Public bug reported: Although Unity offers a keyboard-shortcut (super-D) as a means of "showing your desktop" (minimizing all windows at once), it does not provide a MOUSE-CLICKABLE-BUTTON, that Users have come to expect from their desktop.
Keyboard-shortcuts are efficient, but they are not intuitive for new users of Unity, and having a MOUSE-CLICKABLE-BUTTON is very convenient when you are mousing (without both hands on the keyboard). Furthermore, (although some people think Window 7 doesn't have a show desktop button) Window 7 still provides a show-desktop-button; it is a small rectangle to the right of the clock. So I hope Windows 7's discreetness isn't what lead the Unity designers to think that there is some type of trend toward not having a show-desktop-BUTTON. Unity's "Workspace Switcher" is helpful for locating the windows of running applications, but it doesn't not replace the functionality of a show-desktop-button in the event that your needing to quickly access a file or launcher that has been saved to the desktop itself. Personally, I'd like to see a show-desktop-button added to the bottom of the Unity-Task-Bar. However, another option for a mouse-click-way of showing the desktop (that is more elegant, but with more steps) is to add the "show desktop" option to the context menu of the Workspace Switcher. This is something that could be quickly added before the 12.10 release ( http://www.ubuntu.com/community/countdown )! After that, more time can be given (later) to designing an elegant button for 13.04. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10 Package: unity 6.8.0-0ubuntu2 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5 Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: wl ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu3 Architecture: amd64 CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell] Date: Wed Oct 17 11:20:47 2012 InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425) ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: unity UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-10-04 (12 days ago) ** Affects: unity (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug quantal running-unity -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1067802 Title: Unity is Missing a Show Desktop BUTTON To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1067802/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs