Curious as to your preference and if you have any reason other than aesthetics.
Update: After making this thread I ultimately decided on neither. Loving the left side option on Kubuntu.
Left. Widescreen monitors make a task bar at top or bottom take up too much real estate.
Right, for me. Until Windows 11 decided to take the option away.
There’s several options to do that. Iirc explorerpatcher (free) and startalllback (does more, but paid) are the two prime options.
Too buggy, AFAIK.
Both worked for me, though not in combination. In isolation haven’t had a major issue that wasn’t fairly quickly solved with an update with either of them. Explorer patcher has been slightly buggier between the two, but not by too much.
Ymmv of course, as is the decision whether having the bar how/where you want us worth the trouble.
100%
Especially if you have a small screen. I started doing it with my Steam Deck.
Agreed, I’m always surprised having it on one of the sides isn’t more common.
I keep mine on the right. Had to get StartAllBack after Win11 fucked it up.
This.
Of all the weird choices MS makes sometimes, this is one of the most baffling.
On a 16:10 screen it’s fine on the bottom, but I use a 21:9 on my desktop setup. That’s just comically broken without the option to dock it to the side.
There’s dozens of us. Widescreen means I’ve got more real estate on the sides
According to the Steam Survey we are at least 2% but no more than 4.5% of users.
Which, at the risk of unleashing the wrath of the fediverse, is still noticeably higher than Linux users.
So there’s that.
I’m probably in a minority here but I like it on the left with auto-hide on xD
Reason being I used a tiny laptop thing with a 10 inch screen as my main device for a while and this work best for the screen space and now I just like it better than anything else and have used it like that regardless of screen real estate since.
Me on Linux without a taskbar or dock or anything lol I don’t miss it.
Same. Windows-key opens the workspace overview with a global search field.
I only have the system tray and a clock on my desktop, which I can view with Windows-key+spacebar.The Windows-key is commonly referred to as Meta or Super btw
windows key is called super, but meta is actually the alt key. source: emacs user
This is the most Fedi pendantry thing I’ve seen today and I encourage the chain to continue until it triggers a black hole of chained corrections over nomenclature nobody cares about or will ever follow.
Meta+F4, please. vimmer btw.
pretty sure there’s a mode for that in emacs, good old C-u 5 M-x inf-pedantry-blackhole
Unfortunately, it has a Windows logo on it, so it’s the Windows key.
I used to have a keyboard where it had Tux on it.
You people are crazy. What do you do on your computers that you don’t need to see what’s all running? Do you just not care what your computer is doing? Do you not have to switch between applications at all?
Alt+tab to switch between apps is normally quicker
You can press the win key to open up the search tray, then type whatever app you want. Also usually quicker than moving a cursor then clicking
I have a taskbar at the top. But I keep it extremely small so it feels more like the notification ticker on my smartphone
Alt+tab to switch between apps is normally quicker
Except having to cycle through the apps you have open. And if you have, say, 3 or 4 copies of intellij, seeing which one is which is a pain.
I use workspaces and tiling windowmanagers to organize my programs. Actually, I feel like I know what is going on with my computer a lot better than with a taskbar. No windows hidden behind others, no need to cycle through long app lists with alt tab. I know my code is on workspace 2,so I go there when I need code. Same with spotify on 4, Discord on 5, browser on 1, etc. Terminals and other windows added as needed.
Also, a side note, a taskbar is a really sad excuse for a list of things that are running on a computer.
Also, a side note, a taskbar is a really sad excuse for a list of things that are running on a computer.
It’s a great excuse for a list of active windows though. Which is what you interact with. Having to remember which workspace is on what is the worst.
Yeah I run Pop shell (gnome with a bunch of tweaks) and don’t miss a dock or task bar at all.
Great keyboard navigation of workspaces and automatic tiling make it super easy to organise programs and navigate to what I need almost instantly.
I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with cosmic once it’s ready.
Bottom. Top always felt awkward. Could never get the hang of it on Mac.
Bottom. I’m used to it. Always been bottom throughout Windows, macOS and Linux.
I strongly prefer it on the left, but I’m stuck with it at the bottom presently. It just feels more natural to me there, like turning a page
Top, 24 px. So everything of overview/context is at the top. Aids my posture as well.
Making a window big respects the panel. Maximizing it overlaps the panel but everything is still accessible via window switching. Neatly, while switching, the panel outlines other windows and the tab on the panel.
I never use Fullscreen.
DE: XFCE4
Either on Windows 10, or in Mint, I prefer my taskbar on the bottom. Technically the first OS I used was whatever came with the Macintosh 128k, but top bar just never worked for me. I want my function menu and my program menu to be discreet from one another.
Top. It may be relevant that used Macs for years, and never used Windows.
On Mac OS, it’s generally split though, isn’t it? The Dock is probably the closest equivalent to a TaskBar, though the menu bar also fulfills some functions of one.
If I had to decide I’d call the top the task bar equivalent and the bottom dock a start menu and task bar hybrid.
Also top. Started with MacOS but have carried this through to Windows much to the annoyance of my fellow Windows using coworkers.
When I was using a single monitor, left. Was really nice to take up less real-estate and I rarely had issues with accidental auto-hide activations on that side. Since I’ve moved to 3 monitors though, bottom. The top just feels uncomfortable to me despite using Mac for my formative computer years.
Bottom, just because I’m used to it.
Same.
Top. Doesn’t really matter most of the time though because I always set them to auto hide.
Top on my laptop (running linux with a very thin bar), bottom on desktop (both on Win and Linux). The reason is that it’s closer to the eye level
Left Side of my second monitor that sits on the right. Still accessible when I’ve got something full screen on the main monitor
