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View Full Version : Do you use/prefer a dock in Ubuntu?



racie
November 9th, 2010, 08:23 AM
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1563131

Now hopefully we can see what the "majority" of Ubuntu users do.

weasel fierce
November 9th, 2010, 09:09 AM
Not a general fan, but the concept is nice.

When using gnomeshell for a while, I found that way of doing it a bit less intrusive.

GabrielYYZ
November 9th, 2010, 09:26 AM
yeah and the concept of it is rather attractive.

i use a panel with the usual apps/places/system menus, the window list and the date/sound/network/user/shutdown things on top and the dock on the bottom. feels intuitive to me and pretty comfortable too.

i used to use docky but i've been using AWN for the last 2 weeks and i've been enjoying it. docky's good but i'm digging AWN much more, i tried GLX/cairo dock once but it feels sluggish to me.

Spice Weasel
November 9th, 2010, 09:31 AM
Hell no. Reduces my productivity and wastes screen space.

If I do have a dock-like launcher (see wbar) I have it at the top, I only see it when I see my desktop.

matthew.ball
November 9th, 2010, 09:44 AM
I don't know if that's a fair claim. If you really cared about productivity, you wouldn't be using a mouse (there's a slight chance you're not, but I doubt it).

It doesn't exactly waste screen space either. In the attached image, you can see my dock on the right-hand side of the screen. Such a waste of valuable screen real-estate, isn't it.

Little Bones
November 9th, 2010, 09:51 AM
I love using docks. To combat being "intrusive", use Docky's parabolic zoom and have the icons at size 24 by default. Or set it or AWN to auto/intellihide.

Anyway, Ubuntu carries both in the default repos. I think that is probably enough instead of making one default.

Spice Weasel
November 9th, 2010, 09:52 AM
I don't know if that's a fair claim. If you really cared about productivity, you wouldn't be using a mouse (there's a slight chance you're not, but I doubt it).

It doesn't exactly waste screen space either. In the attached image, you can see my dock on the right-hand side of the screen. Such a waste of valuable screen real-estate, isn't it.

I'm not, I've got FVWM set to be controlled by the keyboard.

Also, I don't really mind vertical docks at all (I have a big panel going vertically down my screen like a sidebar anyway). It's horizontal Mac OSX-like docks that bug me. You can either have them stuck to the desktop, making the bottom half of maximised windows unusable or forcing you to scroll on anything. Or even hidden, and them I'd have to touch the mouse which would be annoying.

I don't mind docks at all (even in the traditional sense pre iDock, see Window Maker and NextStep.), what I mind is when they are huge bloated things on small monitors as the case with Mac OSX.

matthew.ball
November 9th, 2010, 10:01 AM
That is what you should have said in the first post. Because you really cannot argue with that (I totally agree).

Spice Weasel
November 9th, 2010, 10:03 AM
Ubuntu forums users assume that everyone can afford 1920x1200 monitors.

matthew.ball
November 9th, 2010, 10:04 AM
Ubuntu forums users assume a lot :)

ctrlmd
November 9th, 2010, 10:10 AM
i don't like having applications on desktop i like my desktop organized
and i don't like clicking Menu then chose an application to run
so

its easier,faster and better look to have a dock

matthew.ball
November 9th, 2010, 10:12 AM
It's easier and faster to just alt+f2 actually.

ctrlmd
November 9th, 2010, 10:26 AM
It's easier and faster to just alt+f2 actually.
how many keys do you have to press to run an application

using mouse and dock 1 click to run something :P

Khakilang
November 9th, 2010, 10:33 AM
Things can never get any easier. I can put my apps in the panel or desktop. Whichever way I like and set my mouse to 1 click. Beside I need all the space I can get when I process my image with Gimp. So I prefer not to use any dock.

matthew.ball
November 9th, 2010, 10:36 AM
That's a moot point actually.

Your hands are always on the keyboard, alt+f2 can be reached, by the same left-hand and pressed in less then a second.

If you're going to say "but then you have to type the name of the application" an indexing launcher like gnome-do handles that perfectly by remembering your most used applications so you only have to type the first character and it instantly gives you a response.

Time is taken to reach across and grab the mouse, then direct the mouse to the dock, and then click the left-mouse button to open the application.

Unless of course you're one of the few people who have learnt to truly master one-hand typing, and permanently have a hand on the mouse. Which is unlikely, to say the least.

If people truly cared about efficiency, they wouldn't be using a mouse.

Edit: Directed to ctrlmd, not Khakilang.

t.rei
November 9th, 2010, 10:38 AM
I use either cairo-dock when feeling a bit macish or dockbarx when a panel is what I want.

Sometimes things are best done with only a mouse. Basically anything where you just want to sip on your coffee while you do it.

When actually working I do prefer the alt+f2 way... keeps me from taking my hands away from the keyboard => speeeeed! *niau*

Khakilang
November 9th, 2010, 10:59 AM
That's a moot point actually.

Your hands are always on the keyboard, alt+f2 can be reached, by the same left-hand and pressed in less then a second.

If you're going to say "but then you have to type the name of the application" an indexing launcher like gnome-do handles that perfectly by remembering your most used applications so you only have to type the first character and it instantly gives you a response.

Time is taken to reach across and grab the mouse, then direct the mouse to the dock, and then click the left-mouse button to open the application.

Unless of course you're one of the few people who have learnt to truly master one-hand typing, and permanently have a hand on the mouse. Which is unlikely, to say the least.

If people truly cared about efficiency, they wouldn't be using a mouse.

Edit: Directed to ctrlmd, not Khakilang.

Haha! You almost got me there. If I didn't read your edit. I believe one should learn all the tricks in Linux and settle what is best. Just in case my mouse die out on me and I had an urgent mail to send and no time to buy a new mouse, I know just what to do with the keyboard.

Thanks Matthew!

slackthumbz
November 9th, 2010, 11:55 AM
I have 3 :O can you spot them all? ;)

speedwell68
November 9th, 2010, 12:02 PM
AWN FTW.:D

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/Speedwell68/th_21mx8ox.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/Speedwell68/?action=view&current=21mx8ox.jpg)

XubuRoxMySox
November 9th, 2010, 12:24 PM
Ain't any different from a panel, 'cept it looks more "Fisher-Pricey" than my sweet-and-simple Xfce panel.

I never got a satisfactory answer to my question, "what's the difference between a dock and a panel and why is one better than the other," so without any reason to change from my supercool looking Xfce panel with it's supercool launchers and applets (desktop weather, analong clock, calender, etc), I haven't bothered. Perhaps instead of a DE on my next minimal install.

-Robin

qamelian
November 9th, 2010, 12:33 PM
I don't know if that's a fair claim. If you really cared about productivity, you wouldn't be using a mouse (there's a slight chance you're not, but I doubt it).
That's not really a fair statement either because some activities are much better suited to mouse than keyboard, such as vector graphics work.

NightwishFan
November 9th, 2010, 12:42 PM
I think xfce panel rocks as well. If it were a choice between any dock and that, I would choose it.

A_T
November 9th, 2010, 12:46 PM
No dock for me. I prefer a functional desktop to a shiny one.

mcduck
November 9th, 2010, 12:57 PM
I have nothing against docks on a large display, and often use a vertical gnome-panel with launchers on my laptop as well, but in general none of the current dock apps works well on smaller display resolutions. That alone, in my opinion, is enough reason to not have one included in the default setup.

Perhaps, in future, if one of the docks starts working properly with vertical positioning, runs without compositing, and provides even nearly the same ease of use and flexibility simple panels do, I'll change my opinion. :)

czr114
November 9th, 2010, 10:06 PM
No dock. It's resource-squandering eye candy.

