AWN, Cairo and other widget-docks

[GraeW]

I've used AWN for a while, as it seemed to be the only one I could get work easily enough. But cruising around the forum today I noticed a comment about the lack of updates, the AWN forums are stagnant pools of spam, and there seems no news regarding this nice little desktop widget.

With Cairo, Docky, and others out there which can perform similarly, which is the favored - has most recent updates, currently staying on top of fixes and improvements, expanding on dock-applets to improve functionality, etc...

It looks like Cairo might finally be the one - I recall having issues with it before and not being able to get it to work, but lately I'm seeing it pop up on screenshots, and a peek at the website shows recent activity.

I will make the jump tonight probably, but am curious as to what other lesser-known options there might be out there, too..

[neu5eeCh]

I use AWN and it's still being developed. I just checked out the AWN forum (http://forums.awn.com/index.php?) and it looks like it has more life in it than the Kubuntu forum.

My problem with Cairo is that rather than indicate an app is opened by a check or light (or whatever) it opens a new icon and adds it to the bottom of the panel. This just seems incredibly clumsy to me and I don't know whether it's because of a setting I've missed or whether it's really that clumsy.

[LewisTM]

I use AWN and it's still being developed. I just checked out the AWN forum (http://forums.awn.com/index.php?) and it looks like it has more life in it than the Kubuntu forum.

My problem with Cairo is that rather than indicate an app is opened by a check or light (or whatever) it opens a new icon and adds it to the bottom of the panel. This just seems incredibly clumsy to me and I don't know whether it's because of a setting I've missed or whether it's really that clumsy.
LOL you just linked to the Animation World Network forum! The real support forum (http://awn.planetblur.org/index.php?shard=forum&action=g_default) looks real bad and the latest version is two years old. Not that it's a bad piece of software...
Cairo-dock shouldn't act like you describe. It's possible to set the launchers to grab certain window classes so maybe a particular launcher isn't set up properly.

Cheers!

[neu5eeCh]

LOL you just linked to the Animation World Network forum! The real support forum (http://awn.planetblur.org/index.php?shard=forum&action=g_default) looks real bad and the latest version is two years old. Not that it's a bad piece of software...
Cairo-dock shouldn't act like you describe. It's possible to set the launchers to grab certain window classes so maybe a particular launcher isn't set up properly.

Cheers!

Holy Batbrains, Batman! I did. I had both forums up, but linked to the wrong one, which also came up with a search on AWN.

I'll have to take another look at Cairo. The last time I tried it, every time I opened a separate instance of Leafpad, for example, Cairo opened a new Icon and added it to the bottom of the panel, below the separator. It didn't take long for the panel to grow off the screen.

[cortman]

I use Docky, and it's the best part of my DE, IMHO. It's more lightweight than Cairo and when you have more than one of a program open, it shows a corresponding quantity of glowing dots underneath the icon. It's always run perfectly for me.

[neu5eeCh]

...when you have more than one of a program open, it shows a corresponding quantity of glowing dots underneath the icon...

That's what AWN does, but Cairo doesn't. Docky manages it with some apps, but not with others. For instance, if I have more than one instance of Libre Office running, it won't let me choose between the documents (or open windows) the way AWN does.

[Version Dependency]

I'll have to take another look at Cairo. The last time I tried it, every time I opened a separate instance of Leafpad, for example, Cairo opened a new Icon and added it to the bottom of the panel, below the separator. It didn't take long for the panel to grow off the screen.

Not sure if this is default behavior (Cairo Dock has so many settings, I don't claim to know them all), but when I just launched it and opened three terminal windows, I got only one icon. If I have more than one instance open, the icon gets an arrow on it...clicking on the icon launches a sub-menu with all the instances of the opened app.

[neu5eeCh]

I don't get it. I just tried it on my little laptop, and it works just as you describe. On my larger laptop, I can't get it to do this? The only difference is that I'm running Cairo as a Cairo "Session". Clearly, I'm doing something wrong here.

[cortman]

That's what AWN does, but Cairo doesn't. Docky manages it with some apps, but not with others. For instance, if I have more than one instance of Libre Office running, it won't let me choose between the documents (or open windows) the way AWN does.

Right- thanks for calling that out. I'd forgotten that bug... I can't even pin a LibreOffice application to the dock.
Too much docky fanboyism... :)

[wildmanne39]

Hi, I personally use awn because a few months ago it had more applets and they were easier to install in my opinion.
Thanks

[GraeW]

I grabbed Docky and Cairo last night and started tweaking a bit. Looks like there is more work ahead of me - AWN did seem to come together a bit faster than Cairo, but I do like some of the capabilities of Cairo and it's applets. Will keep tweaking while I get breaks at work.. not quite convinced yet, but we'll see.

AWN is still a stable dock/bar, but with improvements to everything else happening, and a new Ubuntu due in just over a month, thought it might be time to check out the other options which are still in active development. Thanks for the input!