Thanks for the explanation - now that I know what they are called I can
read in more depth. Prevailing opinion seems to be "wait and see" with
large amounts of skepticism thrown in for good measure. For me, making
a major change like this based on the rationale that "is is not like
Windows 3.1" is fallacy. Making a change to give netbook users more
screen space, likewise. But, I will also wait-and-see and hope that (a)
it can be turned off, and (b) will the implementation be consistent
throughout the environment, user applications, video drivers (like ATI,
for instance).

Right now, the fish I am frying are bigger than this - like getting
10.04 to work at all.