent files' needs to expand and that would look awkward extending over from the far left side of the menu.

Right click on the panel, click add to panel, select "Main Menu" and click add.

Customize your own setup. Don't force the rest of us to move towards a system that requires more clicks to achieve the same result.

Unless I'm mistaken, currently once you click to activate the menu then it's a simple matter of navigating through the menu and submenus, not clicking through them... So no, there are no more or even less clicks this way, this just removes some clutter and organizes things a little better, IMO, and would be a better default setup - At which point YOU could customize your own setup.[-X

alms66 said: Unless I'm mistaken, currently once you click to activate the menu then it's a simple matter of navigating through the menu and submenus, not clicking through them...

So no, there are no more or even less clicks this way, this just removes some clutter and organizes things a little better, IMO, and would be a better default setup - At which point YOU could customize your own setup.[-X

What he meant to say was that GNOME never did this because it takes longer due to you having to go through more. Besides, this sounds more complicated, and sounds like Windows (we want to be our own OS, not Windows!). I think that it should remain how it is now (it does, indeed take more time than current, or would be more complicated).

There is only one more movement needed by integrating the three menus into a single menu - and that is to activate the submenu you wish to navigate to. There's virtually no difference in usage of the menus per se, it just frees up space on the panel, that's all. We're talking having to move your mouse and extra 1/8" - woah that's a whole lot of effort there...

As for it being too Windows-like. Who cares what Windows is or does. A single menu is simple, elegant and intuitive. I'm not trying to make Ubuntu into Windows or Mac for that matter. I'm just bringing up a minor facelift that would improve the user interface.

Even if it's as simple as clicking on the Ubuntu logo to open a menu that has three options: Applications, Places, System, that is still an improvement IMO, as it makes clear that there is one place to go for everything - the single menu.

*** I'll do a quick mock-up of what I'd like to see, as there was always more I wanted to add to the interface overhaul I'm envisioning here, plus I've refined the idea a bit more in the past few months.

The first thing that impressed me about Ubuntu was the intelligent separation of the menu into applications places and system. Lumping things into one centralized area does not always make a system more efficient.

besides, this exists already in every dock and i believe there is already an applet which does away with the text and is just an icon. I find them cumbersome and inefficient.

BGFG said: besides, this exists already in every dock and i believe there is already an applet which does away with the text and is just an icon. I find them cumbersome and inefficient.Yeah, it is the "main menu" applet.

there's also a slab style menu in the repos somewhere.

alms66 said: Even if it's as simple as clicking on the Ubuntu logo to open a menu that has three options: Applications, Places, System, that is still an improvement IMO, as it makes clear that there is one place to go for everything - the single menu.

Did you even try what I said in my earlier post in this thread? Go back to post #2 of this thread and read it and try it once.

If you have already done this, then at least say what's bad about it.

Sukarn said: Did you even try what I said in my earlier post in this thread? Go back to post #2 of this thread and read it and try it once.

If you have already done this, then at least say what's bad about it.

No, actually, I did not try it. When I first posted this I was running 7.10 and I was in the process of upgrading to 8.04, so I couldn't try it when you suggested it. After the upgrade was complete, Ubuntu no longer ran on my computer. I tried a reinstall with 8.04, then 8.10, and none of them install. I've still got to try 9.04. When I get the computer set up again, I will.

Sukarn said: Did you even try what I said in my earlier post in this thread? Go back to post #2 of this thread and read it and try it once.

If you have already done this, then at least say what's bad about it.

Sorry Sukarn. After being away for so long, I should have re-read the whole thread, but I just replied to the last post. I ran the live cd on my newer computer and tried the main menu app. Like I said, anything that's all-in-one is an improvement and though it could be better, it'll work. Thanks.:D

See, now you're happy, and we're happy. There are a lot of us out there (actually, I think, most of the old users of GNOME out there) who like the way GNOME's menu is set up (3 parts).

Its to suit the current users that its kept this way instead of being changed.

Glad alm66 got to update and found a useful menu item though :)

BGFG said: Glad alm66 got to update and found a useful menu item though :)

Actually, I still didn't update, I just tried the main menu app with in a live session. I found an old 7.10 iso file and am about to install that just to make sure it stopped working in 8.04, and if so, post the computer specs in the thread linked in my sig.