Comment Gnome 3.26 removes the Status Bar/System Tray (Score 1) 176
According to Gnome developers, removing of the system tray is so insignificant, that it is not even worth mentioning in the short list of changes. It is mentioned at the end of the long list, outside of the bullet points.
GNOME 3.26 no longer shows status icons in the bottom-left of the screen. This prevents the status icon tray from getting in the way and is expected to provide a better overall experience. The lack of status icons is not expected to cause serious issues for users. However, if you do find that you need to access them, they can be restored using the TopIcons extension. More information about this change can be found in a blog post on the subject.
This means that if you don't have the latest TopIcons extension already installed, a lot of programs that minimize to Status Bar will become inaccessible. That's mainly non-Gnome programs.
Gnome developers are trying to force application developers to not use the "pretty old" standard that "predated Gnome 2.0" and instead to use Gnome specific API's like their notification.
The big problem is that they do not seem to understand what is the purpose of the Status Bar, how people use it and why it exists in all Desktop platforms - Linux, Windows and Mac.
The Status Bar is for checking the status of an application, with single glance, without need for any actions from the user, like moving mouse to specific position on the screen, having to click, switch desktops or open the program window.
In comparison, notification are for signaling change or event. Their use is not only different, they also could be quite annoying and actively ignored.
Here are few more links to read:
https://blogs.gnome.org/aday/2017/08/31/status-icons-and-gnome/
https://lwn.net/Articles/732622/