menu panel and the macintosh menu bar

[Jonathan LaCour <jal ns1 quickrecord com>]

A little while ago on a Gnome list, the concept of a MacOS style Menu
Panel or Menu Applet was suggested, and a patch was submitted.  The patch
was a bit of a hack, but supposedly worked at least partially.  The
discussion was taken to gnome-hackers, and this list is now dead.

I do not want this concept to die.  Currently, Gnome ships with a "Menu
Panel".  This panel is novel, and somewhat useful, but serves no real
purpose. I believe that changing this panel into a MacOS style menu
swallowing bar would be very useful.  Current panels offer a very
"windows-ish" feel, and allow for a transition into Gnome from Windows,
but there is no MacOS transition tool.  I think that many people like the
idea of a MacOS-like toolbar, and I would hate to see this great feature
left out of a desktop that is supposed to be inviting to all users.

KDE provides such a menu bar, and will surely gain many MacOS converts.
For the longest time, I have been looking for a solution like this, and I
would love to see a developer pick up the project!

I would pick up this project, but I am currently busy with other ventures.
I would hate to see this left out of an otherwise wonderful and complete
desktop environment.

Jonathan LaCour
Developer
VertiSoft, Corp.