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Idea #19029: Make it possible to remove gnome-panel

Written by drinkypoo the 4 Apr 09 at 14:25. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
If you want a GNOME desktop but think the gnome-panel is a waste of your screen real estate then Ubuntu Intrepid is the worst version of Ubuntu yet released. Whoever's idea it is (probably GNOME's) the gnome-panel is now more difficult to eliminate than ever. It forces itself on you with as much vigor as a piece of malware!

Why would you want to be able to do this? The gnome-panel looks stupid no matter what you do to it, and it can be completely replaced by any number of other navigation systems including avant-window-navigator (available from Ubuntu repos) or even just a terminal and a system tray like trayer.

At very minimum the gnome-panel must at least have an option for "always beneath". As it is, it is impossible to disable the "always on top" option for the last gnome-panel! How is this not malware?

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Solution #1: Make gnome-panel no longer a mandatory application
Written by drinkypoo the 4 Apr 09 at 14:25.
It is possible to stop GNOME from forcing gnome-panel on you if you manage to root out all the spots in the gconf registry (is GNOME really just an attempt to turn Linux into Windows? this is sounding more and more like turning Windows NT Workstation into Windows NT Server) where it is made mandatory then it is possible to remove it from your session and have it not respawn itself on every boot. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out quite how to do this yet.

Some people have allegedly used a workaround with devilspie to just make it invisible, moving it to the bottom of the screen first, then forcing it always below so that it does not interfere with avant window navigator. This is not a good solution, but it's worth mentioning.
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Solution #2: Another kind of panel
Written by welrbraga the 18 Apr 09 at 18:02.
Many people love a desktop like Mac, so why not substitute that bottom panel by a Avant Window Navigator or another solution? Certainly, it'll become the desktop clearer than it is now.

The same way, that old style menu is not smart. why not substitute it by another. For example the Slab[1] is a good point to start. It's need some improvement, but it isn't something impossible to do.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Slab
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Solution #3: Add ability to remove all gnome panels
Written by vivo the 28 Apr 10 at 18:55.
Probably the last panel can not be deleted because it is not clear how to add it later. You can add the item to the context menu, the desktop when the panels are missing, but you can do it on a permanent basis. I think it's a good idea. :-)

Propose your solution

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Comments
Psycho_zs wrote on the 10 Apr 09 at 07:20
See also http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17784/

drinkypoo wrote on the 30 Apr 09 at 15:06
@welrbraga: #1 is necessary for #2 to not be painful.

brightside wrote on the 5 Jun 09 at 11:42
To permanently remove the panel, remove the panel entry from /desktop/gnome/session/required_components_list in gconf.

IMHO I think its good that Gnome protects its vital components like this. A not so experienced user who accidently deleted all his panels, cant find the menu and have no way of logging out, will turn his back to Ubuntu pretty quickly.

srilyk wrote on the 8 Jun 09 at 23:27
But it should be easy enough to turn it off like it used to - turn off the restart from the sessions. But you can't anymore and you have to go all sorts of weird places to customize gnome, which works fine for me otherwise.

bobskaria wrote on the 2 Feb 10 at 13:29
+1 to srilyk

Lyfang wrote on the 12 Jun 11 at 19:43
http://unity.ubuntu.com/


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