With GNOME-Shell coming, arises problem of managing small windows which you need to always have here at hand. The greatest problem are chat windows. Yes, replying from the notification is good, but what if you need to copy a link from Firefox, then return to a chat window and paste it? Switch to the overview, look for that window, choose it... these are three simple steps, but they take time, and when you need to repeat them all the time, it's really irritating. Chat windows used to be one click away. Some ideas on solving this: * Give every such app a tray icon. This doesn't eliminate or unify the notification area, and it means that the icons should again open main window on left click. Requires reverting changes from Lucid, but probably will work. * People applet? (A nice mockup: http://sites.google.com/site/drewkerr/gimmie-corners.png) But, even if you make it one-click, it would either not show who is who either clutter the interface a lot. Chats are usually placed inside one window in tabs, so this seems redundant. And we have calculator etc., so this does not solve the problem. * Another hot corner, showing a "widget layer" with chats etc.? Doesn't make you perform less actions, but animation is faster and it's easier to pick the right window. * Such windows can form another sidebar on the right, which will be brought up on throwing cursor beyond the right edge of the screen. Such sidebar could replace the application tray, it's more visual and easily acessible, and can hold calculator, transmission, rhythmbox and anything you want be at hand, but not clutter your workspace. Isn't it the superior metaphor you are looking for?
Yours faithfully Sergey Davidoff
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