Panel layout in Xfce 4.8 (was Re: Goal: Make XFCE rock in Fedora)

[Ron Leach]

Martin Sourada wrote:
> lately, systemtray tends to
> expand exponentially (volume control, ibus, network, power, various
> apps that can hide there, ...). This almost calls for having it on
> different panel than tasklist, IMHO.
> 


Oh! What a good idea.  Speaking as a (heavy) netbook user, of XFCE 
because it suits netbooks so well, and needing all the limited screen 
space on netbooks, I'd like the panel to have the running apps so that 
I can switch between them, but the system tray is also very useful, 
and at any moment.  On desktop machines with 'wide-screen' displays, I 
use a vertical icon list of main apps, which takes very little space, 
and I'd like to suggest that the system tray be detached, placed 
vertically on the right (say), and hideable so that it comes out if 
the mouse goes to that edge.  Also, or it could be permanent.  But, it 
definitely need not be as large as it is at the moment.  What is the 
icon block size at the moment - 45 x 45?  I don't know.  But I'd like 
to suggest that the icons in the system tray could be smaller, maybe 
half, or 3/4 their present size, and more detail can come up when a 
mouse hovers over them.

But such a good idea.  Panel for apps (and desktops for those that 
want it - I don't use it); vertical sidebar for system tray, with 
smaller icons.


regards, Ron