superspy, I agree that the Properties palette could do with some work.
Some examples:
* The "X,Y,Z" and "Shape" tabs are very sparse and could easily be merged (until extra functionality is added).
* The "Group" tab has a lot of padding round the controls and could possibly be merged with the "Shape" tab (they have very similar controls, so the tab could change name depending on what is selected).
* The "Text" and "Colours" tabs can get very busy and confusing, especially when you've got lots of "sub-tabs" open. (E.g. On my Ubuntu laptop, with a gradient fill selected, there's only space for a one-line colour picker so lots of scrolling is needed.)
* The tab names take up quite a bit of space just for themselves (nearly a third of the whole dialog space).
Personally, I think Scribus could benefit from a similar toolbox to GIMP. I.e. With the tabs changed to icons at the top, and the bottom of the dialog changing depending on which icon is selected. And the controls could be implemented in a similar way to GIMP too. (The amount of functionality they've managed to fit into such a small space while still keeping it usable is commendable.)
This might be controversial, and I've not put a whole load of thought into it so there's probably some things that don't work, but the Properties palette needs a good review soon before it starts putting new users off. (Or maybe it has already?)
Personally I think that putting the palettes into separate floating dialogs would be a move in the wrong direction. That sort of thing was "cool and funky" in the '90s but UI design has moved on and, in my experience, they just get in the way of working with the document (you have to keep moving them out of the way which is annoying - not everyone has big/multiple screens).
P.S. I think I remember reading that the Properties palette was being looked at for 1.5.0svn but I've no idea if anything will come from whatever that was.