Activity Bar Panel Provides Little Utility, Takes Up Space, And is Distracting

[Mystilleef <mystilleef gmail com>]

Hello,

The activity bar or top panel consumes screen space for no
critical reason. The information provided by the activity
bar is not something users need to be persistently inundated
with. For example, I doubt any of us care if our wireless
signal powers up or down one level.

Isn't it logical to move the activity bar or top panel to
the activity screen? Or auto hide it? Or implement an
"intellihide" algorithm for it, so that when I maximize
windows they expand to the full height and width of my
screen?

It's hard/annoying to switch over to GNOME Shell with this
static top panel taking up valuable real estate especially after
being used to having full access to my screen space.

If I were to design a desktop shell, static top panels and
menubars would be the first things to go. They take up space
and provide very little utility.

Otherwise, GNOME Shell is fantastic. I like the fact that
application, file and folder launching and searching is
integrated into the shell and you guys made a sincere effort
to eliminate distractions, unlike Unity.

I wrote a blog entry about possible alternatives to
static panels.

http://mystilleef.blogspot.com/2011/02/dear-gnome-shell-and-unity-developers.html

Thanks