Best vertical panel solution for Cinnamon?

[tsdadam]

Until such a time that Cinnamon supports vertical panels (pleeeeease?), what have other people done to create their own vertical panels? I'm in the same boat as a lot of people in having a widescreen monitor, so while I have horizontal space to spare, I could really do with the vertical space.

On all the Windows machines I use I use a vertical panel, and it works perfectly well. It has the added advantage of being able to show a lot of open apps in one go with no grouping or scrolling to different rows.

I've tried using XFCE and didn't really get on with it, and didn't like the way it (by default at least) rotated everything 90 degrees.

Sadly, the closest looking thing to what I want is Unity, but I don't really want to have to install it and then go through the fuss of removing all the stuff that comes with it that I don't want.

So, does anyone have any ideas? Not just for a dock stuck to the side of the screen, but a full panel replacement. Menu button, shortcuts, running apps (perhaps unified like this one http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/16), clock and tray icons - the whole lot.

[mmutoo]

Well, I have the same problem. And cannot figure it out. What did you mean by:

"I've tried using XFCE and didn't really get on with it, and didn't like the way it (by default at least) rotated everything 90 degrees"

? I am using xfce, and everything is in place. actually the only DE I found that works flawlessly, lightly, without torturing me for any setting is xfce right now. The only problem is it is a bit oldish, and does not have any expo/scale effect included.

[Spinnekop]

No answers, hey? I also have a short fat screen so would value a left or right side panel. I use synapse as a 'dash' equivalent so rarely use the cinnamon menu for anything.
Using Cairo-dock as a panel in the meantime. The windows 7 impersonator app has bugs especially with libreoffice.

[jasauders]

Something I liked about XFCE was I could add another panel and set it up in a way that it acted like a dock. Given the obvious benefits of switching applications via an object on the left/right side of the screen (do I dare say, Unity style), this is of course something that interested me. Now I understand I can add the Docky PPA to pull in Docky or Plank (I prefer Plank), but I can't help but to think how nice it would be to have a dock-like option integrated to Cinnamon itself through changing some settings on a second panel. Is this somehow possible and I'm just not seeing it? If not, has there been any talk about possibly integrating it? I see 1+ year old posts with comments as recent as a month ago on GitHub about this, but haven't seen any sort of acknowledgment as to whether or not this might take place.

FYI - I know there's a dock extension to Cinnamon, but it's *really*... meh.

Topic merged into similar thread by moderator.

[CH1291]

If not done already, go here and add your vote: http://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/2748
Maybe it will happen...

[CH1291]

XFCE 4.10 (in Mint 16) can do a very nice vertical panel, but choose "Deskbar" mode in the panel options, not vertical orientation. And it's very configurable too - like a dock and panel in one, if you wish. Though on the whole I do prefer Cinnamon (v2.0), even without this feature, though I'd really like it too.
Anyway, if not done already, perhaps go over to http://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/2748 and vote. Maybe it will happen... just need some momentum!

[Orbmiser]

Yep one of the reasons I left cinnamon and went with KDE as no limit on where and how many.

Panels.jpeg

And totally adjustable to fit any needs.
As have 1 shor Vertical for Menu/Tasks/Launchers.
And 1 short horizontal for Software update/Notifications/Wifi/Volume/Clock & Weather.
That fit in small lower left corner out of the way.

Could integrate into one long vertical if I wanted to.
.