Please describe the problem:
Though this bug is known for some time, there doesn't seem to be an open thread about it. Some approaches were melted with 86382.

! This bug is _not_ the same as 86382 !

This here is a fairly easy problem that came up with GNOME 2.20, when the two keys
/apps/panel/applets/window_list_screen0/prefs/minimum_size
and
/apps/panel/applets/window_list_screen0/prefs/maximum_size
became deprecated.
Ever since, if you have your windows list applet on a vertical panel and have eight or more windows open, the applet tries to save space and constantly changes between grouping and ungrouping groupable items. If grouping is disabled, it changes between one and two column view. This change happens about three or more times per second, resulting in a flicker and causing the window list to be completely unusable - especially selecting one particular window with the mouse becomes a random success (with bad odds).

Even though windows list could use almost twice the space, hence avoiding the whole problem, there is no possibility of telling the application to do so (in GNOME versions prior to 2.20 this could be achieved using the above mentioned keys, though my guess is that those only abused some other mechanism and didn't hold the solution themselves).

Solving this problem should be as easy as finding a possibility to give the applet the correct height, either per detection or per user input. Right now this seems to be of fixed size and set to about 160 pixel.
Maybe forbidding to ever use more then one column (on vertical panel) or row (on horizontal panel) would be a nice feature, though maybe to much to wish for.

I'll try not to moan, but for a year or so, i haven't been able to have more than seven windows open on one desktop. Which is a serious handicap. I simply cannot believe how long this error has been around; solutions in forums go as far as using the xfce panel list, which is not acceptable to me. And I do want my panel vertical.

I guess all users consider their bugs easy to solve and important, but seriously, this one doesn't appeal to be technically complicated enough to explain why it has been an open wound for so long. I'm tired of always waiting for the next version and hoping that everything might work again, so I implore you:
Please, somebody fix this, finally, for good. Please. Pretty please.


Steps to reproduce:
1. Get the window list on a vertical panel (width of the panel doesn't seem to matter, neither does screen resolution)
2. Open some windows. With me, exactly eight do the trick.
3. Do you see it jump? For fun, try to click on an entry in the list and watch it twist in agony.


Actual results:
That's it. No more reasonable use of the list. Because of constant movement it is impossible to select a specific window (and it distracts big time).
Use Alt+Tab do select the window to close or send it to another desktop.

Expected results:
The window list should use all available vertical space. I'd want that behavior even if there is only one window open, and it shouldn't split. It never should split.

Does this happen every time?
Always.

Other information: