Dock frustration.

[VeeDubb]

I know that this has been discussed before, but I'm just looking for guidance (and maybe I just want to rant a little too) regarding the various options for a dock.

It seems like what I want really isn't that much to ask, and certainly all of the things that I want are available in the different docks. However, for the life of me, I can't find one dock that has all of them.

1. I want a dock that is still being maintained, because I want something I can continue to use as I upgrade from one ubuntu tot he next.

2. I want a Dock with a full application menu. As far as I know, this narrows it down to AWN or Cairo-Dock.

3. I want a fully functional notification area (systray)

4. I want a dock that doesn't have half of it's plug-in continuously broken, and isn't plagued with ugly visual artifacts on my relatively current system.

5. I want an auto-hide feature that works properly, allowing the desktop to be nothing but my wallpaper if there are no windows open, and no files sitting on my desktop.

6. I want a full function launcher and task switcher so I don't need any gnome-panels at all.


What kills me, is that is not a single thing in that list that isn't available in at least one of the docks. Most of them are available in more than one. But I have yet to find a single dock anywhere that has all of them.

Cairo-Dock is sooooooo close to perfect for me, but the systray for CD just sucks so bad that it's not even funny. You can have it in an idiotic though bubble that is forever slipping behind open windows, or in an idiotic thought bubble that is forever blocking your view, or as an idiotic desklet that you can't see unless you minimize all of your open windows.

Is there some dock option that I'm missing?

[fabounet]

desklets can be kept above other windows
I guess a new systray will be the next applet in Cairo-Dock.

[VeeDubb]

I guess a new systray will be the next applet in Cairo-Dock.

You make that happen, and you become my new hero.

[heartwarmer]

well i think awn is the closest to what you want:
1. it works in intrepid, and will also work in jaunty.
2. it has 3 or 4 app menus to choose from (mimenu for me).
3. pynot is very useful, has a problem with transparency but its not a big problem.
4. I agree with you about broken applets.
5. I never used auto-hide feature, i make dock's size small enough to not block anything behind.
6. all there .

i use awn-bzr 0.3.1 and am satisfied with it in general,some bugs annoy me,
but they are fixing it right now and hopefully soon they will be fixed.
am planing to try gnome-do, so if its better you'll be the first to know.

[VeeDubb]

Sadly, no. Not even close.

AWN has a 'mostly' correct autohide feature, a fully functional systray (although pynot isn't it. That program is junk), and is still being maintained/developed.

Other than than, it fails completely.

Last time I tried to install AWN, which was about a week ago, roughly half of the applets were broken, not counting the fact that there are SEVERAL applets that require unlisted dependencies to function. (At least with cairo-dock, non-functional applets don't show up as an option)

And of course, there's always that bit about the HIDEOUS visual artifacts I get despite recent hardware, and fully functional compiz.

So, no. AWN is not even close. I don't even know why anybody bothers to use it. If the folks building cairo-dock would just make a new systray, and release 64bit debs with ALL of the dependencies listed, it would be so vastly superior to anything AWN has to offer that the folks making AWN would be best served by packing up and going home.


As for gnome-do, I've already tried it.

gnome-do/docky is absolutely and completely wonderful for what it is.

If you are looking to go mac style, and have a menu bar at the top and a dock at the bottom, I think docky is quite possibly the best thing out there. However, if you want to completely replace all of your gnome panels, which I have done with cairo-dock, then it's not what you're looking for.