Programs are inaccessible upon minimization

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

this is probably a sensitive problem because I'm using linux mint, which is based on ubuntu but not affiliated with it in any way. But since right clicking was the most obvious, here I am. Each time I minimize a program, and this problem is indiscriminate to all, the icon goes away, and with the exception of the system monitor, even the fact it's still running is hidden. It's really troublesome. because unless the program saves the session (i.e. mozilla) or only allows one instance by default (i.e. totem) the only way to reuse it is to delete the process and reopen. I'm starting to understand what "reproduce means, but because I'm not a debugger, this report is probably meaningless, if anything because I'm "in the wrong department"

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Jul 10 07:30:05 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-panel
Package: gnome-panel 1:2.18.1-0ubuntu3.1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdline: gnome-panel --sm-client-id default1
ProcCwd: /home/trailbl4zr
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-panel
Uname: Linux trailbl4zr-desktop 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Thu Jun 7 20:19:32 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux