Details are not visible (adwaita) by default and hide important configuration
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
gnome-control-center |
Confirmed
|
Medium
|
|||
gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Low
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
When I open the gnome-control-
If I happen to move my mouse into the menu area I _may_ notice a very thin "scroll area" show up briefly before it disappears again, or I _may_ notice very subtle dotted lines at the bottom of the menu, and I _may_ notice that there is actually another menu item at the bottom that I have to scroll down to see: Details.
And if I happen to find that and click on that sub-menu, I will find critically important items in there such as Date & Time configuration (what I was looking for to get an AM/PM clock, and couldn't find at all), Users configuration (couldn't find that either so had to add users by hand from the CLI), and Default Applications (also important so I can change the default mail client etc.)
What does "Details" even mean? This menu might as well be named "Miscellaneous". Really that would be MORE helpful: at least it would be clear that there's a bunch of random stuff below that menu, which is the reality. The only thing in "Details" that feels appropriate to the name is the "About" menu.
I really like the format change of gnome-control-
There needs to be enough top-level menus to be sure everything fits on the screen without scrolling.
The About menu item should be on the top-level menu at the bottom of the list... people think it's not important but it's actually REALLY important, so inexperienced people can easily obtain critical system details when asking for help.
And the grouping of these menus needs love: for example, why is "Wi-Fi" a separate menu item from "Network"? I would think that Wi-Fi, Network, Online Accounts and Sharing could all be combined into one sub-menu like "Internet" or similar. Actually I don't have a Wi-Fi adapter in my system so I don't know what shows up there: maybe "Wi-Fi" is more about the hardware, and belongs under "Devices"? Either way.
Also I think "Region & Language", "Universal Access", and possibly "Date & Time" could be grouped together.
And "Background", "Privacy", and "Notifications" could be grouped under some sort of "desktop" menu. Or maybe "Region & Language" would stay a top-level item and "Universal Access" and "Date & Time" would be added to "Desktop".
Anyway. I realize there are lots of ways to chop these items up and people will have disagreements, but the current situation is really very not good: the control center needs to avoid the need for scrolling to see all the options and if things are moved into sub-menus the names of those menus HAVE to be evocative and clear.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: gnome-control-
ProcVersionSign
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelMo
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Sun Oct 29 15:18:20 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-10-21 (8 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018)
SourcePackage: gnome-control-
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
Changed in gnome-control-center (Ubuntu): | |
importance: | Undecided → Low |
status: | New → Triaged |
summary: |
- Details are not visible by default and hide important configuration + Details are not visible (adwaita) by default and hide important + configuration |
Changed in gnome-control-center: | |
importance: | Unknown → Medium |
status: | Unknown → Confirmed |
Changed in gnome-control-center (Ubuntu): | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
I believe you'll find that if you change your theme to Ambiance (the default in the Ubuntu session), the Settings sidebar is tall enough to show all items without a vertical scrollbar.
The sidebar being too short by default is https:/ /bugzilla. gnome.org/ 789372
Discussion about ordering and grouping the panels is https:/ /bugzilla. gnome.org/ 786810
Since they are really two separate issues, could you please split this into another bug?