What is your preferred panel/dock/taskbar placement?
 

Windows 7 had the default (and famous) taskbar at the bottom. Others have it at the top. Ubuntu made the shift to the vertical left-sided panel.

At the end it all boils down to the user preference.

What in your opinion, is the most effective and preferred placement? Why is it? Is it design, accessibility or any other factor?

Would love to hear your ideas!

Voted 'other' as I don't have a panel :D

Oops I forgot to add that option and can't edit now :s.

So you use just right-click and icons?

No icons either - a root menu, a conky and an autohiding notification area (bottom right - which may be considered a 'panel' by a broader definition than yours ... :D )

The taskbar should be on the bottom. This is to avoid a clash with the window buttons. I mean if you put the taskbar on the top then you might accidentally close a window.

I also have a dock on the left for gkrellm. This is also on the left to avoid closing windows accidentally (if it were on the right).

I hope this thread is not corrupted into a tiling window manager vs regular window manager flame war.

Personally i prefer the bottom, I can live with it at the top but I guess force of habit always has me looking to the bottom first. What I don't like is both top and bottom, seems to be just an unnecessary waste of desktop space to me.

As for waste of space concerns, all the docks, panels, taskbars I have are auto-hide. I have also optimized all my applications for maximum use of space and also maximum functionality.

I prefer the taskbar on the bottom with KDE, XFCE, and Cinnamon, mainly out of a matter of habit.

I have my panel on the top. Problems with window buttons don't apply to me, since I don't have window decorations and I use the panel for informational purposes only (no clicking on it ever).

I can't bear to have the Windows Taskbar anywhere but at the bottom, and I can't bear to have the GNOME panel anywhere but at the top. I think it just must be habit.

I agree 100%. I've tried all kinds of combinations -- but in X11 i just cannot stand a bottom toolbar. And in windows, it just cannot be anywhere else but the bottom. Its from years and years of it being that way...

edit: now i use openbox,.. so i have the tint2 bar on the bottom, and conky running on the right.

Top right (if I have an option to control the length of the panel, I usually set it at about 2/3 the width of the screen).

Moving the mouse and eyes up seems more natural in my workflow.

I also prefer desktop environments in which the menu can be invoked from anywhere on an empty area of the desktop with a mouse-click, such as Fluxbox, Enlightenment, and XFCE. Why expend all that effort when you don't have to?:)

Top for me, autohide. But I do keep docky on the bottom with XFCE Debian. Same with windows, top with dock at bottom. Don't know why just seems best for me.

I have the panel on top, because I prefer it there. There is also the added bonus of the system not looking looking like Windows.:D
My preferred position would actually be vertical on the right side of the screen, but that would only work if only displaying icons. I like to have at least part of the name displayed, especially when working with documents/files. Good luck with that using a vertical panel.

A GUI that cannot do that is not a real GUI.:D


Did someone mention desktop icons? Oh, for shame.

I use mate with the top and bottom panels on my laptops. I have the top for quick launchers and notifications; and the bottom for task manager displaying open programs from all desktops.

On my desktop computer how ever i have a much larger screen, so i run kde, with the panel setup on the left with the icon task manager. Depending on my screen real estate, i determine my panel setup.