Clumsy Favorites in GNOME Shell

[Michael Schwendt]

On Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:07:19 -0500, Jonathan wrote:

> I think the assumption is that if you already have the application open, you
> can open another window easily within the application itself so it makes
> more sense to put the open command in the shell on the right-click menu.
> 
> This is consistent with the Windows 7 behavior, which I find quite intuitive
> and easy to use.

"Intuitive" is a word that doesn't fit here yet.

Based on the feedback in this thread, I've revisited GNOME Shell:

 * Empty virtual desktops -> no gnome-terminal open -> right-click on
   the gnome-terminal icon in Favorites does not let me start a new
   terminal. All it offers is to remove the Favorites item.

 * One gnome-terminal running already -> right-click on the Favorites
   icon _does_ offer me to start a new gnome-terminal. That's non-intuitive.

 * Four virtual desktops -> I move to an empty one -> obviously I cannot
   use Ctrl+Shift+N as no gnome-terminal is running on that desktop ->
   left-click on the Favorites' gnome-terminal icon moves me back to
   the 1st virtual desktop.

 * Drag'n'drop of the Favorites gnome-terminal icon seems to be _the_
   way to start the app in a new window. However, I must be very careful
   and move the icon slowly into a "free" area of the desktop, or else
   I am to close to existing windows, and no new terminal gets started.
 
> I think the problem is that you're using a 20th-century terminal emulator in
> a 21st-century shell. :-) Try gnome-terminal, in which you can open a new
> terminal from an existing one easily with ctrl-shift-n.

Okay. I just need to find the time to convert old .Xresources data into
gnome-terminal compatible GConf instructions, because configuring
custom colours and fonts (also wrt to colour-ls) only via the GUI is
inconvenient.