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## Register at 
 * '''Launchpad entry''': https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-slab
 * '''Packages affected''': gnome-main-menu

(Previous version of the spec available on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Slab)

== Summary ==

The new Novell menu applet is nice and should be available for the users who want to use it. 

== Rationale ==

Having that menu applet available would make GNOME users happy and we want them to be happy Ubuntu users.

== Use cases ==

 * Martin has just used the laptop of one of this friend which is running Novell Desktop and he thinks that their panel menu is really nice, he would like the use the same menu on his Ubuntu desktop now

== Scope ==

The Ubuntu desktop

== Design ==

We will make that applet available from the CD as an option, by adding gnome-main-menu to the desktop seed so that it is available from the "add to panel" applets list. We prefer to stick to the upstream choice for the default menu and we don't have any strong argument for switching.

== Implementation ==

The applet is already packaged as gnome-main-menu to universe, it'll need to be promoted via the MainInclusionProcess. Most of the features are already working, we just need to update the package management commands to use gnome-app-install.

=== Data preservation and migration ===

No migration required

== BoF agenda and discussion ==

One of the Google SoC 2006 project is a panel switcher: http://code.google.com/p/panelswitcher/. We will have a look on it, if it's working fine we    will ship a stock Ubuntu profile and a profile using the new applet

kmon: The recently used applications doesn't work because it needs a patch from opensuse, I've opened a bug [[https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-desktop/+bug/72172|here]]. I've asked upstream to add suse patches, but it seems they are not going to apply them since gnome-main-menu is not going to be part of gnome 2.18. I think ubuntu dev's should consider them if slab is going to be included in main as an alternative since this functionality is probably one of the best uses cases of this new menu. thanks

Radek: There is also another bug report about missing recent applications: [[https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-main-menu/+bug/602053|602053]] with instruction how to apply patches and manually compile gnome-panel and gnome-desktop for this functionality as a workaround. It contains also propositions how to resolve the issue.

KevinKubasik: Something worth looking at might be the [[http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=156|Ubuntu System Panel]], its an overhaul of slab, that looks pretty darn good. For those of us too lazy to try it out, I slapped together a screencast. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFeyeUZu_Og|YouTube]] [[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6705803937232951732|Google Video]]

RicardoPérezLópez: There's an updated Gnome Main Menu which shows Applications, Documents and Places in three independent buttons, rather than a drop-down list. Moreover, it shows "Recent Applications" apart from "Favorite Applications". See [[http://reverendted.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/show-me-that-updated-gnome-main-menu/|here]] for more details.
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