What is your preference for overlay scrollbars in Ubuntu MATE?
- On all the time
- Off all the time
- If it was a tweak I’d never use it
- If it was a tweak I’d definitely use it
- What the heck are overlay scrollbars?
I can’t stand them personally, as they bring back all of the horrible memories of trying (only partially successfully) to get rid of em from gnome fall-back when they were pushed out with unity. As a mouse and keyboard driven desktop user, I find them just horrible. They were just one of the reasons I left Ubuntu for a while. Not so much because of my not liking them (which I didn’t), but because of the fait accompli manner of their implementation and what that implied about the more general direction of travel of Cannonical at the time.
On the other hand, I must accept that others may like them and, that being the case, I cannot object to their inclusion as a tweak, just so long as the default is definitely off and that they do not still pop up in occasional dialogue boxes despite being “disabled” (as was always the case when they were disabled in gnome fallback).
I say make it a MATE Tweak option but default to on. I quite like them but then I use either the scroll wheel, two-finger scroll or the up and down arrows to scroll through pages and don’t use the bar itself. I do agree that the implementation must be consistent.
Yeah, I guess I could live with that. Default on/default off, it makes no difference in the end, I suppose. Just so long as when they are off they are absolutely definitely OFF COMPLETELY
i don’t like them, but i suppose some people might.
make them optional - default off
I would never say never, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. Depends on the theme I think.
I’d never use them because I like seeing the length of the document (or whatever) and how much of it I’m viewing right now. I also find it unnecessarily distracting to have the scrollbar appear and hide when I scroll.
(It’s the first setting I change on my Mac at work, even through I only use two-finger trackpad scrolling.)
I know some people like them and think it makes the desktop more “modern” (iPhone-like?), so if it’s easy I’d say make it an option that defaults to “off”.
I should say the Mac OS X / GNOME 3.16+ implementation, which I think is coming to Ubuntu Unity in 15.10, is much better than the original Ubuntu version with the pop-up “thumbs”.
I use the two finger scroll on my touch pad, so probably wouldn’t use them but I wouldn’t want deny anyone else the prospect of doing so.
Make them an option, default on or off makes no difference to me, as long as i can find the option easily enough.
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Off all the time. I don’t like them at all.
Personal choice is “Off Permanently” and burn the code that it can’t be brought back from the dead 
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Yup. if I’m honest, that’s about the size of how I feel about overly scrollbars
OFF. Don’t have any issue with it being a tweak option. But think default should be OFF. Goal of U-M ui should be to keep it simple not minimalist.
In the same way it ships with Macro enabled with Compiz as a tweak option for those who want - and have the cpu cycles for - extra animation.
As I recall, in standard Ubuntu it is a option in dconf. I would prefer it to be the same for mate. Dconf is underutilized and still playing catch up with gconf.
In standard Ubuntu the “off” option was nothing of the sort. The damned things kept rearing their ugliness in things such as update-software, software-centre and, indeed any and all system management apps. Basically, anything and everything that required superuser access.
OK, how about this. Put the overlay option as a tweak option but default OFF in 15.10. In 6 months time, for the 16.04 LTS, we come back asking whether overlay scrollbars should be default ON or OFF but be able to see the implementation and be able make the implementation as good as possible for both camps.
Hi stevecook
I have not experience this, but could well be a Unity thing.
Not sure what the standard off option is.
Never liked Unity and have been rolling my own for a few years (gnome3 base) and I guess I was spared from this problem.
I see overlay as a nice option for someone else, but not for me 
Frankly, when push comes to shove, I don’t really care if the default is “on” or “off” so long as the implementation is such that “off” means fully, completely, unambiguously and totally off in all and any circumstances. “As good as possible” is not unequivocal enough for me, I am afraid. I simply can’t stand them. Partially, simply because I can’t stand them. But also, partially, because of what the manner of their implementation first time around in Ubuntu Unity more generally represented. Namely, an approach which basically took the form of: “This is what we are going to do, because we know better than users what users need and want and if users don’t like it… tough”.
That’s why I left MS Windows! And it’s also why I left Ubuntu for a year or two.
I’m afraid it did it in Gnome fallback as well.
I’ll amplify “as good as possible” to
the implementation is such that “off” means fully, completely, unambiguously and totally off in all and any circumstances.
If we can’t get there, we rip it back out again and get it right for the next release.
This is why I think the “implement overlay scrollbars with the default choice kicked into the future” would work. We can spend the time getting it right, fixing the bugs if they happen and making the experience as seamless to users by 15.10 is released as choosing which side your buttons are on, or which theme you have.