I am using Unity on Linux with the i3 window manager. To allow full integration into my external window manager I’d like to have all panels as floating windows to then integrate them into my window manager.
However, Unity does not allow me to have no open panels/tabs in the main window, thus leaving me with a main window which I’d like to have as just the context menu and basic tool bar as a wide but slender window being way too high (see images).
Current:
Target:
Use Case (I have no tab that should go to the top but I can’t remove the last tab, thus needing too much space at the top):
The restriction to not being able to close / pop out the last tab seems quite arbitrary (maybe there is a technical reason though) and lifting it would really help my use case.
PS: I am aware that this is a really unusual use case, however I don’t think it is strictly limited to Linux which is why I have posted it here instead of the Linux section.
Here’s one idea: maybe drag your wide-yet-too-tall window to the bottom and put the blank area offscreen on the bottom? It would require you to rewire your brain to look down for menus in Unity, but it might be easier than you realize to start using. 
(NOTE: I am assuming the menus will “pop upwards” when opened from there; if not then my suggestion is useless)
Either way, not really my way of doing things but I accept it as a Linux-y desire. I remember when Gimp used to be like this and it drove me spare until they consolidated it into one window!
That sadly does not really work for me as I can’t crop but only scale the window and the buttons are cut before the panel when I scale the height down. Also having the buttons at the bottom would take quite some adjustment.
The menus go somewhat upwards but it is really inconsistent and clunky (some of them go straight down, some go straight up, some go partly down, partly up, overlapping the other entries)
I also absolutely hated it on Gimp, however I don’t really have them as floating in the traditional sense. They are “floating” as far as Unity is concerned but actually they are tiling windows as part of my tiling window manager which is amazing to work with.
