Ubuntu 10.10 gets a Global Menu by-default :-
Mark Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" Netbook Edition will come with a global menu. He also states that ONLY the Ubuntu Netbook Edition will get the Global Menu.
*img707.imageshack.us/img707/5381/ubuntulinoob.jpg
The idea is that using a global menu in the top panel would increase the available vertical space, which is so important on a Netbook (we addressed the screen real estate in some parts of our Ubuntu Netbook Remix (now renamed to Ubuntu Netbook Edition) Optimization Guide).
What is Global Menu?
Global Menu is Mac OS X like globally-shared menu bar of all applications launched in your desktop session which is currently only for Gnome. Although Ubuntu started working on this with the existing Global Menu project, it won't add the Global Menu as you know it but they (as in the Ubuntu and Global Menu devs) will work to improve it and make it more awesome then ever!
Everybody using Gnome 2 Global Menu knows there are issues with non GTK and QT applications, most notably Firefox and OpenOffice. But Mark points out that work will be done to support these too, as well as KDE applications.
Global Menu could indeed be a solution for Netbooks where the vertical space is limited, however it will be interesting to see how the users will react to this change, as well as the way it's going to be implemented - because for now, the Ubuntu Netbook Edition comes with only a panel on top which is very cluttered as it is, with an applet which replaces the toolbar, a taskbar and so on.
When the window is maximised, the panel will contain:
- the window controls (from the left, just after the Ubuntu icon)
- the window title
- the indicators (aligned right)
When you mouse towards the window title, or press Alt, it will be replaced by the menu.
You will be able to install this improved Global Menu onto the Desktop version of Ubuntu if you want, but it will only come as default for Ubuntu Netbook Edition.
You can already install the Global Menu, but it's the already existing application, not the one pictured by Mark Shuttleworth in his post. That means it won't work for some applications such as Firefox and OpenOffice. Also, it won't display the window title or controls.
That being said, you can install Global Menu (actually called Gnome2 Global Menu), using the following commands :
For Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:globalmenu-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-globalmenu
Source
