[jlkuester7]

Real question: can some Gnome enthusiast help me understand why, by default, the top panel is always displayed, but seems chronically underutilized? (By default there is very little content in the panel. It stretches all the way across the top of my widescreen monitor as mostly just an empty black bar.)

Am I missing something here? If minimalism is the goal, why stick with a horizontal panel? Is there a way that folks typically configure this to make it more useful (or less obtrusive)?

[yjftsjthsd-h]

GNOME feels that a nearly-useless top panel is important to give them a distinctive visual style; their brand is a very big deal.

https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-shell-list/2011-June/m... / https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-shell-list/2011-June/m...

(I am aware that I'm linking to messages from 2011. All evidence is that this is still exactly how GNOME operates, and this simply is the best case of its devs writing down what they think that I know about. Anyone with evidence of a change of heart is welcome to share.)

[nunodonato]

what do you mean underutilized? the utilization is not measured by how many pixels of the panel are taken by text and icons, but how useful the information in it is, no matter how small it might be. For me, it has the date, clock, and a few important icons. I use it to quickly toggle settings or access my calendar and notifications. it is VERY utilized