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View Full Version : [all variants] desktop environment with a proper left panel support



lvm
December 26th, 2010, 11:12 AM
For quite a while I've been using KDE 3.5 (kubuntu 8.04) and was quite happy, but the time has come to upgrade. I looked at the modern alternatives and was dismayed: I use a single left panel with all the menus and a tasklist (which apart from my personal preferences is quite sensible with modern 16:9 displays but that's beside the point). It worked like a charm in KDE 3.5, but neither KDE 4.5, gnome or Xfce 4 shipped in 10.10 seems to support it anymore. Th major issue is the tasklist: all three desktop environments no longer allow disabling icons in the tasklist and show huge bloated task buttons with nothing but the icon visible. I don't want that, I want to see program names. KDE 3.5 managed it with just a 56 pixel panel, but now panel have to be extended nearly to half a screen to be usable :( Gnome in addition insists on turning all text to the side - menu titles, clock, etc - what genius thought of that? I wonder have they considered writing upside down on the bottom panel? - seems logical.

Anyway, the question is: am I missing some tweak or option which disables icons in the tasklist and enables proper left panel support in any of the three desktops? Or is there another alternative worth considering?

I don't know gnome or xfce very well, but in KDE panel applets can be developed independently, same story for gnome and xfce? Can you point to some relevant resources?