An alternative solution to the current menubar placement: a menubar toggle button.

[b4639 lavabit com]

(I'll try to keep this short, please let me know if there is a more
appropriate mailing list to post to.)

The question of global menu vs. non-global menu has died with regards to
Gnome3 for obvious reasons, but perphaps a better solution, which would
satisfy both camps, could be implemented: a menubar toggle button.

Example: A user needs to access the menubar, and clicks on a titlebar
button, which shows a translucent menubar below the titlebar. After a
designated time (say, 3 seconds) without a mouse hover, it begins to fade
away. Alternatively, the user could (ctrl/alt/right)-click to keep an
opaque menubar there until the button is clicked again.

Pro's:
1. It keeps the menubar in its respective window
2. It saves vertical space when a menubar isn't needed (good for mobile
devices)
3. Windows appear less cluttered, more 'focused', and have less distraction.

Con's:
1. It could make windows difficult to resize from a certain area.  The
left side of the titlebar seems most natural, but a button there could
make it difficult to resize a window with the top left corner.  If the
button were to resemble anything like the 'close' button the Adwaita theme
uses, it would be outright impossible.  I personally do not resize from
the top at all, resorting almost exclusively to the bottom right corner.
2. Users would be unfamiliar with the idea at first, but given the radical
UI changes with GNOME3, this does not seem to be so much of a concern.

The first question before going into details is of course: "Is GTK3
flexible enough to do this?"