When the window control buttons were moved to the left of the window in Ubuntu 10.04 there were a lot of complaints, Mark Shuttleworth would only say that the move was necessary to free the space on the right for something else; Well here is that something else: Window Indicators, or Windicators. “Windicators are indicators displayed in the window title bar that behave just like the indicators in the panel: they have an icon which shows state, and clicking on the icon brings up a menu.”
Part of the idea is to allow the status bar to be removed from most applications, instead using a Google Chrome like status overlay for transitory messages and moving things like Online/Offline status, progress indicators and so on to the new windicator panel. The windicator panel could also allow for things like application specific volume controls, something which is currently buried in the sound preferences.
This sounds like an excellent idea to me with lots of potential for future development. Hopefully it will placate some of those moaning about the button position too!
Check out Mark Shuttleworth’s blog post for the full details.
Why didn’t they just put the Windicators on the LEFT side, and leave the window controls on the right, where most of us are used to having them? I’m truly a GUI lover and don’t really want to go the command line route, but all the crap and eye-candy being kludged into interfaces to make them more ‘featureful’ is making it harder and harder to stick with a GUI. And frankly, Ubuntu has more important issues to deal with than ‘windicators’. How about a competent file manager? Nautilus is a brain-dead, under-powered relic totally unfit for daily use, and I know that well, because as a Gnome user I swear at Nautilus several times a day. Although Dolphin is excessively prettified in the time-honored KDE love of bling, at least it gets the job done, and I really wish I could fully integrate into Gnome. Nautilus has a LONG way to go to match Dolphin’s capabilities, and a file manager is much more mission-critical than windicators will ever be.
Basic usability issues need to be addressed fully before adding fluffy features. Ubuntu is becoming like those Hollywood film set buildings; it looks good from the front, but from behind it’s lacking the things that would make it whole. Come to think of it, Ubuntu is becoming like Windows, except Ubuntu doesn’t have a workable file manager.