[wishlist] Add a possibility to remove the "Workspace switcher" launcher

This is not true; most Unity users do use the switcher. Especially for those who come from other distros, workspace management is very important. As such, this is a design choice that will probably be here to stay for a long time.

(Instead of saying "most Unity users do use the switcher", please say "most Unity users i know do use the switcher" except if you can show a survey result. "This is not true" is not-respectful and your mistake, because I am talking about users i know.)

I am not suggesting the removal of the switcher by default , but just an option to remove/restore its launcher if needed.

I agree with YannUbuntu. I don't use it multiple workspaces, but I can't reduce its number and hide the switcher because of bug 996604.

I don't think the number of users that use multiple workspaces or the switcher is (or should be) the main point. The point is that not everyone uses Unity in the same way, so flexibility should be built in.

I dislike both multiple workspaces *and* the launcher icon. Luckily, I could reduce the number of desktops to 1, and this would remove the launcher tile... until 5.12, wherein it also disables the spread.

I don't care what solution is chosen: ability to remove the launcher icon, or fixing the spread on one desktop configurations -- but I hope one is chosen and implemented soon.

I use four workspaces and keyboard to switch. Real estate on launcher bar is absolutely precious and there should be an option to remove the switcher

+1

Please add the option to remove/hide the workspace switcher icon from the Unity bar.

It's not even about the real estate for me. It's about the feeling I have about Ubuntu generally - clean, simple, fun and usable out of the box, but completely on my terms and with great freedom to change it - hitting a snag every time I see that icon that I will never, ever click, because if I'm going to have more than one workspace I'm not allowed to only see the means of switching between them that I actually use (and I can't even rearrange it).

While it's a trivial bug in terms of practical impact, it does impact on my experience Unity that I can adjust so much if I want, but can't get rid of the useless (to me, I can see its value to others) icon without commenting out the code and rebuilding (which then causes issues with updates). It would be great if it was on a par with the show-desktop icon and the rules as to volumes are shown always, never, or when mounted.

+1
Please add ability to remove "Window switcher" and "Trash" from panel. They are use so rarely so userss could easily live without them.

It ok to show them by default. But please add ability to hide them from "dconf-tools" or .... .

 This is just customization question, that all loved from Linux - easily adjustable to your needs

+1
I don't have any use of the switcher. Please give us a way to remove that.

Can't tell why "This is not true" is considered rude.

I'd like to be able to remove trash. I also wish I could remove the desktop switch button from unit and instead add something like old gnome switcher to panel. Because it allowed you to know by just a look whether they are full or not and switching desktops was instant. Instead, (as a power user that loves multiple workspaces), what unity has right now seems to make the whole workspace thing too complicated to do. There is just a button that does not help that much in visual feedback and a very complicated ritual to switch workspace. In the past, I only needed one click to switch. Now I need 4 clicks and a lot of mouse movement to do it. It is no wonder some users can't find a use in this anymore (In other interfaces, including OS/X, the ability to change workspaces is THE thing power users do for better effectiveness.).

As for improvements, I would suggest adding quick tasks to the Desktop button that let you switch to the desktops.

The bzr branch for unity-revamped has this added now, but not published in the package yet. I'm running it compiled from the branch and it's great; dodge active window mean's I can always see my launcher most of the time, but not when I want the screen space, and turning off "show expo" means doing so doesn't mean always looking at an icon that's useless to me, while still being allowed to have multiple workspaces (the only workaround I could find with the normal package is to switch to a single workspace, but workspaces are too important to my way of working for that). Hopefuly the author will publish soon and it'll just be a matter of adding ppa:ikarosdev/unity-revamped to have this.

Published now, so there's now a relatively easy workaround.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ikarosdev/unity-revamped && apt-fast update && apt-fast dist-upgrade

Log out. Log in. Fire up ccsm, turn of "Show Expo Icon", and enjoy.

There is an even easier "work-around".
Install MyUnity , then in MyUnity, choose Desktop. Adjust the H Desktop to 1, and adjust the V Desktop to as many as you like, 1 to 8. The Workspace Switcher icon will disappear.
You just have to remember that Cntl-Alt-Right won't work. It has to be Cntl-Alt-Down Arrow.

My apologies - my previous post does not work consistently.

+1 have the option to remove the workspace switcher

+1
Please add ability to remove "Window switcher" and "Trash" from panel. They are use so rarely so userss could easily live without them.