Reokie
November 9th, 2010, 10:21 PM
Eh, not a big fan of using docks, I prefer textual over pictoral in terms of displaying my open programs. I sometimes use it for important apps, though

Frogs Hair
November 9th, 2010, 11:27 PM
It took time to grow on me , but I miss the dock when it's not there. I keep it small with web browsers , file browser , terminal , Ubuntu Tweak , control center , and Rythmbox. I also set icons 25 pixels and use intell hide.

Mr Bean
November 9th, 2010, 11:45 PM
I use the default Ubuntu configuration with a taksbar style panel and the bottom of the screen and a menu one at the top. All of my most used programs have shortcuts on the panel at the top.

I don't see any real need to consolidate the two into a single dock. I can't really imagine what benefit if any it would offer above looking nice. And if you saw my desk you would know that looking nice isn't a requirement for any of my things.

aG93IGRvIGkgdWJ1bnR1Pw==
November 10th, 2010, 12:06 AM
no

Old_Grey_Wolf
November 10th, 2010, 02:17 AM
I used a few different docks over a period of about 3 months.

However, I found I was constantly using the panel menus. Not everything I used would fit in the dock nicely. I also found it annoying on small laptop, notebook, or netbook displays. If I allowed the application windows to be on top; then, the dock was not readily accessible. If I made the dock auto hide when an application window was open; then, it was annoying to have to move the cursor to the edge of the display to get the dock to display above the application window, and it would auto hide sometimes if I didn't move the cursor in just the correct way.

I eventually decided to do away with docks.

BlazeFire247
November 10th, 2010, 04:01 AM
Yes, I use Docky in particular. I used to find it difficult to use docks before, but now I think it's more simple than using a window list on a panel (I must admit, though, I dislike when you have multiple windows of one program in Docky; you have to right-click to get to the other window). I used to use AWN, but when I tried Docky, I liked it. It'll take a while before I get used to the window list again (but 4 of our other computers are Windows, so it's different for me in Ubuntu).

Austin25
November 10th, 2010, 05:35 AM
Does conky count?

Ctrl-Alt-F1
November 10th, 2010, 06:04 AM
Yeah, I use AWN. If I didn't use AWN I'd probably use Docky. I like to keep the top panel but the two panel system is a bit much for me.

Ctrl-Alt-F1
November 10th, 2010, 06:06 AM
Does conky count?No.

CarpKing
November 10th, 2010, 10:49 PM
I've been using AWN since 2006, usually with a top panel for menus, clock, systray, etc., but sometimes with all those functions on the dock. Tasklists seem alien to me now. I do like some things about Windows 7's taskbar; I think its handling of multiple instances is a little more elegant than AWN's.

I'mGeorge
November 10th, 2010, 11:05 PM
cairo-dock it's pretty cool, but really all these dock apps are only for the show off. I can't stand win vista or win 7 just because of those hardware consuming graphics so I don't really dig the docks either though I find them really fun, but only just to play with them for a little bit, personally I won't keep them on my desktop as they're kinda childish either (no offense) I believe a Desktop should be as clean and functional as it could be. It's not natural that only your desktop to consume a lot of Ram or Cpu 'cause if so there won't be much left for running the important programs.

Gremlinzzz
November 11th, 2010, 12:10 AM
one panel bottom is enough for a long term system.fooled around with compiz and the docks just for fun.They serve no real purpose just bling.http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=175255&stc=1&d=1289430764

CoffeeCoder
November 11th, 2010, 02:20 AM
I don't exactly prefer a dock, but I do use one. I don't currently have Ubuntu installed (hard drive crashed, had to install Windows to restore boot loaders and junk), but once I do I want to check out AWN. It looks pretty nifty. :)

cloyd
November 11th, 2010, 02:31 AM
I used a few different docks over a period of about 3 months.

