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Idea #16648: Utilize Screen Real Estate Properly.

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #6772: Make a compact Human Theme.
Written by bp5109 the 19 Dec 08 at 20:39. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
Gnome, and in fact, all Desktop environments in Linux.. in all distro's uses up far too much screen real estate for just about everything.

I don't know enough about Linux to really identify the problem. I do know that an 8px font in Windows is hard to read, but an 8pt font in Linux is perfect, if not a little large for alot of things (icon text in nautilus, window manager text, panel bar text, etc..)

Icons are too large. Default pidgin conversation windows are too large. The panels are too thick. The toolbar buttons in Nautilus are far too big.

Compare a 1600x1200 screen in Windows, to one in Mac to one in Gnome or KDE. There's far more space to work in other OSes.

I don't know if it's desktop design, poor video drivers, bad font rendering.

I know that if I spend about 30-45 min tweaking with firefox themes, gnome settings, and individual application settins.. i still cannot get the same screen space to work on that i can with other OSes.

Also see: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-338007.html

6
votes
closed
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #16648
Written by bp5109 the 19 Dec 08 at 20:39.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #16648 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Attachments
forum Ubuntuforums.org thread #1016178


Duplicates


Comments
animaniac wrote on the 19 Dec 08 at 22:22
i find i have plenty of real estate in gnome. as for kde, version 4 is looking nicer and nicer, it has amazing ideas for desktop optimization (although ill wait a couple of months for it to mature). in short, i dont see the problem, infact i think these two desktop environments do a better job than the competition.

bp5109 wrote on the 19 Dec 08 at 22:51
I don't see how you can possibly say that. (not trying to be rude, but have you actually compared?)

Put any monitor with Gnome, to your computer at any resolution.

Take the same monitor and put it on another machine (or dual boot), same resolution into windows.

A maximized application in Windows displays far more than in linux. If it's not a maximized window, there's far more empty screen space to be used by other windows.

Not to mention when you start talking wide screens. Gnome has a nasty habit of building apps so they're far taller than wider (nautilus window for instance). Compare the button size between that and Windows explorer. And OS X saves screen space with their dynamic menu bar.

choad wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 01:03
agreed, 100%. would vote up to 100000 if possible. the amount of wasted space in almost every app is RIDICULOUS. evolution is one of the worst offenders.

not only is it more efficient using less space, i also did a mock up of evolution not wasting space and it looked 10 times as professional as the real evolution.

choad wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 01:04
oh and as a netbook user (exclusively, my real laptop is temp dead) this very much affects me. netbooks are the new black, don't you know. we need action on this fast!

sayakb (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 08:16
Marked as a dupe of #2855

bp5109 wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 17:29
Interesting read, doing a pixel by pixel comparison of OS X, Ubuntu, and Windows.

http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/7kn5y/is_it_just_me_or_do_nix_des_do_a_h orrible_job_at/

BellaJoy wrote on the 31 Oct 11 at 15:54
You know what you should do if you don't have enough space? Get another monitor or why not get 2 monitors and connect them(it would be like buying a new mobile homes)! I have a friend that needs the work space because he writes lines and lines of code so he merged 3 monitors and it looks like a thing out of the Sci-Fi movies. And frankly I think you should get Fedora or change the OS completely.


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