@trom @futureisfoss there are two additional special layouts I could suggest, especially given we are talking about xfce. The first is a purely vertical dock, no top or bottom bar at all. This is used in MX linux.The other is a variant on gnome 3, where there is only a top bar, no dock, and the dock set live instead on the left side of the top panel. Typically the panel is only 24-26 pixels. So it's kinda like the windows view you have, but with a much thinner panel, and at the top.
@tio @futureisfoss @trom oh, I forgot about this one...this was the other xfce layout we made for tribal use around that time...
@trom @tio @futureisfoss my earliest desktop experiences were with amigaos and X on bsd on early sun workstations, back when it was still "just" #bsd at Berkeley.
@trom @tio @futureisfoss every year I look at #gnome in particular I find ever greater breakage and destruction of what was once possible in free desktops.