After using the new layout for a while, I do find one thing very troubling – some windows do no have all the buttons available: many modal dialogs only feature the close button while a lot of other small windows (like the burn status for Brasero or the file operations status) do not allow maximize and have only two buttons.

This causes two problems – one is that the static button images are designed so that all buttons are showing – if some buttons are missing or the order is not as specified then the graphics look broken. The other, and much more serious problem is that the location of the close button – which is the most used button of all the window controls – is not in the same position when there are such differences!

I think the major benefit for having the window controls on the right, and the reason that Apple puts the close button first in their left-side button layout is that this is the most used button and as such (and having such destructive power when misused) it should be always easy to hit or to avoid. And this the Ubuntu devs got completely wrong.