True Quick Launch and vertical taskbar replacement?

[Metaphorosis]

I've been playing with popular Linux distros recently, and found they're so much better than previously that I'm trying to switch from W7 to Mint 17.1 Cinnamon. Most things (with some effort) work great. What I haven't found is a true replacement for my W7 Quick Launch bar (itself a holdover from XP). I've tried a bunch of launchers (Cairo, Docky, Plank), but none of them quite do it.

What I want is:
- left side vertical placement. This is far more practical on a wide screen than top or bottom.
- includes time/date and at least some system/tray icons (network, volume, battery).
- space for a lot of icons. My current Quick Launch has 20. This means they need to fit in several columns.
- no fancy bobbing and dancing.

Mint Mate allows a sidebar, but tabs for open applications look terrible (far too tall). Plus, I just like Cinnamon better.
Many docks allow a sidebar, but most are only one column of icons.
Plank is great, but so simple it doesn't have a clock or other widgets.
Docky allows widgets, including a clock, but doesn't play well with the top pane that includes system tray icons.
Ubuntu itself allows only one vertical column of icons, and most system info is still on the horizontal panel.

In short, I'd like a truly functional sidebar that includes all or most of Cinnamon's top/bottom system panel info. Any advice?

Lenovo X201s, W7 Pro, Mint 17.1 Cinnamon

[kerry_s]

20 ! gezz, thats why they invented menus. :) lol

you ever try xfce4-panel ? it's got all kinds of goodies from quick launchers(4 launchers in 1 slot) to drawers that you can put as many launchers as you want, you can even set the number of rows you want in the panel, it does the usual show/hide, you can place it where ever you want.

[Metaphorosis]

Kerry,

Actually, even 20 icons is surprisingly handy (3x6 with two temporary). Thanks for the suggestion. I did try xfce-panel, but couldn't get it to work with Mint Cinnamon. I'll give it a shot with Xubuntu.