some current (ongoing) future design changes will remove this issue completely with a full screen screen dialogue for deciding new/resume. One click on a home view activity displays a gallery/journal like display of past work or a new blank template
My observation - on the XO, there is a VERY perceptible time lag between when the user makes a click (on an existing screen) and when the replacement screen gets presented to that user. [It would not be so bad if the cursor changed shape to indicate "the system is working on your input" -- but as it is, the XO display might "freeze", or even switch (temporarily) to a completely unrelated session -- and the user must mentally refrain (for up to a number of seconds) from doing anything while waiting to see whether the expected screen will/will_not be shown.
[This time lapse in preparing a new full screen display on the XO seems to be worse with metacity than with matchbox. For instance, with Paraguay's sugar 0.88 builds, the "activity being launched" screen sometimes never gets to pulse -- apparently, to get it shown might take as long as it does to prepare the actual activity session's screen !!]
A major advantage of the menu (palette) on the XO is that as soon as the user clicks within that menu, the menu itself vanishes. This gives the user IMMEDIATE visual feedback that "the system is working on your input" - and removes the "what is it doing?" doubt from the user's mind.
Thanks, mikus