Adam Williamson wrote:
This is a common misapprehension, but it's not true. The reason
for the
large icon grid is actually that the developers did real world user
research (yes, really!) and found that many people had significant
trouble navigating the typical Windows / GNOME 2 nested menu system full
of wide-but-short entries. They would lose levels in the nesting by
moving the mouse a bit wrong. They would launch the wrong thing because
the target area was too short. This was especially pronounced with poor
pointing devices - particularly cheap trackpads on cheap laptops.
The Giant Grid O' Icons is navigable with a much higher success rate.
There are less radical solutions for these problems though, see e.g. KDE's
Kickoff menu. (But I can't get used even to that, I use the classic menu
which KDE Plasma also offers.)
Kevin Kofler