Mac OS-style menubar as default

[Janne Ojaniemi]

On Monday 04 July 2005 05:58, Merton Campbell Crockett wrote:
> The Mac-style menubar was a good idea for Apple's original computer due to
> its small monitor.  Today, it's a royal pain to use.

Just because we now have higher resolutions available, it's OK to waste 
screen-space? My monitor runs at 1280x1024, and sometimes that's not enough. 
Why should I waste space on multiple menubars? I should get a better monitor 
to go around the shortcomings in the UI?

> If you are working 
> in a window in the lower right-hand corner of the desktop, you will need
> to move the cursor 12 inches just to select a menu action.  Once you make
> your selection, you need to move the cursor another 12 inches to restore
> focus to the window.

In real-life that action would be faster with Mac-style menubars than with 
per-window menubars. Why? Because the menubar would take advantage of 
screen-borders and the menus would always be in the exact same location. With 
per-window menubars, you have to first look where the menu actually is. Then 
you have to carefully place the cursor on the menu. Move the cursor too much, 
and you can't access the menu.

> Another problem with the Mac-style menu bar is that it requires you to use
> the "click-to-focus" paradigm.  For those of us raised on X11 and are used
> to having focus follow mouse, this is a royal pain.

True, with focus-follows-mouse, the Mac-style menubar would not work.

> Right-click on the desktop, most of what you are asking for is already
> there?

Some are, not all. But should they be there? No. IMO Kmenu should be about 
launching apps, and nothing more. Right now it acts like a menu where just 
about everything is grouped. the desktops context-menu should be about the 
desktop and actions related to it. Things like configuring the desktop and 
the like. More wide-ranging actions (configuring the system, searching etc.) 
should be elsewhere.
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