This panel looks much better than the matchbox\'s one, thanks! It needs some further work though -- menu does not resemble the installed content (it is just hardwired in .fbpanel/default), rotation doesn\'t work correctly, as you mentioned. The good thing that it is possible to start battery applet, by running \'mb-applet-battery &\', and it works (although the bubble popup with the exact battery juice when being clicked does not appear for some reason).
But it is great anyway, much better than the default one, where all the space seems to be wasted with no taskbar, no pager etc. Thank you. Would be great to see this panel in the mainstream distribution.