Comment 297 for bug 668415

If the launcher is not to be moved, I can envision a few other ways of resolving the issue of highly annoying accidental invocations:

1) Go back to using the corner to activate the launcher. Given how a few icons will be on the lower part of the screen, having to travel to the top and then to the bottom is tiresome. So both left corners could be used. Leaving the decision to the user would be best, though. That way some could use the bottom left, some the upper, depending on their particular habits, and optionally conditioned to a click. The click is sometimes desirable because Ubuntu places Windows icons on the left and it's fairly easy to overshoot them. A click would be preferable to any other measure (force, time spent at the corner etc) because it's both less likely to happen accidentaly and faster. Seems much easier to implement than allowing the launcher to be moved.

2) Having a "manual hide" option for the launcher. Here's how it could work: an icon, not much different than that of a regular app, would sit on the launcher. When clicked, the launcher would be completely hidden, except for a little indicator that would sit on the left edge of the screen, placed exactly where the "hiding icon" was in regards to the Y axis, where it would wait for a click to bring back the launcher. Very easily discoverable. And, as the icon itself could be moved, people would be free to place it wherever they found more comfortable.