Comment 26 for bug 527267

I hate to not be on the "this is a theme bug, fix it" bandwagon that everyone else is, but this isn't a theme bug, it's a bug in indicator-applet for overloading the gtkrc panel definitions. I've mangled my human theme to turn off all panel padding, which brings the indicator icons closer to each other, but it doesn't actually fix the bug (there's still more padding in indicator-applet than anywhere else on the panel) and has the nasty side-effect of, duh, removing all padding on the rest of the panel.

So, my clock is now shoved against the right of my screen, other panel applets and icons have zero padding between them, but the indicator-applet icons are still slightly excessively padded (though less so than before the change).

This really needs fixing in the code itself. indicator-applet, like the old skool notification area, shouldn't be using gtkrc panel padding and overloading its meaning while, seemingly, adding even more padding of its own. If we want our icons nearly touching (mobile devices, tiny screens?), we should be allowed that.

Notification Area may have offended some people due to the hideously non-standard ways in which it was used and abused, but the way it rendered icons (shove 'em in, side-by-side, let icon pack designers worry about making sure they don't space stupidly) seemed. Well. Usable.