However, I found I was constantly using the panel menus. Not everything I used would fit in the dock nicely. I also found it annoying on small laptop, notebook, or netbook displays. If I allowed the application windows to be on top; then, the dock was not readily accessible. If I made the dock auto hide when an application window was open; then, it was annoying to have to move the cursor to the edge of the display to get the dock to display above the application window, and it would auto hide sometimes if I didn't move the cursor in just the correct way.

I eventually decided to do away with docks.

My experience has been similar. The dock is impressive. I noticed that it was also sluggish. Panels launchers and links are much faster. I did install a panel down the left side of my screen, and move all my application launchers there, and leave the top for applets, the bottom for minimized files. Oh yes, sometimes, the dock interfered with the bottom panel.

LADmaticCA
November 11th, 2010, 03:28 AM
I use AWN. I personally like its workspace switcher and weather applet. Other than that it just sits at the bottom as a task manager; I do all of my launching with kupfer. So guess I don't really need one but I like it.

treesurf
November 11th, 2010, 08:17 AM
I use AWN because it functions well as a total panel replacement, but remains hidden when I'm not using it. This frees up as much screen real estate as possible. Most of the time I use the keyboard to switch between windows/programs, or Gnome-Do as a launcher, but when I want to point and click on something I find a dock much nicer to use than a panel.

DogMatix
November 11th, 2010, 10:57 AM
+1 No. Sooo... last season darling.

I have used them in the past but have now got over trying to make my Ubuntu PCs look like a Mac. On netbooks particularly I find them space hogs and hinder productivity. I use Alt+F2 or the good old Application menu as a launcher & Alt+TAB as a switcher.

I especially dislike the Launcher dock on the Unity netbook version which eats up about 50 pixels of the screen width and 'as yet' doesn't auto-hide.

BrokenKingpin
November 11th, 2010, 05:26 PM
I use DockBarX... which is very similar to the Win 7 Super Bar (or whatever they call it). I think I like DockbarX over all the other docks is because it is just a panel add-on, so I can use all my other panel stuff as normal.

chessnerd
November 11th, 2010, 06:25 PM
I do not now, nor will I ever, use a dock by choice.

Docks are an application-oriented interface. I feel that my life on the computer is more task-oriented than application-oriented, so I prefer a taskbar-style interface. In other words, I prefer to have a different button for each instance of OpenOffice, rather than a dock interface where I only get one icon for all of my documents, whether I have one open or one hundred.

Some may say that taskbars are old-fashioned, but the thing is, they work, and they work well. Frankly, you can work faster with them than with a dock. Gnome and KDE have had taskbars as the default for years, if so many Linux desktop users really preferred docks, one of them would include a dock by default. The fact is, I think that dock users are just a vocal minority. If all members of UF voted in this poll, it wouldn't even be close.

The only dock I can actually tolerate is the Windows 7 "superbar," which is more of a dock/taskbar hybrid, and I still prefer the "old-fashioned" Windows 95-style taskbar to a dock (or "superbar") any day of the week.

BrokenKingpin
November 11th, 2010, 07:30 PM
Chessnerd, You are really not going to like Unity lol.

drawkcab
November 11th, 2010, 07:56 PM
I hated all the docks I tried a couple of years ago. I do, however, use a dock in win7 as an autohiding launcher. I'll have to give AWN another try when I upgrade to maverick.

Lancro
November 11th, 2010, 08:09 PM
1280x1024 resolution in here, I need space in my screen, so I dont use docks, I tried AWN but panels are thiner, so I will keep pannels without docks.

TNT1
November 11th, 2010, 08:17 PM
I prefer to have a different button for each instance of OpenOffice, rather than a dock interface where I only get one icon for all of my documents, whether I have one open or one hundred.
.

Graphically, can you show me a taskbar with a hundred documents open? I'd just like the "screen real estate" proponents to comment on what that taskbar looks like.

Oh, and if your taskbar reduces them all so much that you have to hover/click each one to see what it is, please do tell how that is different to the dock that puts them all under one icon? Also, if a dock does put all open instances of a task under a single icon, how does that impinge on screen real estate?

