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DockBarX DockX panel

DockBarX is a lightweight taskbar / panel replacement for Linux. It works as a GNOME panel applet (for GNOME 2.x), as an Avant Window Navigator applet or as a stand alone dock (called DockX) that you can use in any desktop environment: KDE, XFCE, GNOME 3 (with GNOME Shell), etc.


DockBarX features:
  • pin applications to the taskbar
  • quick access to recent, related and most used documents with the help of Zeitgeist
  • Unity quicklists, badges and progress bars support
  • Window previews like in Windows 7
  • DockManager support (so you can use Docky helpers in DockBarX)
  • Media buttons support (play/pause, etc.)
  • Highly configurable, both in appearence and functionality (keyboard shortcuts, etc.)
  • DockX (DockBarX as a stand-alone dock) can be positioned anywhere on the screen, comes with autohide, dodge active window or all windows, can be resized and more



New features in DockBarX 0.47:


- You can now use separate themes for DockX (DockX is the stand-alone mode). DockBarX already comes with 4 built-in themes - here are a couple of them:

DockBarX DockX folded theme
(DockX Folded theme)

DockBarX DockX invisible theme
(DockX Invisible theme)


You can configure the background color for the new themes but if you want to customize them further, have a look under /usr/share/dockbarx/themes/dock/


- Also, DockBarX window list is now themeable and you can specify a different style on the appearence tab in the DockBarX preferences. There's one more change made to the window list: active and urgent windows are now highlighted with background colors instead of simply changing fonts.

DockBarX window list theme
(One of the new DockBarX window list themes)



With these changes, DockBarX (and DockX) become fully theamable and customizable and even though the cool window previews feature doesn't work in Ubuntu 11.04 or 11.10 (due to a Compiz bug) (a work around for this bug was released in DockBarX 0.48), DockBarX is now one of the best lightweight docks / panel replacements for Linux.



Here are a two older screenshots with DockBarX running as a GNOME panel / AWN applet too:

DockBarX gnome panel

DockBarX AWN


Install DockBarX in Ubuntu



To add the WebUpd8 PPA and install DockBarX 0.47 in Ubuntu Lucid, Maverick, Natty and Oneiric, use the commands below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dockbarx dockbarx-themes-extra


To install the AWN applet, use the following command:
sudo apt-get install awn-applet-dockbarx

Once installed, look for "DockBarX Preference" in the menu / dash to configure how DockBarX or DockX looks and behaves.

To launch DockBarX in the stand-alone mode, press ALT + F2 and type: "dockx". If you use Gnome2 panel or Avant Window Navigator, DockBarX should show up in the applet list so add it like with any other applet.


If you're not using Ubuntu, you can download DockBarX via Gnome Look. Since it's python, you don't have to compile it and you can directly run DockX using "./dockx", but make sure you've installed all the required dependencies (see the readme).

As usual, remember to report any bugs you may find @ Launchpad.