In the early stages of 13.10, there was a decision to have a Unity Dash workflow of showing snapshot of a given app, when user clicks EITHER left or right mouse buttons. However, there was a lot of criticism around this. For a simple app launch:

• User types in few letters of app name
• User selects the app by:
  • left click-> click on Launch button [OR]
  • double-click on the app name.

For as simple a task as opening an app, this is a lot of work. However, Ubuntu development was quick to take the feedback and a decision to revert the behavior partially was taken. I had in a previous post, had wondered about the purpose of having such a behavior.

Also refer to this bug for details on the decision and brainstorming.

The new workflow would be:

• single, left-click on installed app to launch it (as against showing snapshot)
• single, left-click on online search results to show snapshot (behavior prior to the fix)
• single, right-click always shows snapshot.

Now, if you are one of those adrenaline junkies who likes to hit the high by running daily images of pre-alpha build (if you do that for testing purposes, you are not one.. you gotta be running it in production 😛 ), and have updated your software in the last couple of days, you can notice that the bug fix has already landed.

Well, I got only one thing to say.. as against a lot of trolls happening against Ubuntu / Canonical being a closed group when it comes to key decisions and shoving duds down the user’s throat, I would say they are pretty pleasant ol’ folks to encompass the needs of users and this change is only one such examples.

Viva la FOSS…