BrokenKingpin
November 11th, 2010, 08:17 PM
1280x1024 resolution in here, I need space in my screen, so I dont use docks, I tried AWN but panels are thiner, so I will keep pannels without docks.
I found switching from the default Gnome with two panels to DockBarX (and everything consolidated to one panel) it is taking up less space. I agree that something like Docky does take up too much room on a small screen.

TNT1
November 11th, 2010, 08:20 PM
1280x1024 resolution in here, I need space in my screen, so I dont use docks, I tried AWN but panels are thiner, so I will keep pannels without docks.

But if you need so much space, why don't you hide the panel, or the dock? Space doesn't appear to be the key issue between the two, but rather they way the handle multiple instances of a single application, and the difference in the way tasks and panels handle launching applications.

Funny thing is that panels limit the options of both of these, whereas docks seem to offer a multiplicity of options for both.

BrokenKingpin
November 12th, 2010, 06:44 PM
Personally, having a dock or panel that hides is just annoying for me and much prefer a static dock/panel; so size is a consideration, especially on a netbook.

chessnerd
November 12th, 2010, 07:45 PM
Graphically, can you show me a taskbar with a hundred documents open?
I don't have the time to do a hundred, but here's about 50...


I'd just like the "screen real estate" proponents to comment on what that taskbar looks like.
It doesn't take up any more space than a taskbar with nothing open.


Oh, and if your taskbar reduces them all so much that you have to hover/click each one to see what it is, please do tell how that is different to the dock that puts them all under one icon?
Try this: take a deck of cards and look through it. Place 10 cards face up. Look at them for a while, then turn them face down and try to guess where specific cards are. You'll probably do a pretty good job due to your spacial awareness. Spacial awareness makes a lot of difference in this case. You can do a fair job of figuring out about where that 1 in 10 or even 1 in 50 document is, without even looking at the title.


Also, if a dock does put all open instances of a task under a single icon, how does that impinge on screen real estate?
It takes up the same amount of space regardless, just like a taskbar.

czr114
November 12th, 2010, 07:54 PM
Why would somebody need 100 open, or even 50?

Firefox requires one, because of its tabs. IDEs require one, because of their tabs. Utilities like calculators don't need to persist, as they can be called from the keyboard and dispatched when finished.

If personal use is cluttering with work use, segment one off into a separate workspace.

AllTray is useful for persisting something like Thunderbird in the tray instead of the taskbar. The tray will be populated with other background-type applications natively, such as chat or torrent clients.

The taskbar isn't a flawed concept, nor will its space run out in anything but a proof of concept screenshot.

I might be able to do 15 per workspace under heavy usage. Any more than that seems as if clutter is being allowed to needlessly build.

Under normal usage, the combination of application icons and spatial awareness will make even a heavily-populated taskbar a manageable interface.

Taskbars are a great tool.

Quadunit404
November 12th, 2010, 08:58 PM
Me using a dock? Absolutely not, why would I ever use a dock? [/sarcasm]

Yeah, I use AWN with the 3D style. I like the way how OS X' dock looks so I want to emulate it, with a slightly different style of course.

Austin25
November 12th, 2010, 11:58 PM
No.
Well, I guess I don't use one but I guess I would like one. I don't really know.

Chronon
November 13th, 2010, 03:08 AM
I have in the past, but now I just find it more convenient to do Alt-F2.

laurenbanjo
November 13th, 2010, 03:21 AM
I downloaded Macbuntu on a NETBOOK and I freaking love it more than my 27 inch iMac!

Don't say there's not enough space. You could always auto-hide. I have three docks and I think there's plenty of space on my 10 inch screen.

Sometime's it's just nicer than desktop shortcuts. I hate things on my desktop. That looks overcrowded and unnatractive. I like how Macbuntu lets you put your favorite stuff in the dock but clicking the logo allows you to view the full menu. You can't do this in a Mac, you have to go to your applications folder and it's so annoying.