[ErroneousBosh]

Well, I've probably seen it, but it's not really been something I've paid attention to. Except of course maybe the clock, which is present in plain ordinary Gnome whether it has a "system tray" or not.

I don't get why it would be useful.

[mghackerlady]

It's mainly to let you know that theres a program that's running in the background but not open so you can get to it easier. For example, I know a lot of chat clients will live in the system tray so they can show a little dot with your missed messages. Also, VPNs specifically use them to provide easy dropdown menus to change things like server location