Next Ubuntu netbook edition will have global menu

Three cheers for Canonical, which is actively working to solve the netbook screen problem.

In a blog posted Tuesday, Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth announced that the next netbook edition of Ubuntu -- version 10.10 -- will have a global menu.

"In the netbook edition for 10.10, we’re going to have a single menu bar for all applications, in the panel," Shuttleworth penned. "In the first few iterations of Ubuntu’s netbook-oriented UI, we concentrated on collapsing the window title into the top panel. In 10.10, we’re going to put the menu there."

He noted this will be a feature of the netbook edition only.

Incidentally, the Netbook Edition of Canonical's Ubuntu 10.04, which will be officially released tomorrow, features the "industry-leading interface for these smaller screens," the company claims.

New user interfaces are essential because of the screen constraints of netbooks, Shuttleworth wrote.

"Netbooks are conventionally small-and-wide-screen devices. A common screen format is 1024×600. There’s plenty of horizontal space, but not a lot of vertical space. So we’ve been lead to explore options that really make the most of the vertical space."

"This is important because the main thing people do with a netbook is surf the web. And most pages will fit horizontally in a netbook screen, but they require quite a lot of vertical scrolling. The more we can optimise the use of vertical space, the more enjoyable it will be to spend time on the web, with your netbook."