I'm not asking about showing or hiding the task bar via the "fullscreen" option. What I can't see is a way to shrink the main Spyder window to something less than the full desktop area as can be done with most app windows.
I have run conda update anaconda and similar commands to make sure everything is up to date.
EDIT: This is under Ubuntu 14.10 standard installation. No alternative desktops or themes involved. I just launch Spyder via a Terminal command.
This appears to be a PEBCAK issue. I just never expected to see window-control buttons above the menubar, but that's what happens.
I'm embarrassed now: I had to hover the mouse above Spyder's menubar, in the "Ubuntu menu" bar, for lack of a better term, where typically all one sees is "Spyder(Python2.7)" . Once hovering there, the 3-button close/minimize/resize array is available. Sorry.