Binary package hint: gnome-panel
On horizontal panels, the order for menu items follows
western language left to right ordering: [Ubuntu logo], Applications,
Places, and System. If the panel is configured to be vertical on the
right-hand-side, then the order from top to bottom is the same: [logo],
Applications, Places & System, and the text is rotated 270 degrees.
However, a left-hand-side vertical panel rotates text 90 degrees and uses
the reverse order putting System at the top, followed by Places,
Applications and [logo]. This seems to make sense because if the whole
menu gets rotated back to natural orientation then Applications is
first and System last. However, in vertical orientation top-to-bottom
seems to be the dominate orientation as far as how the eye scans items.
Also, using top-to-bottom arrangement places the Ubuntu logo up in the
corner where it belongs, instead of in the middle of the left hand panel
as it is right now.
Therefore, it seem to be that in both left-hand and right-hand side panels,
top-to-bottom is the best arrangement for the menu bar applet.
Thank you for your bug report. The issue is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug the to the people writting the software (https:/