What is the rationale of the tiny floatable scrolling bar in 12.04?

1. I wonder what the rationale of the tiny floatable scrolling bar is in 12.04?

   Does anyone feel any convenience and inconvenience about it compared to the original typical scrolling bar?

   Often with that tiny floatable bar, the arrow keys and pagedown and up keys don't work, which is most inconvenient.

2. How can I get the typical one back?

Thanks!

Solution 1:

The design decision for introducing overlay scrollbars is described in detail in this link: http://design.canonical.com/2011/03/introducing-overlay-scrollbars-in-unity/

Essentially the decision to use them is based on the belief that having ever present scrollbars is becoming obsolete in modern set-ups, as most scrolling actions are now performed by using gestures on touchpads, scroll wheels on mice and using touch screens, rather than clicking up and down arrows or dragging a scrollbar. Removing scrollbars will provide a small increase in available screen "real estate".

If you wish to remove the overlay scrollbars this is covered in the following question: How do I disable overlay scrollbars?