> Windows 7 actually solves this problem best; I can move the task bar over to the right and have the full screen height for applications.

I have done this -- moving the taskbar (in my case Gnome Panel) -- to the right for many years. I don't think this is not something of a Windows 7 innovation.

> [...] moving the top bar in Ubuntu out of the way results in ugly, buggy wierdness.

Please explain what you mean. As I said, I have done this for many years in Gnome, and it's just fine.