&gt; Why do I have to sacrifice all that valuable vertical space for information that is always stacked in the 20% left side of that huge panel?<p>You don&#x27;t, hide it via CSS[1]. Entire Eclipse UI is customizable. Install CSS Spy[2] to experiment live before committing changes.<p>My Eclipse setup actually looks like VIM with split buffers, there is nary a wasted pixel. To get to that point that though (e.g. hiding right side gutters and always-on scrollbars) is a bit more involved, need to take custom plugin route for that.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;17027501&#x2F;185840" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;17027501&#x2F;185840</a>
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;marketplace.eclipse.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;eclipse-4-tools-css-spy#.UYrzSkAW1J0" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;marketplace.eclipse.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;eclipse-4-tools-css-s...</a>